I'm not surprised by this decision. The Life By You trailer looks... boring. Its highlights include: The first highlight: watching a 'putting away' laundry progress bar 3 seconds of watching a...
While Life By You had modability and plenty of customisation, ahead of early access its team realised it would take too long to add fun to the game, Fåhraeus says, and while everything is fixable, the time and financial costs have to be weighed up.
I'm not surprised by this decision. The Life By You trailer looks... boring. Its highlights include:
The first highlight: watching a 'putting away' laundry progress bar
3 seconds of watching a character water the ground
3 seconds of watching a character slowly walk from point A to B
changing a chair color
This is the announcement trailer and these were the most interesting stories they chose to tell. The game style, visuals, interactions seem so... drab, realistic, and sober, and not at all silly or light-hearted like The Sims'. I hope the main game mission isn't "roleplay as a middle-aged adult working a 9-5 job at a mid-sized European office and build a healthy pension and retire".
Just watched it. You weren't kidding; it's almost aggressively drab, and literally none of the interactions had even a spark of fun. The poor office lady opening her laptop at work and immediately...
Just watched it. You weren't kidding; it's almost aggressively drab, and literally none of the interactions had even a spark of fun. The poor office lady opening her laptop at work and immediately crying was relatable, but no way would I want to pay to experience what I can get for free by actually going to work. :D
When I was a kid playing The Sims, it always irked me that I couldn’t follow my sims everywhere. That sometimes they just went into a building and did things I couldn’t see. Reading this, I feel...
The poor office lady opening her laptop at work and immediately crying was relatable, but no way would I want to pay to experience what I can get for free by actually going to work.
When I was a kid playing The Sims, it always irked me that I couldn’t follow my sims everywhere. That sometimes they just went into a building and did things I couldn’t see. Reading this, I feel like it’s finally clicked for me that sometimes this is better lol.
I still remember the maniacal laugher coming from my girlfriend's room when she learned about the 'unique' mods available for the Sims. Even more than when she discovered she could remove pool...
I still remember the maniacal laugher coming from my girlfriend's room when she learned about the 'unique' mods available for the Sims. Even more than when she discovered she could remove pool ladders. Good times.
Oh the mods get even crazier -- and I guess when the basegame already includes mpreg, they've gotta! The Sims 2 still has a shockingly active player and modding scene for a game of its age and...
Oh the mods get even crazier -- and I guess when the basegame already includes mpreg, they've gotta! The Sims 2 still has a shockingly active player and modding scene for a game of its age and spaghetti-coded-ness.
The Sims series has always been wacky af, though -- it's one of my favorite things about it! -- and the Sims 4 wore that on its sleeve during its trailers back when it came out (to the detriment...
The Sims series has always been wacky af, though -- it's one of my favorite things about it! -- and the Sims 4 wore that on its sleeve during its trailers back when it came out (to the detriment of some of the bread-and-butter gameplay imo).
I've never been the target audience of this stuff, but I thought that was partially the point of a life sim? get immersed in essentially playing god to some environment? These things are always...
I've never been the target audience of this stuff, but I thought that was partially the point of a life sim? get immersed in essentially playing god to some environment?
These things are always hard to "show", but that's all ads can really do without a demo.
roleplay as a middle-aged adult working a 9-5 job at a mid-sized European office and build a healthy pension and retire
Well, fantasy is all about things we could never hope to achieve...
I really think learning more about The Sims is necessary to see why it might seem lackluster. The Sims 2 had mpreg aliens from day one, and ended up with a huge roster of supernatural life states....
I really think learning more about The Sims is necessary to see why it might seem lackluster. The Sims 2 had mpreg aliens from day one, and ended up with a huge roster of supernatural life states. Even without the supernatural elements, there's tons of cartoon-y wackiness littered throughout the series. For those who play The Sims series for anything more than building pretty houses, the wackiness and potential for drama play a big role.
Sure that makes sense. But That also means there's no point competing directly with the Sims, right? You're not beating EA as a small indie, nor breaking away people who put hundreds into the Sims...
Sure that makes sense. But That also means there's no point competing directly with the Sims, right? You're not beating EA as a small indie, nor breaking away people who put hundreds into the Sims as is.
Maybe there were people who were put off by the supernatural and simply wanted to focus more on the people and city management. I can see what angle they were going to. the only potential issue is that I suspect a lot of those people moved to mobile as a platform. That might have been the fatal blow for this title.
