Swimming Pools And More Are Coming as Free DLC For The Sims 4

[kasperbbs]

Turns out that complaining on the interwebs isn't entirely useless since EA is actually doing something about the pool situation.

 

[AstaresPanda]

hhhhmmm perhaps they have been listening to all the back lash, perhaps they are turning a new leaf, i mean i never thought they would make it FREE. But there is still a voice inside telling me.......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4qzPbcFiA

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

*reads comments, laughs* No, there's no pleasing people in regards to EA.
*laughs even more* You people crack me up.

OT: I called this, and the reactions. Good for EA. We'll see how this continues or not.

We should be happy they corrected a mistake, when I still am not happy when games have large amounts of heavy bugs patched out that shouldn't have been left in in the first place?

Right, of course, how dare they try to correct things, regardless of whether or not it's a PR stunt. They should just let it be, or better yet charge double what we thought they would have charged so we could complain about that.

I'm not asking people to put EA on a pedestal for this, but to be outraged about it is not reasonable. Does it make up for the fact that the content wasn't there in the first place? No, not really. Does the fact that they're now making it available for free make it worse? Of course not! To be mad at them when they're grubbing money, and then to be mad at them for not grubbing money is nonsensical. You must be displeased when they've done something shitty, otherwise they'll never learn, but why be displeased when they've done something that isn't shitty? Why be bitter about EA when they're showing signs, however slight, that they're at least listening to people?

 

[CruxisCalling]

.....There's gotta be a catch.

Not so much a catch as having just enough business sense to know when to cut their losses (but obviously not enough to know how to avoid the loss in the first place, or we wouldn't be in this situation). It's a little bit of damage control with current owners who are livid and unwilling to keep spending, while pulling in any other buyers they can. If EA was really just trying to appease the fans they pissed off they would have released a patch or DLC returning all of the content they gutted from the game in the first place, rather than in monthly releases. Instead they're holding it out in front of the audience like a carrot.

Monthly releases give EA a better business chance. As long as they release monthly DLC for free, there will essentially be free advertising for them as well. News articles repeating "look at all these things that Sims 4 has now! And they're all for free! See, EA can change!".

Calming the angry, screaming fans and keeping themselves in the public eye all at once. Two birds, one stone. Although I'm sure the concept of "free DLC" has a few EA employees crying themselves to sleep at the moment...

 

[Mik Sunrider]

Sales must really suck for them to do all of this. I'm really on the fence about this one, I like Sims but had no intention of buy a game with less base game then it's pervious Sims games. Forget the extra's, I'm talking about base game. However, having EA acknowledge it's being a greedy mingy little twerp and fixing their mistake ... I almost want to give it a shot now. I have no trust with EA, sure this is nice now but what are they going to do to me later with Sims4?

 

[K12]

E.A. wanting to stop winning the worst company award seems to mean that they're going to give in to backlash and complaints.

It's a step at least, one day they may do the right thing without acting like arseholes first!

 

[Poetic Nova]

I thought the pools where impossible to implement?

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

*reads comments, laughs* No, there's no pleasing people in regards to EA.
*laughs even more* You people crack me up.

OT: I called this, and the reactions. Good for EA. We'll see how this continues or not.

We should be happy they corrected a mistake, when I still am not happy when games have large amounts of heavy bugs patched out that shouldn't have been left in in the first place?

Right, of course, how dare they try to correct things, regardless of whether or not it's a PR stunt. They should just let it be, or better yet charge double what we thought they would have charged so we could complain about that.

I'm not asking people to put EA on a pedestal for this, but to be outraged about it is not reasonable. Does it make up for the fact that the content wasn't there in the first place? No, not really. Does the fact that they're now making it available for free make it worse? Of course not! To be mad at them when they're grubbing money, and then to be mad at them for not grubbing money is nonsensical. You must be displeased when they've done something shitty, otherwise they'll never learn, but why be displeased when they've done something that isn't shitty? Why be bitter about EA when they're showing signs, however slight, that they're at least listening to people?

