Even though EA didn’t formally announce anything yet, they did have an open discussion on The Sims 4 during the Game Developers Conference 2014.
It is the confirmation that fans were expecting because you can now be sure the game is under development. The big question is, will the publisher release some exciting features along with the base game or simply postpone everything to a DLC pack. As players claim it, EA treats the Sims series like a cash cow by releasing new content often and indirectly encouraging players to keep paying for the same packs over.
What Will The Base Game Have?
A recent survey conducted by the company revealed that they are more interested in releasing downloadable content even before the actual game has launched. They questioned players about introducing a new annual subscription system. If you pay $100, everything that is released throughout the year will be available for free to you. Based on the amount of the content the company releases, some players do opine that this could be a cost saving affair. At the same time, many of them are not so happy with the idea of making stuff like Seasons, weather, generations and ambitions as part of downloadable content which leaves very little for The Sims 4 base game to have at launch.
It could be a difficult process to introduce VFX changes in the weather pack and maybe if Maxis makes it worthy enough to be purchased separately, players may not complain once a glimpse into the pack is given. If Seasons and Pets make it to the base game, it will be a whole new experience is the overall opinion of the player community.
Why DLCs are important?
Despite all these claims, it is evident that the game is much more complex than other titles with specific interactions and animations for each character. Even the pets that the Sims own should be able to do their actions flawlessly which is why Maxis had been working on the title for nearly six years now. From a business perspective, keeping the base game as simple as possible is a safe bet because EA has already witnessed significant success with this strategy. Besides, with a whole lot of features, if everything is already in the base game, players may not spend ample time in exploring them all which justifies the split releases.
At the moment, there is no confirmed release date for The Sims 4 which is expected to launch simultaneously on PS4, Xbox One and PC platforms among others. It is expected to be scheduled for a fall 2014 release, which sounds reasonable because pushing it to 2015 will be late and eager fans may lose interest if the delay is too much. The company has already spent plenty of years in milking the Sims 3 franchise and it is time for something next gen. The new DLCs speculated may also include a Harry Potter themed magic university for the Sim to study in which has already become a fan favorite. IT can be confirmed only when Maxis makes an official statement.
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