Gameplay will sell a lot. It doesn't need to do a lot. Sell a set of basic appliances with the swipe animation, like a toaster. The girls will buy it.

EA decided to use ads inside the game. So, my guess is still that they are going to use microtransactions to pay back their debt. For example, they could introduce a monthly or yearly fee for ad-free gameplay. I know this sounds very pessimistic, but recent news just shows how they want to milk the customer even more. It's so interesting to see how Inzoi gets new content with each update, while the Sims 4 gets worse and worse.

It seems it's really not about the game anymore but more about a tool to sell digital nothings.

The sims 4 sold millions of copies - per pack. We don’t need any more nonsense payment schemes. Project X doesn’t sound all that promising either.

It’s a mess.

It does a sell a lot more, but people will still buy digital furniture and hair as the game is famously known for building and at times creating Sims. So why bother ‘trying’ (what EA is now known for) when they can milk this game till it’s dry.

Speaking of the buyout and debt, now I have very little doubts the development will continue of this game pass the 2030 mark, especially when they allegedly stopped releasing gameplay packs. I think they will just drop the ball and stay with Project X or whatever side projects they have for backup, making it the end of TS4 (I can’t imagine how they will remaster the game at this point, If they are in debt, sold out to game sports country and on top of that have no interest to continue the trend of new gameplay).

On the buy out front, that still hasn't happened yet. Last year when this whole thing started, Andrew Wilson tried to sell the sale as a done deal by spring of this year.



https://www.gurufocus.com/news/8921...d=mw_quote_news

The thing about the increase is in reference to EA's stock. Wall St overlords didn't take kindly to EA opening a advertising business so EA's stock dropped temporarily to around $175 per share. At the time of this post it is sitting at $203 per share.

As for the rest of it, from the outside looking it, it looks like EA is just throwing things at a wall to see what sticks. As it has been pointed out, it less about games and more about crap that nobody cares about. This is their business model, it's their problem.

I've decided I won't be continuing to play The Sims 4 until autonomy is improved. I've kept a static save state for the previous 2 updates with autonomy turned OFF. After updating, I'll load up the save and turn autonomy ON and watch what my sims do, hoping for any improvements. Here is what happened for the June 30th Update;

If I’m not mistaken, the marketplace has removed that predatory spending model after “fixing” it, which signals to me players aren’t biting.

I’m STILL not buying. It was overpriced to begin with, even without buying extra moolah.

Edit: They also claimed to have fixed the bug with doors & windows breaking and showing the wall, but that's still happening. Lord...

I have no clue what is going on, so dumb question.

Does this mean if something costs $3.00 they're only charging $3.00 instead of making people spend $5.00?

Never mind. Curiosity got the better of me.



Pixelade mentions this in his newest video.

https://youtu.be/nTc5_0D5wAk?si=z6_ejxk8MJQPoq-C&t=158

Thanks, Maxis. For years I've been arguing that if people keep their wallets closed, change will follow. I can finally lay that argument to rest as you've proven my point. It has taken over 10 years to get here, but you've done it. I'm still not playing your game or buying from your marketplace, but I'll take the win regardless.

IMO the issue is that TS4 is effectively sunsetted and they have nothing at the moment to back the franchise up for at least a couple of years other than small-scale content that will satisfy no one, especially as there's always a free modding option.

Likewise, Paralives is always there, potentially drawing players away the moment it becomes fully capable of replacing the Sims as a life simulation game, much like Cities Skylines did with Simcity 4. In fact, the scenarios are almost identical, with Simcity 5 failing and nothing in the pipeline able to replace the entry on a short notice. The only difference is that the Sims 4 was somewhat reconstituted into something vaguely resembling a Sims game and mods were able to care of the rest, while the Glassbox engine and city sizes crippled Simcity 5.

It's not looking bright.

I know it's not supposed to be this way but I use MC Tuner for these problems. You can search all running autonomous interactions with it and disable them. Yes you need this mod to make the sims playable but at least there is this option thanks to modders. As for the patches they introduce more problems than they fix so I don't update anymore. Also many mods are already abandoned and won't work with future updates so it's best to not update and fix the game with fixes from the community.

I'm really not for mods. So this is going to be it for me if they can't fix their game.

https://www.gurufocus.com/news/8940...d=mw_quote_news

It is July 4th ( Independence Day) weekend here in the US and EA's bondholders are spitting at each other. Hehehe Am I evil for laughing about it? Probably. Do I care? Nope!

With these same articles ( the parts I don't post) Wall Street continues to give EA glowing reviews over their financial position. I've yapped about this a lot since last year but crap like this just goes to show that Wall Street is full of shit.

These bonds that are causing the spitting war are debt which is going to have to be be paid. If EA were in such a wonderful financial position, there would be no reason for bondholders to be staring at each with their arms crossed while wearing grumpy faces because nobody is getting what they want.

I do enjoy when a story writes itself. Andrew Wilson can go pound sand with his endless chatter about everything is sunshine and rainbows for EA.

This past year is just driving people to Paralives.

Sims 4 demand was high, and Maxis fumbled the bag by being cheap and cutting corners, and now they get to pay for their negligence. Shame.

