The Sims 4 has been around for a long time. Six years, in fact. As the longest running edition from the franchise, the game has been through some ups and downs.
Much of this year felt like many downs for The Sims 4. Until the release of the Snowy Escape expansion pack, the content released in 2020 has had a mixed response.
The Star Wars: Journey to Batuu game pack was perhaps the lowest point for many players.
But Snowy Escape and the base game update which introduced Sentiments and platforms in build mode has shown some promise of what can be possible with the game.
December will also see another huge free Sims 4 update, finally addressing insufficient representation in the game’s skin tones. Over 100 new swatches and a slider for even further customization will be added.
Despite all this, the game is still littered with bugs. And the more complex updates are added, the more buggy the game becomes. Twice this year, players have battled with their save files crashing following two big base game updates – first ahead of the release of Eco Lifestyle and more recently following the Snowy Escape update.
There has been much speculation about when the next edition of the simulation franchise will be released.
Fake ?leaks? aplenty have suggested The Sims 5 could land by the end of 2021, but increasingly, there are signs that suggest it might not be that soon.
In a recent interview with Games Radar, long-time producer Graham Nardone, aka SimGuruGraham, had an interesting response when asked about when The Sims 4 will end.
?There’s such a diverse range of topics and features that we could cover, the possibility space of what we can do within The Sims 4 is just humongous.
?I think that just goes to show that there’s way more that we can still do within this title, and our players are plenty hungry for more content that we can give in. That’s a good problem to have.?
That certain does not mean that work on The Sims 5 has not begun (everyone is pretty sure it has), it might suggest The Sims 4 won?t just be consigned to the scrapheap of gaming history, unlike previous editions of the game.
Because despite the frustrating, buggy mess The Sims 4 sometimes is, it still has a massive player pool. And it also remains one of the most accessible for players with entry-level machines.
The Sims 5 is unlikely to be so kind on minimum requirements, which would make it in EA’s best interest to maintain some version of what is one of their most popular titles.