The Sims 4 is currently enjoying an uneasy relationship with consumers. The blockbuster series has a huge market appeal which makes it a sure fire money maker for publisher EA. However in the current build up to the games release, several worrying facts have made their circulation in the world of gaming news regarding the next installment in The Sims’ series. Worries about DLC and the accidental reveal of a Premium Membership model during a gameplay demonstration have begun to take hold of some portions of The Sims 4 fanbase. Combine this with the relatively recent notoriety of EA; a company who, let’s not forget, were named ‘The Worst Company in America in 2012‘, and expectations for the game are at an all time low.
Another target of fans’ ire has been the surprising lack of certain content in any current reveals of the game. One of these specific pieces of content is the pool, somewhere for your Sim to exercise and relax. The humble back yard pool was also famous in
“Hello darkness my old friend…”previous iterations for being a perfect opportunity for the player to exercise their total control over the life of their Sim as removing the ladder to prevent escape would lead to drowning and death. It was suspected and feared that pools would be making an appearance in The Sims 4 behind some kind of pay wall, maybe DLC, but new information suggests that this might not be the case.
Kotaku has recently published a small interview with The Sims 4 producer Graham Nardone about the lack of pools. It turns out that the lack of pools is not a diabolical money making scheme by EA, but rather the results of engine limitations. “It’s easy to look at something and think, ‘That looks pretty simple.’ When you think about a feature like pools upfront, it looks like a square box on the ground and you put a shader on the top surface and have Sims jump in.” Nardone said. “But ultimately, it’s more complexity in terms of what tech’s there and what isn’t there, what we have to build to support this. How do we cut down into the terrain, how do we get Sims going through portals across different levels of pools? There’s so much that’s going on in the background that you don’t end up seeing just to have a Sim go swimming.”
Despite this shortcoming of the new engine, it does seem that The Sims 4 will eventually contain pools, perhaps mostly due to fan demand. “It’s not a matter of it not being important to us or our focus not being in the right place. As we chat with fans and they continue to inform us of what they want, they’re obviously interested in pools and toddlers. They want those in the game. So we’ll continue to listen to feedback, something we’ve always done with The Sims.”
Nardone was then asked about the possibility that these features might be paid DLC, he unashamedly dodged this topic saying “I’d really just say look at what we’ve done in the past. We’ve had a variety of different ways we’ve delivered content to players, and I think we’ll continue to support what they’re looking for.” He was further questioned about whether this would tie in with the planned Premium Membership system but again dodged the question, claiming they were more focused on the base game at the moment.
This unfortunately leaves us with an unsatisfactory conclusion. There will mostly likely be pools in The Sims 4 but they may be locked behind a pay wall. Given EA’s history and notoriety, would you be surprised if they were?
Credit to Kotaku
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