25 Years Into The Sims, EA Is Still Making The Same Mistakes

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On February 4, 2025, The Sims marked its 25-year milestone. Let’s explore the journey that led to its present condition and discuss the disagreements between EA and fans regarding what’s ideal for its future development.

To mark its 25th anniversary, the Sims franchise held celebrations featuring remastered versions of The Sims and The Sims 2, as well as announcing additional downloadable content (DLC) for The Sims 4. This blend of acknowledging past achievements while looking ahead to future developments seems fitting for a series that has stood the test of time. However, Electronic Arts (EA) has encountered some hurdles during this journey. Upon release, the re-releases of The Sims 1 and 2 were marred by significant bugs, and while new DLCs are on the horizon for The Sims 4, not everyone is convinced that it’s the best course of action, given the game already has over 70 expansions.

The Sims 4 has been active for almost half its franchise’s duration, reaching its 10th anniversary in 2024. As Electronic Arts offers sneak peeks into the future of The Sims 4 and the franchise at large, such as the enigmatic Project Rene that is still being developed, long-standing Sims enthusiasts are experiencing a sense of déjà vu. For those who recall the turbulent debut of The Sims 4, Project Rene seems eerily reminiscent of Groundhog Day.

Back in September 2014, when The Sims 4 first dropped, it wasn’t exactly the smooth sailing experience we hoped for. TopMob gave it a so-so 6/10, pointing out its shallow depth and, more noticeably, its lack of features. Frankly, the Sims themselves looked stunning, but I, along with many other gamers, were taken aback by Electronic Arts’ decision to go for a more cartoonish art style compared to previous versions of the game. However, what really stirred up long-time Simmers was the significant change in the core gameplay. In stark contrast to The Sims 4, each preceding version had built upon the features introduced in its predecessor. So, stripping a feature, especially the beloved ability to customize colors and textures, was downright unheard of.

Indeed, there were additional elements introduced. Players often call it Create-A-Sim, or CAS, and with this update, users can modify a Sim’s facial features directly by clicking and dragging them. This allows players to have more precise control over a Sim’s bone structure. However, upon its release, some features like eyelashes and fingernails (which were available in The Sims 3) were missing, and the variety of hairstyles, particularly for non-white Sims, was quite limited.

One significant shortcoming was that there wasn’t an opportunity to personalize a piece of clothing by changing its color or texture, which was a crucial feature added in The Sims 3 and greatly enhanced the overall gameplay. Unfortunately, this option was missing from The Sims 4, leaving players with limited color options for each clothing item. If they didn’t like the few color choices provided, there was no way to modify them. Consequently, creating coordinated outfits proved to be a difficult task, as even colors intended to match often appeared different in-game. The Sims 4 offered only 24 hair colors, a significant reduction compared to the unlimited shade options available in The Sims 3’s color picker.

EA suggests that creating a color wheel for personalized Sim hair colors in The Sims 4 is technically challenging and beyond their current capabilities at this time. However, it’s worth mentioning that players can choose any color they desire for their Sim-cats, Sim-dogs, and Sim-horses, and even customize the pattern of their pets’ coats. Intriguingly, the game allows for the transformation of a Sim-cat into a vibrant, Lisa Frank-inspired creature, but the option to customize Sim hair colors remains an engineering hurdle EA hasn’t been able to overcome yet. Although players can now adjust the lightness and darkness of the existing hair shades in the game, they still cannot create truly custom hair colors, let alone the multi-colored designs that Sim-pets enjoy.

In both Build Mode and Buy Mode, problems with customization surfaced alongside the game. The Build Mode of The Sims 4 was arguably the best the series had ever offered, boasting robust tools that granted players unprecedented control over their Sims’ dwellings. However, these impressive tools were hindered by the absence of a texture selector and color picker, just like in Create-a-Sim (CAS). Additionally, the same inconsistencies in color matching that affected CAS were also evident in the game’s furniture, flooring, walls, and roofs. This resulted in decorating homes being equally frustrating as creating Sims.