I think there are absolutely loads of Sims fans who are dissatisfied with the poor performance of The Sims 4 and EA's horrendous pricing model and eager for something to jump ship to. Current Sims...
I think there are absolutely loads of Sims fans who are dissatisfied with the poor performance of The Sims 4 and EA's horrendous pricing model and eager for something to jump ship to. Current Sims fans have been really sick of the way the Sims series has been managed for a very long time, and I think a sufficiently well-made competitor could absolutely do what Cities: Skylines did to Simcity. People were excited about the prospect of Life By You with very little to go on, and people are still hoping that Paralives or Inzoi will succeed with pretty sparse evidence so far from either. Impossible to say how well Life By You would've done if they'd ended up finishing and releasing it, but I do think you're really underestimating how many fans of life sims are absolutely praying for an alternative to The Sims 4.
I could be, yes. But I think the thing that sticks out to me here is that Paradox simply cancelled the game instead of at least trying to recoup the costs with a buggy release. That's a good thing...
I do think you're really underestimating how many fans of life sims are absolutely praying for an alternative to The Sims 4.
I could be, yes. But I think the thing that sticks out to me here is that Paradox simply cancelled the game instead of at least trying to recoup the costs with a buggy release. That's a good thing in some ways because it shows they are serious about their reputation. But also perhaps bad because they may not think it would sell well enough. That number of frustration may be high, but not high enough to sustain a competitor.
The sad thing is those nickle and diming does work, but it's a reputation hit for a while. Sims is well beyond that, a new competitor can't be. They'd just get the infamy without the profits. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
Why do you feel there's been sparse evidence Paralives will launch? They've posted enough content to show it's a real work in progress (unlike some fraudulent game devs that just spun up something...
Why do you feel there's been sparse evidence Paralives will launch?
They've posted enough content to show it's a real work in progress (unlike some fraudulent game devs that just spun up something using free assets to make a trailer) and I feel the length of time spent is suitable as well. (E.g., small team and they announced about 1 year in with just one dev at the time versus billion dollar companies not announcing until 5ish years in with large teams.)
Oh I don't think it's a fraud or anything, I completely believe in the devs' good faith. I just think the patreon funding model is risky and it's very early in development for a game with public...
Oh I don't think it's a fraud or anything, I completely believe in the devs' good faith. I just think the patreon funding model is risky and it's very early in development for a game with public eyes on it. There are many things that could go wrong along the way, so I don't want to get my hopes up.
Ah okay. I can relate in that I got excited too early about Life By You and even bought a new PC back when it was supposed to launch a year ago. The disappointment when it was cancelled was...
Ah okay. I can relate in that I got excited too early about Life By You and even bought a new PC back when it was supposed to launch a year ago. The disappointment when it was cancelled was proportional to how hyped I got.
Yeah, I'll be crazy excited if the game they're promising comes out, I'm just insulating myself from the unfortunately too-real prospect of disappointment.
Yeah, I'll be crazy excited if the game they're promising comes out, I'm just insulating myself from the unfortunately too-real prospect of disappointment.
I disagree, but I am biased. As a Sims player with hundreds of dollars sunk into The Sims 4, I have been happily donating to Paralives' Patreon for a few years. I think they have potential to...
I disagree, but I am biased.
As a Sims player with hundreds of dollars sunk into The Sims 4, I have been happily donating to Paralives' Patreon for a few years. I think they have potential to rival The Sims over time but more importantly, I LOVE how this is community funded and is being created with passion and so very different (and hopefully insulated) from the enshitification process that often comes with public companies placing shareholder's interests over the customers' interests and profit over the product itself.
No, you have a really good point. I think that is the proper way to build an audience for a game of this scope, without the money of a AA/AAA studio to back you. Get a good base off the ground and...
No, you have a really good point. I think that is the proper way to build an audience for a game of this scope, without the money of a AA/AAA studio to back you. Get a good base off the ground and incentivize fans to help you get across the finish line. it requires a very different way to develop, but it's an increasingly popular model for "early access" games. It's not the road I want to take for several reasons that could be its own post, but I have considered that for when I was making my own game.
But that grassroots approach is very different from throwing millions at a few dozen devs and hoping you stick the landing like Paradox does. I'm not sure if that's sustainable without a Bethesda Game Studio mentality that you will be updating and maintaining a game that may not be profitable day 1 (not to say BGS's games aren't proftiable. But you're not BGS yet need to do that work, regardless of immediate reception)
.