Step 1 to improving Sims 4: Fix all the blankety-blank broken interactions for infants and toddlers.

If I ask a genie to make a remaster The Sims 2/3 + Stable Game with New Concepts for over The Sims 4, then even Genie would say wish for something else (like the Memes as go) as that be not plausible for EA to do.

Eventually, I do think that at some point, either Paralives, inZoi or some other contender will perfect the formula and make something that would blow The Sims out of the water. We may not live to see it, but the Life Sim genre concept isn’t gonna stop being relevant and popular. It’s too good of a essence to simply died out of mainstream media.

EA is now promoting TS via the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce wedding photo which was recreated in sims style and then it was posted on the offical twitter sims account. They also promoted specific DLCs that will help you achiveve the wedding of your dreams (actually, no) in the game menus.

I guess this is their way of being relatable. Taylor Swift is mega popular, so it makes sense to be approachable with her fans. They did this with Katy Perry, Doja Cat and now, in a smaller scale, with Taylor Swift.

Kylie Jenner has recently stated that she loves to play TS4 as well. I think celebrity culture is bringing them some, if not a lot of money.

For TS2, Maxis did a cameo with Drew Carey.

https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Drew_Carey

I'm not a Katy Perry fan, so I never bought the Katy Perry pack. To this day, I still appreciate LGR's "review" of it being the cash grab that it was.

LGR - The Sims 3 Katy Perry Sweet Treats Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz8komsNkBg

The complaints about the Katy Perry pack were / are valid. I'm not a Swifty but I don't have a issue with her either. I know of her and that's about it.

I could be just me, but what they're doing today hits different. It is giving Hey! Look at us! We know our boss is trying to sell us to PIF, but come spend your money on our game! Riding on the clout train while they can, I guess.

KPST is the same problem like Spongebob kit - collaborations that way too specific with its themes objects or poorly timed (well, spongebob at least coild be used in kids bedroom or some kind of park theme venue). I personally don’t like cameos in the game as it kills the immersion of SimNation being its own universe, but I know its just me and I don’t have to buy it. The game pack to Batuu also seem to be controversial to some degree, but I guess it was at least somewhat gameplay driven like Strangeville.

In the past, story driven games weren’t so niche and pop-cultarish (like The Sims Stories Series, Medieval, In the Urbz etc). They were games that could cater to many players.

I might burrow (for what EA did, I’m gving them the same ‘respect’ treatment) TS4 with some packs to play with, as I ran out of things to play. But unfortunately it sucks I had ran out of things to play and its a downer feeling knowing there my passion for this franchise is dying out along with the progression of the series. The Sims Series is already over for me after this forth installment and it quite sucks actually. I grew up with this special game and it seems my interesting with gaming will diminish over the years if not move to something else by the time I’m 30 lol.

They had various famous people in The Sims 1, too. Drew Carey, Avril Lavigne...
Oh man, the Sweet Treats pack. Definitely a very niche-specific thing. Most of the objects and outfits only match a certain style, and look out-of-place otherwise. As I recall, there's also a certain female top that toes the line, content-wise. Who would have thought a cupcake could be so racy.

I sometimes download CC for stuff like Pokemon or Disney characters. Of course, I'm also somewhat picky about downloading stuff that doesn't match the time period of the game. A 4K smart TV with a curved screen in Sims 2? Never! Sims 2 is for game discs, and home phones, and cell phones being optional, and clunky-looking computers screeching and yodeling into a phone line.
...On a semi-related note, a really random thing I want to see for Sims is a gigantic CRT TV, the kind you sometimes put directly onto the floor because it's darn near impossible to find a stand that will support the thing. Nothing says the 2000s like an anvil you watch cartoons on.

But anyway, I do feel like the franchise started getting more cash grabby. Sometimes, what was one expansion in previous Sims games is multiple packs in Sims 4. And there's... what, five billion stuff packs now? It feels like they're just milking Sims 4 because they don't want to make a new game. I mean, I get that starting from scratch is a lot more time and money, but come on, Sims 4 has been around for ages. I think it's been going longer than any of the other Sims games. At some point, you've got to let it go and move on, man.

I definitely remember TS1 having celebrity cameos because I have read about it on the Sims Wiki. What I want to say regarding my previous post is that celebrity culture is way different today. Avril Lavigne was in TS1 as an NPC, but her role was (I think) to be humoristic and and it was imporant for the context of the DLC. TS1 was definitely critical of the consumer culture, so having celebrities in that game is way different than what EA does with TS4.

However, nowadays, corporations like EA know how much money celebrities bring, so they just make a promotional post. The role of the post is to attract new players and to gain money. It has no depth or meaning, rather than to enlarge investment.

We live in a world where brand is very important, so is being relatable. The wedding photo is an example of branding (TS4 and EA trying to recreate major celebrity events).

Kits are on sale, but only via the Marketplace.

Please pick your favorite laughing gif.

Woo-Hoo! Kits are on sale!

If they're on sale, that means they've been charging for them in the first place.

Nice try, Maxis. Come up with a better flex that doesn't have low hanging fruit...