You have most likely seen it by now if you happen to’re a fan of the life sim style, however The Sims 4 has been doing the rounds for a lengthy time. The unique The Sims stepped apart to make means for The Sims 2 after simply 4 years; The Sims 2 yielded to The Sims 3 after 5; and the hole between The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 was one other 5 years.
However right now, The Sims 4 celebrates 10 years not solely post-release however in energetic growth: the most recent enlargement pack for the sport got here out simply 5 weeks in the past, and EA have introduced plans for a few dozen extra updates — each free and as paid DLC — earlier than the top of 2024.
In case you’d advised us a decade in the past that The Sims 4 would nonetheless be the present era of the franchise by its tenth birthday, I doubt many people would have believed you. Not solely was EA’s launch cycle for the sequence very well-established by that time, however with the most effective will on the earth, it is an odd place in The Sims’ historical past to decide on to park up.
The sport obtained off to a rocky begin amongst each critics and gamers, probably as a consequence of being considerably overhauled in simply 18 months pre-launch to take away key shared options from 2013’s SimCity reboot that proved immensely unpopular. Whereas it wasn’t precisely a catastrophe, preliminary critiques did symbolize the low level in a sluggish decline from the sequence’ heyday, which noticed each The Sims and The Sims 2 garner common evaluation scores comfortably within the 90s, The Sims 3 drop a number of marks to hold round within the 80s, and The Sims 4 obtain a strong however unremarkable 70-something common.
However in fact, The Sims 4 you will obtain if you happen to begin enjoying right now shall be considerably completely different from the launch expertise — even if you happen to ignore a decade’s value of normal paid DLC releases and focus solely on the vanilla base sport. Regardless of the more and more eye-watering price ticket of the complete product, it’s a must to give The Sims 4 its dues as the primary Sims sport to present away something substantial at no cost — as much as and together with the bottom sport itself, which went F2P on all platforms simply after the sport’s eighth anniversary in 2022.
On the time of writing, 167 base sport updates — barely multiple per 30 days since launch — have tweaked and twisted the unique launch into one thing nonetheless recognisable as The Sims 4 because it again in September 2014, however way more detailed and sophisticated, with some really fairly drastic adjustments to the way in which it seems to be and feels.
I believe that there is a shared root cause each for these main adjustments over time and the title’s surprising longevity: the way in which that video games are bought, delivered, and monetised has modified considerably over the previous decade-and-a-half, and The Sims 4 was the primary sport within the sequence to know that it was launching right into a market the place most gamers can be continuously linked to the web as a matter in fact. The Sims 3 realised this a few years into its lifespan, changing into the primary sport within the sequence to introduce digital-only premium DLC, and certainly went a bit overboard with the pricing of these add-ons. The Sims 4 might have in the reduction of on the worst excesses — like $5 haircuts paid for with in-game currencies transformed from real-world cash. But it surely however reveals its creators’ consciousness that it exists in an always-online, digital-first ecosystem that is fairly completely different from the sequence’ roots.
There are positives and negatives to this, in fact. Gone are the dangerous outdated days of getting to attend six months and fork out the price of one other full-price enlargement pack if you’d like the repair for a bug that shipped with the final enlargement pack. But it surely’s additionally decreased the strain on EA to ship one thing that is at the least mostly-working on launch day — and, whereas I do assume that recency bias can partly account for why The Sims 4 launches really feel buggier than in earlier generations, I might additionally sadly level to the truth that the QA groups credited on Sims DLC releases have shrunk dramatically over the previous decade, from dozens per new title to as few as six even on full-sized enlargement packs.
If The Sims 4 hadn’t taken benefit of the chances provided by being live-service-adjacent, it would not simply really feel creaky by now, however historic. Having the ability to tinker with the bottom sport indefinitely has allowed the builders to take what was at launch a reasonably by-the-numbers launch for the franchise and switch it into the primary Sims sport to characteristic gender and sexual orientation customisation, and beauty choices permitting for extra reasonable Black hair types, vitiligo, and medical wearables, to quote just some examples of adjustments delivered to Create-A-Sim alone over the previous few years.
Even setting apart these worthy efforts to make this life sim really feel extra lifelike for everyone, The Sims 4 has had moments of brilliance, even when they’ve typically been buried amongst underwhelmed reactions to this era of the franchise as an entire. It is the primary Sims sport to permit upcycling, for instance, or to characteristic social media as a profession path — a singular reflection on ongoing social adjustments and shifting priorities over its longer-than-usual lifespan.
On a barely extra meta stage, the current introduction of Cupid’s Nook — a Tinder-inspired relationship app included in Lovestruck, the most recent enlargement pack — has been heralded as the most effective use of multiplayer that the franchise has but seen, because of the truth that different gamers’ creations can sometimes and unexpectedly pop up amongst your Sims’ potential matches. It was a characteristic that EA did not promote forward of time, however most gamers have been pleasantly shocked to be taught that Captain Jack Sparrow, Shrek, Giga Squidward, et al. have been on the market on the lookout for love, similar as anyone else.
When The Sims 5 arrives it is going to virtually definitely characteristic multiplayer — probably extra within the invite-a-friend vein of Animal Crossing: New Horizons than an MMO. Nonetheless although, it is good to see EA experimenting with the formulation forward of time in a non-intrusive means that almost all gamers of The Sims 4 appear to have the ability to get behind.
The Sims and The Sims 2 are, sadly, now successfully abandonware; whereas The Sims 3 stays absolutely supported by EA on digital storefronts, however hasn’t acquired any content material updates since 2014. Undertaking Rene (believed however not technically confirmed to be the long-awaited The Sims 5) has been very quiet currently, and whereas rumours of its secret cancellation are most likely being exaggerated, it does appear to be there is a good bit of turmoil happening behind the scenes: what with the departure of long-time Sims producer and unique sport director Grant Rodiek in January, and the leak of an enormous chunk of early playtest knowledge within the spring.
So The Sims 4 has been the general public face of the franchise for a full decade now, and this seems to be unlikely to alter anytime quickly — particularly since, by all accounts, The Sims 4 will not be retired as soon as Undertaking Rene ultimately releases, however is deliberate to proceed alongside it in some capability. Once more, this would possibly appear to be a missed alternative by EA to place essentially the most troubled mainline sport on the franchise’s docket to relaxation, draw a line below its always-uneven reception, and attempt to transfer on. But it surely’s value remembering that that is nonetheless a qualitative evaluation, whereas the 70 million-odd individuals who’ve performed the sport over the previous decade inform a distinct story.
And, as I keep in mind very properly, The Sims 3 acquired comparable ranges of participant backlash during its energetic growth, however has since change into extraordinarily beloved in hindsight. I do not really assume this can occur with The Sims 4 as soon as it is lastly outmoded by one other title — be that Undertaking Rene or a competitor from one other studio, like inZOI or Paralives. However then, I might’ve stated the identical factor about The Sims 3 ten years in the past.
In actuality, it is nigh-on unattainable to attract a satisfying conclusion from a retrospective have a look at a sport that hasn’t gone wherever and continues to be altering on a regular basis. Nearly the one factor that is clear proper now could be that much more distance goes to be required earlier than we will correctly assess the legacy of The Sims 4 on the franchise and its group.