The other main contrast I see is that with public companies, they want to release games ASAP to make money (E.g., EA's case with the Sims 4 releasing DLCs in a broken state with empty promises to...
The other main contrast I see is that with public companies, they want to release games ASAP to make money (E.g., EA's case with the Sims 4 releasing DLCs in a broken state with empty promises to fix them*), whereas the Paralives team has been making money the whole time pre-release. For Paralives, within reason, they make more money by not releasing the game and showing us (Patreon supporters) all the improvements each week.
This is why I said I was biased as I was strongly inclined to support Paralives even before the game looked like it might make it to launch. Along with being very excited to play early access when it launches, I also hope that this game will 1. Give EA some competition, and 2. Be a model of what is possible with community funded development.
Also, I wonder if Life By You was community funded instead of being funded (and then canceled) by Paradox if it would still be an active project and be better overall with no longer a rush to launch Early Access to please Paradox' shareholders?
*Want to note that EA is finally fixing a lot of issues since they announced there is no Sims 5 being developed and they want to keep Sims 4 as their cash cow for years to come. (Yikes based on limits of the engine for Sims 4 and the shallow gameplay)
At this point, I think the main reason people play the Sims 4 is because there are no other options. I'm serious. I don't play it myself these days, but I know from my Youtube feed that the...
At this point, I think the main reason people play the Sims 4 is because there are no other options.
I'm serious. I don't play it myself these days, but I know from my Youtube feed that the current state of the Sims 4 community is... not the best. The game is incredibly buggy, which I can't emphasize enough. Every time new DLC is added, something else unrelated to the new pack breaks in the game. This includes basic UI features. Last I checked there are multiple packs that just don't work, including at least one (Wedding Stories) that was broken from the start and just never got patched.
Seriously, I cannot emphasize how bad it can get. Some of the issues can be attributed to the game having to deal with bloat in the form of 10 years' worth of content, but as far as I can gather, the engine for the base game itself has some heavy flaws that just contribute to the overall mess. It'd probably be better to make a new Sims game with a clean slate at this point, and make sure the base game is as solid and robust as possible... but EA recently announced that the Sims 5 is not happening. The Sims 4 is now The Sims, all new content will be for that.
I don't think people moving to mobile is an issue here. While a lot of people have moved to mobile for various reasons, some games also just don't work at all on mobile because they're too big. The Sims is a key example: mobile versions exist, but they have to massively simplify gameplay and remove a lot of features in order to fit on a phone. In fact, right now a lot of Sims fans are very unhappy about Project Rene, which is EA's new Sims spin-off and seems to be heavily focused on the mobile scene.
Again, a lot of people play the Sims 4 (or 2 or 3, after getting sick of Sims 4 breaking) because there are just no other options in the genre. There are many who have quit entirely because they specifically dislike The Sims 4's state. So there is room for a competitor to jump in. One of the main challenges in my opinion is that the Sims 4 has set the bar pretty high in terms of basic features, since the Sims has been the only real example of its genre for... pretty much always, really. And advances in technology means that the general requirements for developing this type of game are much higher than for the original Sims...
Writing this comment, I'm suddenly keenly aware that The Sims is a great example of why monopolies are such a problem. People who want to play a life simulator can either play the Sims or nothing at all. EA has zero incentive to ensure it's good quality when they know there's no other option.
That's what I used to think as well. But I think Eastern gaming has been showing me the potential of the mobile market for a while now. That plus the fact that people still seem to upgrade phones...
While a lot of people have moved to mobile for various reasons, some games also just don't work at all on mobile because they're too big.
That's what I used to think as well. But I think Eastern gaming has been showing me the potential of the mobile market for a while now. That plus the fact that people still seem to upgrade phones every 2 years on average and I think games we traditionally thought about as "unplayable" on mobile have an honest chance.
I still do agree in the sense that you can't just "port the game to mobile". a proper mobile game for something like this needs to think of touch as a first class citizen. I don't think they can get away with the Genshin method of "add virtual gamepad". People will want to drag and drop people and buildings around and dig through resources like they would a webpage. I haven't quite seen that sort of thought in Western gaming as of yet unless it is indeed mobile-first.
Writing this comment, I'm suddenly keenly aware that The Sims is a great example of why monopolies are such a problem.