In The Sims 4’s primary mode, known as Live Mode, players design homes and outfits for their Sims to live in. However, this mode seemed less engaging compared to its predecessor, The Sims 3, due to the replacement of moodlets and memories with dynamic emotions that could change swiftly based on room decoration. Features like vehicles, pools, and even the toddler life stage were surprisingly omitted from The Sims 4. Instead, after a brief baby phase, Sims would suddenly transform into school-age children. The once bustling open-world neighborhoods of previous games were replaced with a sparsely populated map, leading players to initially believe it was placeholder art left unremoved. Additionally, players encountered frequent long loading screens when exploring beyond their immediate surroundings, and pre-made houses had numerous issues such as stairs leading into walls, missing toilets in bathrooms, and a lack of the impressive premade builds found in earlier Sims games.

Players who have grown attached to the franchise were left puzzled by The Sims 4’s release, asking themselves, “How could this be?” It seemed as if Electronic Arts had stripped away the game’s beloved, practical aspects, and the question on everyone’s lips was, “What was the reasoning behind this decision?

The answer to that question was Project Olympus.

In the year 2002, following the triumph of The Sims debut, Electronic Arts (EA) introduced The Sims Online – an MMO adaptation of The Sims allowing players to interact with their characters in chat rooms, customize them, and forge friendships. However, The Sims Online encountered significant challenges as most America Online subscribers’ internet connections were too weak to navigate even the official Sims site, let alone sustain gameplay with multiple users. The platform ceased operations in 2008, failing to recoup its substantial budget estimated at over $25 million. EA believed there was untapped potential for an MMO Sims game, despite The Sims Online selling approximately 2 million copies during its existence – it wasn’t a flop; instead, it was simply too visionary for its era.

In the same year that The Sims Online service was permanently closed, work began on The Sims 4, initially codenamed Project Olympus. This project aimed to provide a multiplayer, online-style Sims experience, similar to what you might expect from an MMO game. From around 2008 until approximately 2013, The Sims 4 was developed as both a mobile and PC MMO game.

To prevent the issues that arose with The Sims 3, such as its heavy demands on many PCs leading to frequent crashes, Electronic Arts (EA) made a conscious effort to ensure The Sims 4 would run smoothly on most computers. To achieve this, they simplified some aspects of the game, such as removing its open-world neighborhoods and extensive color/texture customization options, making it more universally compatible.

In 2013, when only a year was left for its development, Electronic Arts (EA) altered their plans. Contrary to expectations, The Sims 4 would not be an MMO requiring constant online access. Instead, it was going to be the latest version of The Sims, retaining familiar features that players were accustomed to, though not all of them, naturally.

As a gamer, I can’t pinpoint the exact reason behind Electronic Arts (EA) changing direction at the last minute, but one widely-accepted explanation is that the rocky debut of 2013’s SimCity gave EA pause. The 2013 edition of SimCity was a headache for solo players like me because it required an internet connection just to play or save the game. To make things worse, server problems and other glitches added to the chaos, and the overall response from gamers was generally negative.

EA issued an apology for the botched launch, but stated that creating an offline mode for the game didn’t align with their vision and was a challenging task that they couldn’t handle. However, it didn’t take long for players to figure out a simple code modification that enabled offline play instantly. Eventually, EA released an offline mode as part of SimCity 2013’s tenth update.

After the failure of SimCity, EA decided to take a complete U-turn with The Sims 4. Instead of launching in March 2014 as initially planned, it was delayed until September 2014. The development team aimed to transform the streamlined MMO back into what fans would expect from a main Sims game. However, they didn’t have enough time to achieve this goal, resulting in a game that felt rather empty and unfulfilling.

After its debut, The Sims 4 underwent continuous enhancements. For example, free updates encompassed the return of toddlers, swimming pools, and an expanded range of hairstyles. However, features like cars and customization options for textures and colors are yet to be included. Regarding the limited selection of furniture and clothing in the game, Electronic Arts appears to address this issue by regularly launching new DLC content. In comparison to The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, which together had 20 expansions and DLC packs, The Sims 4 boasts over 70 such add-ons. If purchased individually, these DLC packs amount to more than $1,600.

The excessive amount of DLC releases in The Sims 4 has resulted in an ongoing issue: recurring bugs. Every game update seems to bring a new wave of glitches, and until recently, they were not promptly resolved. The introduction of the Get To Work expansion pack resurrected Alien-Sims into the series; however, a bug that distorted their faces upon moving into a new life stage remained unresolved for years. The My Wedding Stories pack disrupted the game’s wedding mechanism entirely, forcing players to turn off the pack if they desired glitch-free weddings for their Sims (a problem EA rectified in 2024, two years post-launch). Both the Eco Lifestyle and Laundry Day packs debuted with numerous problems, making it seem as though fixing The Sims 4 was not a priority on EA’s to-do list.

