When Maxis and EA announced Sims Mobile, Sims 4 fans immediately had something to say about it: WTF! There’s been a serious news drought (some would say, content drought) regarding Sims 4 DLC. To make matters worse, the Sims Mobile announcement comes as Sims 4 players get a tease for pimples (yes facial blemishes) in the Family game pack, which still doesn’t have a release date. The pimple info came by way of a producer updating their avatar, not even in a tweet.
There’s another element to this conversation. Sims Mobile is basically “Sims 4 Mobile.” The objects will look familiar to Sims players, the CAS system is clearly based on Sims 4 ’s and the graphics look the same. None of this is really a problem. It’s great for Sims FreePlay fans and will definitely attract new players to the franchise. Can’t hate on EA for wanting to make some money. But, the fact Sims Mobile is launching with toddlers and so many features Sims 4 players have paid hundreds of dollars for and waited years to get is kind of a slap in the face.
Coming soon! And no, this isn't affecting the PC development of TS4. We're still chugging away! https://t.co/8X7Jxawmgi
— Emory (@SimGuruEmory) May 9, 2017
Sims 4 players weren’t shy to start this very conversation on Twitter. Sims Game Designer Megan G clarified yesterday, “Only a small number of Sims 4 people moved over to work on the mobile game. Most of the team is people from the Sims 3 EP Salt Lake team…”
“And new hires with mobile experience. We've also hired people onto Sims 4 . I don't know the numbers, but the Sims 4 team feels the same size,” the tweet reads.
After the reactions died down, SimGuruDrake, a manager at Maxis, took to The Sims forums to further address the issue.
Our Mobile Family is just as important to us as our PC Family. They are sitting on equal footing with having their own focused areas.
1. The Sims Mobile has zero affect on what is going on with the PC product. They are separate teams within Maxis and one does not affect the other.
2. The Sims 4 is still going strong and we have no plans to stop development anytime soon, I’ve stated this many times previously.
3. You do not know the size of our teams or how many employees we have on either team so trying to spell out “doomsday” on a product that was stated as being in good standing by our CEO today doesn’t seem like a good use of your time.
So #DontPanic and give our mobile family a chance to show you what they are capable of.
Coincidentally, EA also issued their financial report for the last quarter of 2016. This is the full PDF document, and here are the highlights relating to Sims 4 and Sims Mobile :
The Sims 4 community is “thriving” and saw its monthly active players increase 33% year-over-year in Q4. (This is possibly due to toddlers update.)
“We’re doubling down on live services and events across the mobile portfolio, and the strategy is paying off – for example, FIFA Mobile just had its best-ever month since its launch in October.”
“We expect the PC gaming market to decline slightly, and the mobile market to grow in the high teens in calendar 2017.”
“Mobile business is expected to grow 5% to 10%, led by the new Sims experience and continued growth from FIFA Mobile , NBA LIVE Mobile and Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes .”
“At our core, we are a creative company. We are game makers that love to capture the imagination and make extraordinary entertainment possible for our players. We are also unique in that we have a unified, world-class technology platform and engine that provide the backbone of our network. Our studio teams are leveraging more sophisticated data and insights, secure and scalable infrastructure, and new game services, combined with the immense capabilities of our Frostbite engine to create unprecedented new experiences. This is how we can combine the expertise of multiple studios to deliver the massive new Star Wars Battlefront II . It powers our ability to continually deliver more fun and new content to deepen player engagement in The Sims 4. It enables us to launch more major franchises and build communities in mobile. And it will position us to lead new opportunities with AR & VR and streaming in the future.”
We can only hope Sims Mobile is a huge success, so EA has more money to invest in the success of Sims 4. Are you a Sims 4 player who is nervous about how Sims Mobile will affect the future? Air out your grievances in the comments below.