Indeed. 99% of the time, when something becomes a monopoly they become complacent. Or worse, actively get worse as they continually try to see what they can get away with. The only way to keep that in check is to have someone else on their neck. (or regulation, but I'm unsure how much we want governments interfering with games past the purchase of it as a product).
I know mobile gaming is a bit more robust than some people give it credit for. But when I said the Sims is too big for a mobile port, I meant that pretty literally. The Sims 4 base game is at...
I know mobile gaming is a bit more robust than some people give it credit for. But when I said the Sims is too big for a mobile port, I meant that pretty literally. The Sims 4 base game is at least 20 GB, and with all the current expansion packs it's probably around 50 GB total. Which is a lot for a phone.
Obviously a mobile game wouldn't be a straight-up port so it probably wouldn't be that big, but the nature of the game kind of guarantees it will be massive if they want it to be a full Sims game. Especially since one of the core features of the franchise is expansion packs. They would have to do some MAJOR optimization while building the mobile version from the ground up, and also for each new expansion pack, and... Well, EA has already proven to have a bad track record with that with the Sims 3 and 4.
Actually, now I wonder if that's why they decided to scrap The Sims 5. Project Rene is built for mobile, so maybe EA was originally trying to make a full Sims game that worked on all platforms before deciding that mobile had too many constraints. Like you said, they can't just add a virtual gamepad. It would be a hassle to figure out a special set of controls for every new feature and expansion. Easier to just do a spin-off with limited features.
Genshin Impact has a similar file size, so I don't think that would be the biggest issue with a port or spinoff. Everything else you pointed out would be problematic. I seem to recall there's...
Genshin Impact has a similar file size, so I don't think that would be the biggest issue with a port or spinoff. Everything else you pointed out would be problematic. I seem to recall there's already a mobile Sims game though.
The existing mobile (and in earlier times, console) Sims games are extremely barebones, pared-back experiences compared to the PC game, afaik. Like, to the extent that they're not the same games...
The existing mobile (and in earlier times, console) Sims games are extremely barebones, pared-back experiences compared to the PC game, afaik. Like, to the extent that they're not the same games as their PC counterparts.
The fact that I return to The Sims 2 despite owning nearly all the expansion packs for The Sims 4 (I share my EA account with a friend who buys them these days) is telling, I think. I'm so...
The fact that I return to The Sims 2 despite owning nearly all the expansion packs for The Sims 4 (I share my EA account with a friend who buys them these days) is telling, I think. I'm so desperate for an alternative I'm playing the version that came out when I was in elementary school. Part of that is nostalgia, but tbh part of it is just how bad The Sims 4 often is and how poorly EA treats its fans.
Contrast this with Inzoi and you can see how lame Life By You and the Sims actually are. We'll have to see if Inzoi is actually good, but so far it looks at least interesting. Far more than these...
Contrast this with Inzoi and you can see how lame Life By You and the Sims actually are.
We'll have to see if Inzoi is actually good, but so far it looks at least interesting. Far more than these other games can say. I'd say that even the Sims is only riding its coattails but if it were to launch as a new IP nowadays it would crash and burn. The Sims 4 looks awful, and Life By You looked like all it had going for it is that it's slightly prettier than the Sims.
Inzoi looks interesting, but unfortunately it seems to be erring on the visual side of the Sims that I, personally, am less drawn to. That said, it's a side tons of people care a lot about, so...
Inzoi looks interesting, but unfortunately it seems to be erring on the visual side of the Sims that I, personally, am less drawn to. That said, it's a side tons of people care a lot about, so that's not necessarily a bad play. It's too early to tell if it'll be successful but tbqh I'll take anything over EA's monopoly on the genre.
I understand that sentiment, graphics aren't everything. The Sims goes in the other direction though, it actively looks bad for a game this day and age.
I understand that sentiment, graphics aren't everything. The Sims goes in the other direction though, it actively looks bad for a game this day and age.
In fairness, The Sims 4 is 10 years old. And its predecessor, which came out in 2009, had a much more realism-leaning art direction than it. The exaggerated cartoony style used by 4 was a...
In fairness, The Sims 4 is 10 years old. And its predecessor, which came out in 2009, had a much more realism-leaning art direction than it. The exaggerated cartoony style used by 4 was a deliberate choice they made to avoid some of the uncanny valley effects present in 3. Whether it was the right choice is debatable (I prefer 3, tbh) but we should acknowledge that it doesn’t look that way by accident.
