We still don’t know what EA are planning for “The Sims 5”, but the game is likely a long time away at this point. It’s clear that the studio is still paying a lot of attention to the current installment in the franchise, and “The Sims 4” is earning them quite the nice profits.
They are also actively developing new content for “The Sims 4”, and we expect the next months to be dominated by news in this area for the franchise’s fans. There are also rumors that the announcement for “The Sims 5” could come alongside even more DLCs for the current game, as strange as that may sound.
It’s not standard for game studios to release extra content for a game while also promoting its sequel, but “The Sims” is a special franchise in the industry and we’ve already seen EA handling it in unusual ways before.
What improvements from the current “The Sims 4” could make their way into the new game? There are various theories in this regard among fans right now, but “City Living” is the best candidate in the eyes of most followers. The DLC will likely do a lot to improve the formula, and it should also draw some additional attention to the franchise as a whole.
This should boost its chances for getting a sequel, as this is apparently under question right now. Which is strange to think about, knowing how popular the franchise is as a whole, but on the other hand EA have clearly shifted some of their priorities lately. We wouldn’t be surprised if the studio decides to pay attention to something else at the moment, putting “The Sims” into the background for some time.
Another theory that has been gaining popularity in the game’s community is that EA might be looking into converting the current iteration of the game into a longer-term project. “Software as a service” has been enjoying more and more attention in the industry lately, and the concept seems to have some promise for games too.
For example, “Team Fortress 2” came out in 2007 but it still gets updates today, and the game has been expanded quite a lot. It’s not only received new content such as levels, weapons, and skins, but Valve have managed to implement actual changes to its core engine, allowing them to squeeze more out of the game as time went by.
And according to many, “The Sims 4” is the perfect kind of game for something like this, so it would be entirely in EA’s interest to explore the idea. All they would have to do is keep releasing more and more DLC over the years, while also occasionally releasing a technical patch for the game as well. They may not even have to release “The Sims 5” at all if they keep doing that, although some fans have questioned just how much the game can be expanded from its current state.
After all, it may start to feel bloated after a while, especially if some of the DLCs overlap with each other. But we’ve seen some games pull it off successfully, such as “Train Simulator” which has DLCs costing a total of thousands of dollars. And according to dedicated fans of that game, this is completely normal and they’re fine with it.