After several months of yet more uncharacteristic silence from the underground DLC labs, this morning we awoke to the news that The Sims 4: Get Famous is right around the corner. I’m starting to wonder if there are two different teams in charge of naming Sims 4 expansions, each unaware of the other.
Apparently the DLC model restructuring that was hinted at shortly after Seasons released includes a return to the old-style model of releasing two major expansions per-year, and stemming the flow of regular $10 and $20 DLC entries. I’m actually a fan of the $20 ‘Game Pack’ tier so here’s hoping the idea hasn’t been killed off for good…
It’s not really a surprise that EA is reconsidering their model for The Sims 4: their own quarterly investor reports boast of Cats & Dogs selling gangbusters and I don’t doubt the (usually equally anticipated) weather expansion did any worse. After the past two years, a return to series’ form was actually quite predictable.
Unfortunately, when EA decides to go back to being predictable, they get predictable. And thus we have the newest novel idea to come from the Sims Studio: yet another fame-themed Sims expansion. Joy.
There was once a day (somewhere around 2007, I think) where I longed for a go-again at a Superstar-style of expansion. But after no less than 2 completely vapid and cynical attempts from The Sims 3, I realized that the successes of the past probably ought to stay there. Superstar is tied for my favorite The Sims expansion and among my favorite throughout the whole series, and one day I’d like to write a post about what made it so damn magical, but I have my doubts that that magic can be recreated within The Sims’s modern design philosophy.
Really, I would rather they have tried to stay adventurous with Sims 4 content in the same vein as Get Together.
It almost makes sense now that September’s game patch has been pushed back all the way to November; as it will likely be the Get Famous pre-patch, introducing both terrain manipulation tools and a new ‘fashion influencer’ career. Whatever the hell that is.