More to the point that there's no indication there will be innovation on this particular 10 year old game unless you consider another overpriced DLC pack innovation. It looks bad in both a graphic...
More to the point that there's no indication there will be innovation on this particular 10 year old game unless you consider another overpriced DLC pack innovation. It looks bad in both a graphic fidelity sense and a gameplay sense.
There's a place for cartoony, but at this point it's just getting old.
I mean, The Sims 4 is 10 years old by now. It looked pretty decent for the cartoon-y aesthetic it was aiming for when it came out, and I think it's aged better than it would've if it'd gone for a...
I mean, The Sims 4 is 10 years old by now. It looked pretty decent for the cartoon-y aesthetic it was aiming for when it came out, and I think it's aged better than it would've if it'd gone for a more realistic graphics style back in 2014, but it's very much showing its age.
I still play The Sims 2 though, so that shows my priorities are not graphics lmao.
As an American, this sounds like some incredible escapism! But honestly, the one thing that seems fun for a couple hours is that you can control anyone at any time. So much potential for chaos. I...
"roleplay as a middle-aged adult working a 9-5 job at a mid-sized European office and build a healthy pension and retire".
As an American, this sounds like some incredible escapism!
But honestly, the one thing that seems interesting fun for a couple hours is that you can control anyone at any time. So much potential for chaos.
I do enjoy when they show the woman investigating a treasure trove on the beach and then they zoom out...and there's nothing. Just more sand. No people. No rocks. Just sand.
I absolutely despise this corpo-speak that I keep hearing from them, in connection to this & Cities Skylines 2; they’re not producing cutting edge medical devices, or anything important to society...
I absolutely despise this corpo-speak that I keep hearing from them, in connection to this & Cities Skylines 2; they’re not producing cutting edge medical devices, or anything important to society for that matter. It’s a videogame. Why is “rebuilding trust” even a choice of words in this case?
Because a lot of consumers trusted them enough to preorder (in the case of Cities Skylines 2) or at least highly anticipate games and were disappointed. A consumer trusting a company to fulfill...
Because a lot of consumers trusted them enough to preorder (in the case of Cities Skylines 2) or at least highly anticipate games and were disappointed. A consumer trusting a company to fulfill the expectations they get from its marketing is an important factor in getting someone to purchase a game, and it's an even bigger factor in things like pre-orders. From the perspective of a company that wants to make money, having a loyal and trusting fanbase is really valuable, and these recent missteps have damaged that asset for them.
Their company used to have a lot of consumer trust. Victoria 2, CK2, EUIV, Mount and Blade, Cities: Skylines...all of these were great games. Some they produced, others they just published, but...
Their company used to have a lot of consumer trust. Victoria 2, CK2, EUIV, Mount and Blade, Cities: Skylines...all of these were great games. Some they produced, others they just published, but they got the company some hardcore fans. And then things have started getting worse over the past...five years or so? Their grand strategy games are still popular, but they've lost a lot of trust.
I'm not surprised by this decision. The Life By You trailer looks... boring. Its highlights include:
This is the announcement trailer and these were the most interesting stories they chose to tell. The game style, visuals, interactions seem so... drab, realistic, and sober, and not at all silly or light-hearted like The Sims'. I hope the main game mission isn't "roleplay as a middle-aged adult working a 9-5 job at a mid-sized European office and build a healthy pension and retire".
Just watched it. You weren't kidding; it's almost aggressively drab, and literally none of the interactions had even a spark of fun. The poor office lady opening her laptop at work and immediately crying was relatable, but no way would I want to pay to experience what I can get for free by actually going to work. :D
When I was a kid playing The Sims, it always irked me that I couldn’t follow my sims everywhere. That sometimes they just went into a building and did things I couldn’t see. Reading this, I feel like it’s finally clicked for me that sometimes this is better lol.
True and fair. And yet the sims has made billions (?) .... Who knows.
But the Sims is also where you can carry out your canon alien Mpreg fantasies. The silliness is off the map.
look I'm not going to say I got into the Sims 2 for the mpreg... but once I knew it was there, I definitely focused on it!
I still remember the maniacal laugher coming from my girlfriend's room when she learned about the 'unique' mods available for the Sims. Even more than when she discovered she could remove pool ladders. Good times.
Oh the mods get even crazier -- and I guess when the basegame already includes mpreg, they've gotta! The Sims 2 still has a shockingly active player and modding scene for a game of its age and spaghetti-coded-ness.
