Sims 4 won't be reviewed until after release EA not giving out early review copies.

[synobal]

In a tweet Dan Stapleton (IGN reviewer) says that EA told him no one is getting review copies of The Sims 4 prior to launch. source [https://twitter.com/DanStapleton/status/501429502984355840]

This seems crazy but I guess EA has no faith in their product and hoping that people will buy it day one before reviews get a chance to actually publish reviews for the game.

I can't imagine any other reason to launch a big game like the sims 4 with no review copies ahead of time.

 

[Lilphish]

Normally I think this is a bad sign for a game. However with the Sims, I think it is one of those games where you kind of know what you are getting. I don't think I would be too concerned about it. Of course I guess the same could be said for Madden and sometimes they don't put out great versions. I still have a feeling though it will be a good game. EA seems to be on the upswing lately, and it isn't a yearly type of game.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Yep. I kind of means they don't have a good game and they know it. Releasing a bad sims game is a really bad idea. It's not like flubbing a battlefield or COD were you can just try again next year. The sims games stick around for many years and make money by expansion packs. If you foul up the base game it's going to hurt a lot.

 

[Erttheking]

I swear to God EA is run by fucking aliens. It's the only logical explanation of how they don't seem to be aware at how much their actions piss people off.

 

[synobal]

I swear to God EA is run by fucking aliens. It's the only logical explanation of how they don't seem to be aware at how much their actions piss people off.

sociopaths in suits are near as aliens as we can get here on earth I'm afraid. Which is also where all those lizard people conspiracies come from in my opinion. People don't want to think that others could be so cold and calculating but I know EA don't mind taking a beloved franchise and stomping it into the dirt for some quick cash.

 

[NemotheElvenPanda]

This action won't backfire against EA at all. I guess I'll have to hold off the sweet, sweet, inferno the internet will be bathed in when the reviews and the player experiences come out. Won't be anything like the Simcity DRM issue, but it's starting to look similar to it. It's as if EA expects a backlash.

 

[lapan]

Normally I think this is a bad sign for a game. However with the Sims, I think it is one of those games where you kind of know what you are getting. I don't think I would be too concerned about it. Of course I guess the same could be said for Madden and sometimes they don't put out great versions. I still have a feeling though it will be a good game. EA seems to be on the upswing lately, and it isn't a yearly type of game.

That's what people thought with Sim City

 

[Smooth Operator]

Another day another EA clown circus, they really are going all in with this building up the brand of head bonking execs.
I wonder what their next big act might be.

 

[Clearwaters]

Oh boy withholding review copies is never a good sign.

I can only wonder what old EA is up to now.

 

[Treeberry]

This is going to hurt. I'm sticking to TS1 and TS2 plus expansions and custom content. I would have liked TS3 mainly because of traits and create-a-style but the focus on microtransactions was just alienating.

I am a horrible, horrible person because now I am looking forward to the inevitable failure.

 

[Catfood220]

Normally I think this is a bad sign for a game. However with the Sims, I think it is one of those games where you kind of know what you are getting. I don't think I would be too concerned about it. Of course I guess the same could be said for Madden and sometimes they don't put out great versions. I still have a feeling though it will be a good game. EA seems to be on the upswing lately, and it isn't a yearly type of game.

Yeah but neither Sim City or Dungeon Keeper are yearly games either and they clearly screwed them up beyond compare.

No, this is damage control, they are hoping to sell a decent amount of copies before the reviews come out and savage the game and ruin their sales. But even this is going to backfire on them because people, knowing EA, will wait until the reviews come out to see if its worth buying.

You know sometimes I think EA want to stop making games beyond Batlefield and Fifa and are deliberately ruining their decent games so no one wants them any more, leaving them free to do nothing but Battlefield and Fifa games.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

You know EA, you could just come out and say the latest version is a soulless piece of crap that was dissected so you could sell more 'add-on content' instead of dancing around the issue and obscurification.

 

[Shayman]

As if I needed another reason not to pre-order.

 

[Exterminas]

Normally I think this is a bad sign for a game. However with the Sims, I think it is one of those games where you kind of know what you are getting. I don't think I would be too concerned about it. Of course I guess the same could be said for Madden and sometimes they don't put out great versions. I still have a feeling though it will be a good game. EA seems to be on the upswing lately, and it isn't a yearly type of game.

Especially with the Sims you will want a review to know if buying it is even remotely worth it, compared to the previous installment.

You see, with the Sims, EA has this little problem called Expansions! EA loves doing Sims-Expansions, because they make tons of money. Right now, buying all the sims stuff at steam will cost you 550 Euro. No, you did not misread. Of course nobody is supposed to buy all of this stuff, right? Right! You are supposed to buy what you want and like in order to customize your game experience. It's a decent modell.

The problem is that now EA is asking people to pay 60 Bucks for a game that most likely offers just a tiny fraction of the content that Sims 3 (with just about any expansion, really) offers. And therein lies EA's problem. They want to sell expansions, but they also want you to buy their shiny new main title (so you can buy expansions later).

But of course if there were reviews for the thing, people might actually do the sensible thing and wait six months to buy the damn thing with the toddler/pool-expansion pack.

 

[small]

I should be EA's favourite sort of Sims customer, someone who has bought every game, the expansion and a good chunk of the dlc's and I've love each game for different reasons, BUT even im drawing the line at Sims4 and not touching it, and the lack ofreviews before release really does help confirm that

 

[nevarran]

It'll be full of micro-transactions. And EA knows the reviewers would tear it apart, so they just don't want that shit flooding the social networks before the release.

 

[Angelous Wang]

This quite simply because of all the rumours and even some confirmation about missing content from previous games TS4 is going to be heavily pirated.

Nobody wants to buy less of than what they already have, but they will happily steal it for free.

Not giving out review copies means it will be longer before the game is pirated. Because review copies are often the first pirate copies up (though arguably not the best ones).

EA is hoping that pirates won't have the patience between the time it releases and the time it takes to crack and pirate the game. And will just buy the game.
Plus you know review won?t be good because of all the missing previous games content regardless of how well the game actually plays.

 

[William Fleming]

Of course, since there has been loads of confirmation that this iteration will be the most incomplete sims base game with a ton of things that every other game has, seriously. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.858050-89-Features-Missing-From-The-Sims-4]

 

[Netrigan]

Oh boy withholding review copies is never a good sign.

I can only wonder what old EA is up to now.

Depends. Sending out review copies is about promotion. Not everyone bothers doing it, because there's not always a clear benefit to doing so.

Let's use one of my favorite franchises as an example: the LEGO games. If you've played a LEGO game, then you pretty much know what you're getting. A lot of review sites don't even bother reviewing them, because every review ends up being pretty much the same, "if you like LEGO games, you'll enjoy this one" with maybe a brief explanation about what makes this particular experience a bit better or worse than previous experiences. They'd probably be justified not bothering to send out review copies because the brand name is established and they've no plans to radically reinvent the franchise.

So if Sims 4 is just more of the same for Sims fans, then why bother going to the expense of sending out review copies.