I'm NOT saying its worse. I'm saying its not better. It should never have been an issue. The second the game releases, it should be god damn finished, and everything after that is too little, too late to me. I'm not so stupid as to say: "Lets go torch EA HQ because they dared to release free dlc" I'm saying "They knew well in advance the fanbase's view on the gigantic lack of features in Sims 4 and only now that the game is out do they care"

It was just the first, and admittedly coarse paragraph that was targeted towards you. The rest was for those who seem angry that EA would have the audacity to try and patch the holes they left. I do agree with you though, this should not have been an issue. And as I said, I don't believe EA deserves any praise for this. But it's a step in the right direction. A very small step back from the pool of shit they've been wading deeper into for years, but a right step nonetheless.

 

[Ldude893]

*sigh*.

You know, EA, if you just held back the release of the game for a bit to add stuff found in the previous games, you wouldn't have gotten so much backlash in the first place.

 

[JenSeven]

Is this the new trend?
Did the XBox 180 make every company now consider undoing really bad decisions in order to silence mass outroar in the hopes they don't look as much like the money grabbing dirtbags they clearly are, and everyone knows them as?

 

[The Lunatic]

Sims 4, now in early access?

I mean, I don't dislike that they're done this, obviously.

But, they knew the game would be poorly received with the amount of hate it was getting over the removal of a lot of features.

It seems they would have been better delaying release to fix these issues.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

*reads comments, laughs* No, there's no pleasing people in regards to EA.
*laughs even more* You people crack me up.

OT: I called this, and the reactions. Good for EA. We'll see how this continues or not.

We should be happy they corrected a mistake, when I still am not happy when games have large amounts of heavy bugs patched out that shouldn't have been left in in the first place?

Right, of course, how dare they try to correct things, regardless of whether or not it's a PR stunt. They should just let it be, or better yet charge double what we thought they would have charged so we could complain about that.

I'm not asking people to put EA on a pedestal for this, but to be outraged about it is not reasonable. Does it make up for the fact that the content wasn't there in the first place? No, not really. Does the fact that they're now making it available for free make it worse? Of course not! To be mad at them when they're grubbing money, and then to be mad at them for not grubbing money is nonsensical. You must be displeased when they've done something shitty, otherwise they'll never learn, but why be displeased when they've done something that isn't shitty? Why be bitter about EA when they're showing signs, however slight, that they're at least listening to people?

I'm NOT saying its worse. I'm saying its not better. It should never have been an issue. The second the game releases, it should be god damn finished, and everything after that is too little, too late to me. I'm not so stupid as to say: "Lets go torch EA HQ because they dared to release free dlc" I'm saying "They knew well in advance the fanbase's view on the gigantic lack of features in Sims 4 and only now that the game is out do they care"

It was just the first, and admittedly coarse paragraph that was targeted towards you. The rest was for those who seem angry that EA would have the audacity to try and patch the holes they left. I do agree with you though, this should not have been an issue. And as I said, I don't believe EA deserves any praise for this. But it's a step in the right direction. A very small step back from the pool of shit they've been wading deeper into for years, but a right step nonetheless.

It's less a step, and more a momentary halt in the direction of Shitopia. Saying its a step back is saying its deserving of minor praise.

It's hard not to see it as a step back, you really have to be making an effort not to. Halting would be leveling out, maybe making the DLC cheap but still with a price tag. This is 'nickel and dime', 'microtransaction all the things' EA we're talking about. And now they're giving something for free. It's content that should have been there, but they're showing signs that they've acknowledged the backlash and are working to fix that.

 

[The Great JT]

See, this is what happens when, to put it colloquially, you dun goofed. You gotta un-goof it. Hence, let the un-goofing commence!

 

[Neeckin]

Riddle me this EA, if it's free DLC why not just include t in the game in the first place?

 

[Lightknight]

Haha, I'm sure them getting pegged as shameless had nothing to do with them begrudgingly offering this up.

*sigh*

 

[Atmos Duality]

Oh hey! Another article about content patches for recent major releases.
Guess I'll file this one in the same bin as that bit on Destiny.

.....There's gotta be a catch.

The "catch" is that EA is finally realizing that "less-for-more" has its limits and that the market is slowly wising up to price-gouging schemes. That, and I'm guessing the "hostage gambit" they pulled last month or so didn't work nearly as well as they thought. So, swap vinegar for honey and try again.

If the Sims 4 recovers its lost momentum though, I'm fully expecting EA to go right back to the DLC organ market.

 

[Braedan]

Back in my day, when a developer/publisher added new content to a game after it was released we called it a "patch."
Then when they added a new storyline we called it an "expansion pack."