The Sims series has always been wacky af, though -- it's one of my favorite things about it! -- and the Sims 4 wore that on its sleeve during its trailers back when it came out (to the detriment of some of the bread-and-butter gameplay imo).
I've never been the target audience of this stuff, but I thought that was partially the point of a life sim? get immersed in essentially playing god to some environment?
These things are always hard to "show", but that's all ads can really do without a demo.
Well, fantasy is all about things we could never hope to achieve...
I really think learning more about The Sims is necessary to see why it might seem lackluster. The Sims 2 had mpreg aliens from day one, and ended up with a huge roster of supernatural life states. Even without the supernatural elements, there's tons of cartoon-y wackiness littered throughout the series. For those who play The Sims series for anything more than building pretty houses, the wackiness and potential for drama play a big role.
Sure that makes sense. But That also means there's no point competing directly with the Sims, right? You're not beating EA as a small indie, nor breaking away people who put hundreds into the Sims as is.
Maybe there were people who were put off by the supernatural and simply wanted to focus more on the people and city management. I can see what angle they were going to. the only potential issue is that I suspect a lot of those people moved to mobile as a platform. That might have been the fatal blow for this title.
I think there are absolutely loads of Sims fans who are dissatisfied with the poor performance of The Sims 4 and EA's horrendous pricing model and eager for something to jump ship to. Current Sims fans have been really sick of the way the Sims series has been managed for a very long time, and I think a sufficiently well-made competitor could absolutely do what Cities: Skylines did to Simcity. People were excited about the prospect of Life By You with very little to go on, and people are still hoping that Paralives or Inzoi will succeed with pretty sparse evidence so far from either. Impossible to say how well Life By You would've done if they'd ended up finishing and releasing it, but I do think you're really underestimating how many fans of life sims are absolutely praying for an alternative to The Sims 4.
Agreed. I am one of those disgruntled players who looks forward to Paralives' early access starting in 2025.
I could be, yes. But I think the thing that sticks out to me here is that Paradox simply cancelled the game instead of at least trying to recoup the costs with a buggy release. That's a good thing in some ways because it shows they are serious about their reputation. But also perhaps bad because they may not think it would sell well enough. That number of frustration may be high, but not high enough to sustain a competitor.
The sad thing is those nickle and diming does work, but it's a reputation hit for a while. Sims is well beyond that, a new competitor can't be. They'd just get the infamy without the profits. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
Why do you feel there's been sparse evidence Paralives will launch?
They've posted enough content to show it's a real work in progress (unlike some fraudulent game devs that just spun up something using free assets to make a trailer) and I feel the length of time spent is suitable as well. (E.g., small team and they announced about 1 year in with just one dev at the time versus billion dollar companies not announcing until 5ish years in with large teams.)
Gameplay Trailer Video
Very transparent Development Roadmap
Oh I don't think it's a fraud or anything, I completely believe in the devs' good faith. I just think the patreon funding model is risky and it's very early in development for a game with public eyes on it. There are many things that could go wrong along the way, so I don't want to get my hopes up.
Ah okay. I can relate in that I got excited too early about Life By You and even bought a new PC back when it was supposed to launch a year ago. The disappointment when it was cancelled was proportional to how hyped I got.
Yeah, I'll be crazy excited if the game they're promising comes out, I'm just insulating myself from the unfortunately too-real prospect of disappointment.
I disagree, but I am biased.
As a Sims player with hundreds of dollars sunk into The Sims 4, I have been happily donating to Paralives' Patreon for a few years. I think they have potential to rival The Sims over time but more importantly, I LOVE how this is community funded and is being created with passion and so very different (and hopefully insulated) from the enshitification process that often comes with public companies placing shareholder's interests over the customers' interests and profit over the product itself.
https://www.paralives.com/
No, you have a really good point. I think that is the proper way to build an audience for a game of this scope, without the money of a AA/AAA studio to back you. Get a good base off the ground and incentivize fans to help you get across the finish line. it requires a very different way to develop, but it's an increasingly popular model for "early access" games. It's not the road I want to take for several reasons that could be its own post, but I have considered that for when I was making my own game.