However, in 2024, there was a shift. Electronic Arts (EA) unexpectedly introduced several free upgrades enriching the original game with fresh content and resolving persistent problems. For instance, they tackled the bug that caused wedding guests to sit awkwardly in the aisle and act uncooperatively during Sims’ weddings. Furthermore, features absent from The Sims 3 such as eyelashes and manicures were incorporated. The most remarkable additions were EA’s two expansions, Lovestruck and Life & Death, which seemed to rekindle the series’ eccentric, whimsical spirit.

Alongside the well-known shaking heart bed introduced in the 2001 expansion pack Hot Date, Lovestruck also debuted options for jealousy settings and polyamory. In earlier Sims games, a cheating spouse was easily detected, and Sims typically reacted negatively to infidelity. In The Sims 4, a partner must be in very close proximity to even sense that their spouse is being unfaithful. The Lovestruck expansion provides players with the ability to customize Sim relationships. Some Sims might be upset upon discovering their lover with another character, while others may respond with a congratulatory high-five. Not all Sim couples are equally trusting; some have strong bonds, while others harbor suspicions. The Lovestruck expansion added complexity to the way Sims interact, and while some players might view it as arriving too late, others are simply glad to see the game evolving.

2024’s Life & Death expansion brought renewed excitement for weary Sims players. This expansion injected a dash of long-lamented morbidity that The Sims 4 had been lacking due to its overly safe, somewhat Disney-like atmosphere. Despite being rated T for Teen, The Sims 4 has a noticeably safe and child-friendly vibe. However, the Life & Death expansion offers players an opportunity to work alongside the Grim Reaper, introduces numerous gruesome ways for Sims to pass away, and grants Ghost-Sims the chance to live intriguing, rewarding, occasionally amusing lives.

It appears that The Sims 4 reached its happy conclusion, coinciding with the series’ 25th anniversary, but a deeper examination suggests that EA may still be pursuing their mysterious, elusive goal: an online Sims experience which, honestly, wasn’t what fans were hoping for. Fans of the franchise who felt disappointed by The Sims 4 have long been anticipating updates on The Sims 5. For these players, a new beginning with The Sims 5 would be the best way to steer the franchise in the right direction. Regrettably, it seems that The Sims 5 might not be happening anymore. Instead, Project Rene – an online, MMO-style game focusing equally on social interaction and creating/playing with Sims – seems to be the next focus. Does this scenario sound familiar?

So far, we’ve only caught a small peek at what Project Rene entails, making it challenging to form an accurate opinion about it. However, given Electronic Arts’ past difficulties in transforming The Sims into an MMO, some long-time fans of the series are hesitant – particularly those who remember The Sims Online. A screenshot from a Project Rene playtest hinting at customization options similar to The Sims 3 has provided a glimmer of optimism, but it’s tough not to question whether EA truly grasps what Simmers really desire. The introduction of recent features like login rewards serves to highlight this misconception – any Simmer will confirm that The Sims isn’t a game you play every day indefinitely. Instead, it resembles Animal Crossing, a game you immerse yourself in for a short while after deciding to recreate a favorite series or scene, then leave untouched for several months until a new expansion pack or creative whim draws you back in. If Project Rene intends to incorporate elements similar to Roblox’s Dress To Impress, it may not be well-received unless the game also launches with both a traditional offline mode and a social MMO mode at its inception.

Initially, when Will Wright initially proposed The Sims, he aimed to name it “Dollhouse,” as that’s essentially what the game represents – a digital version of a dollhouse filled with tales to unfold and lives to experience. However, Maxis and EA opted for “The Sims” instead, as they believed “Dollhouse” could be perceived as too feminine and potentially discourage male players. Fast forward 25 years, it’s evident that The Sims has found a widespread audience across genders. Yet, it’s troubling that EA continues to pursue the development of a Sims MMO, seemingly unaware that most Sims enthusiasts desire nothing more than the freedom to play with their digital dolls in peace.

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2025-02-05 23:42