But that grassroots approach is very different from throwing millions at a few dozen devs and hoping you stick the landing like Paradox does. I'm not sure if that's sustainable without a Bethesda Game Studio mentality that you will be updating and maintaining a game that may not be profitable day 1 (not to say BGS's games aren't proftiable. But you're not BGS yet need to do that work, regardless of immediate reception)
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The other main contrast I see is that with public companies, they want to release games ASAP to make money (E.g., EA's case with the Sims 4 releasing DLCs in a broken state with empty promises to fix them*), whereas the Paralives team has been making money the whole time pre-release. For Paralives, within reason, they make more money by not releasing the game and showing us (Patreon supporters) all the improvements each week.
This is why I said I was biased as I was strongly inclined to support Paralives even before the game looked like it might make it to launch. Along with being very excited to play early access when it launches, I also hope that this game will 1. Give EA some competition, and 2. Be a model of what is possible with community funded development.
Also, I wonder if Life By You was community funded instead of being funded (and then canceled) by Paradox if it would still be an active project and be better overall with no longer a rush to launch Early Access to please Paradox' shareholders?
*Want to note that EA is finally fixing a lot of issues since they announced there is no Sims 5 being developed and they want to keep Sims 4 as their cash cow for years to come. (Yikes based on limits of the engine for Sims 4 and the shallow gameplay)
At this point, I think the main reason people play the Sims 4 is because there are no other options.
I'm serious. I don't play it myself these days, but I know from my Youtube feed that the current state of the Sims 4 community is... not the best. The game is incredibly buggy, which I can't emphasize enough. Every time new DLC is added, something else unrelated to the new pack breaks in the game. This includes basic UI features. Last I checked there are multiple packs that just don't work, including at least one (Wedding Stories) that was broken from the start and just never got patched.
Seriously, I cannot emphasize how bad it can get. Some of the issues can be attributed to the game having to deal with bloat in the form of 10 years' worth of content, but as far as I can gather, the engine for the base game itself has some heavy flaws that just contribute to the overall mess. It'd probably be better to make a new Sims game with a clean slate at this point, and make sure the base game is as solid and robust as possible... but EA recently announced that the Sims 5 is not happening. The Sims 4 is now The Sims, all new content will be for that.
I don't think people moving to mobile is an issue here. While a lot of people have moved to mobile for various reasons, some games also just don't work at all on mobile because they're too big. The Sims is a key example: mobile versions exist, but they have to massively simplify gameplay and remove a lot of features in order to fit on a phone. In fact, right now a lot of Sims fans are very unhappy about Project Rene, which is EA's new Sims spin-off and seems to be heavily focused on the mobile scene.
Again, a lot of people play the Sims 4 (or 2 or 3, after getting sick of Sims 4 breaking) because there are just no other options in the genre. There are many who have quit entirely because they specifically dislike The Sims 4's state. So there is room for a competitor to jump in. One of the main challenges in my opinion is that the Sims 4 has set the bar pretty high in terms of basic features, since the Sims has been the only real example of its genre for... pretty much always, really. And advances in technology means that the general requirements for developing this type of game are much higher than for the original Sims...
Writing this comment, I'm suddenly keenly aware that The Sims is a great example of why monopolies are such a problem. People who want to play a life simulator can either play the Sims or nothing at all. EA has zero incentive to ensure it's good quality when they know there's no other option.
That's what I used to think as well. But I think Eastern gaming has been showing me the potential of the mobile market for a while now. That plus the fact that people still seem to upgrade phones every 2 years on average and I think games we traditionally thought about as "unplayable" on mobile have an honest chance.
I still do agree in the sense that you can't just "port the game to mobile". a proper mobile game for something like this needs to think of touch as a first class citizen. I don't think they can get away with the Genshin method of "add virtual gamepad". People will want to drag and drop people and buildings around and dig through resources like they would a webpage. I haven't quite seen that sort of thought in Western gaming as of yet unless it is indeed mobile-first.
Indeed. 99% of the time, when something becomes a monopoly they become complacent. Or worse, actively get worse as they continually try to see what they can get away with. The only way to keep that in check is to have someone else on their neck. (or regulation, but I'm unsure how much we want governments interfering with games past the purchase of it as a product).
I know mobile gaming is a bit more robust than some people give it credit for. But when I said the Sims is too big for a mobile port, I meant that pretty literally. The Sims 4 base game is at least 20 GB, and with all the current expansion packs it's probably around 50 GB total. Which is a lot for a phone.
Obviously a mobile game wouldn't be a straight-up port so it probably wouldn't be that big, but the nature of the game kind of guarantees it will be massive if they want it to be a full Sims game. Especially since one of the core features of the franchise is expansion packs. They would have to do some MAJOR optimization while building the mobile version from the ground up, and also for each new expansion pack, and... Well, EA has already proven to have a bad track record with that with the Sims 3 and 4.
Actually, now I wonder if that's why they decided to scrap The Sims 5. Project Rene is built for mobile, so maybe EA was originally trying to make a full Sims game that worked on all platforms before deciding that mobile had too many constraints. Like you said, they can't just add a virtual gamepad. It would be a hassle to figure out a special set of controls for every new feature and expansion. Easier to just do a spin-off with limited features.
Genshin Impact has a similar file size, so I don't think that would be the biggest issue with a port or spinoff. Everything else you pointed out would be problematic. I seem to recall there's already a mobile Sims game though.
The existing mobile (and in earlier times, console) Sims games are extremely barebones, pared-back experiences compared to the PC game, afaik. Like, to the extent that they're not the same games as their PC counterparts.
The fact that I return to The Sims 2 despite owning nearly all the expansion packs for The Sims 4 (I share my EA account with a friend who buys them these days) is telling, I think. I'm so desperate for an alternative I'm playing the version that came out when I was in elementary school. Part of that is nostalgia, but tbh part of it is just how bad The Sims 4 often is and how poorly EA treats its fans.
Contrast this with Inzoi and you can see how lame Life By You and the Sims actually are.
We'll have to see if Inzoi is actually good, but so far it looks at least interesting. Far more than these other games can say. I'd say that even the Sims is only riding its coattails but if it were to launch as a new IP nowadays it would crash and burn. The Sims 4 looks awful, and Life By You looked like all it had going for it is that it's slightly prettier than the Sims.
Inzoi looks interesting, but unfortunately it seems to be erring on the visual side of the Sims that I, personally, am less drawn to. That said, it's a side tons of people care a lot about, so that's not necessarily a bad play. It's too early to tell if it'll be successful but tbqh I'll take anything over EA's monopoly on the genre.
I understand that sentiment, graphics aren't everything. The Sims goes in the other direction though, it actively looks bad for a game this day and age.
In fairness, The Sims 4 is 10 years old. And its predecessor, which came out in 2009, had a much more realism-leaning art direction than it. The exaggerated cartoony style used by 4 was a deliberate choice they made to avoid some of the uncanny valley effects present in 3. Whether it was the right choice is debatable (I prefer 3, tbh) but we should acknowledge that it doesn’t look that way by accident.
More to the point that there's no indication there will be innovation on this particular 10 year old game unless you consider another overpriced DLC pack innovation. It looks bad in both a graphic fidelity sense and a gameplay sense.
There's a place for cartoony, but at this point it's just getting old.
I mean, The Sims 4 is 10 years old by now. It looked pretty decent for the cartoon-y aesthetic it was aiming for when it came out, and I think it's aged better than it would've if it'd gone for a more realistic graphics style back in 2014, but it's very much showing its age.
I still play The Sims 2 though, so that shows my priorities are not graphics lmao.
As an American, this sounds like some incredible escapism!
But honestly, the one thing that seems
interestingfun for a couple hours is that you can control anyone at any time. So much potential for chaos.I do enjoy when they show the woman investigating a treasure trove on the beach and then they zoom out...and there's nothing. Just more sand. No people. No rocks. Just sand.
I absolutely despise this corpo-speak that I keep hearing from them, in connection to this & Cities Skylines 2; they’re not producing cutting edge medical devices, or anything important to society for that matter. It’s a videogame. Why is “rebuilding trust” even a choice of words in this case?
Because a lot of consumers trusted them enough to preorder (in the case of Cities Skylines 2) or at least highly anticipate games and were disappointed. A consumer trusting a company to fulfill the expectations they get from its marketing is an important factor in getting someone to purchase a game, and it's an even bigger factor in things like pre-orders. From the perspective of a company that wants to make money, having a loyal and trusting fanbase is really valuable, and these recent missteps have damaged that asset for them.
Their company used to have a lot of consumer trust. Victoria 2, CK2, EUIV, Mount and Blade, Cities: Skylines...all of these were great games. Some they produced, others they just published, but they got the company some hardcore fans. And then things have started getting worse over the past...five years or so? Their grand strategy games are still popular, but they've lost a lot of trust.