'Faulty' Infants in Sims 4; Fans are Disappointed
The free update for Sims 4 is seen by players as a cheap attempt to get them to buy the upcoming expansion. This is a sharp blow to a community that has been waiting longingly for infants and related mechanics.
Yesterday's free update for The Sims 4, announced back during October's Behind The Sims Summit, added a new life stage for the characters. The much-anticipated infants, however, did not meet the player expectations, leading them to draw some unpleasant conclusions.
High expectations are the devs' fault
Where did it all start? The update was presented by the developers on numerous streams. As a result, fans of the series had many opportunities to fall in love with the cute babies.
Numerous systems and small behaviors making young Sims more real, captured players eager to create deep stories of their virtual families. To the delight of fans, this expansion was to come to the game completely free of charge.
The problem is that practically all gameplays showing infants in practice were presented with the use of the Growing Together expansion, distorting the actual picture of the update. Only yesterday we had the opportunity to see with our own eyes how the free change works without the DLC support.
The result? A huge disappointment for players.
Foul play by the developers of The Sims
Growing Together, which will launch tomorrow, from the beginning was advertised as an expansion deepening family life and relationships between the Sims. However, it was always presented, so to speak, alongside the update, which, according to many Internet users, was a dirty marketing ploy.
After briefly playing with the new update, many Internet users got the impression that the free update is an attempt to force players to buy the upcoming expansion.
"They kept everything we were excited about limited to the pack. Why should we have to PAY to have infants to their full extent? They didn’t do that with toddlers, yes they had a stuff pack themed for them but it didn’t gatekeep gameplay features. That’s like if they released toddlers but the learn to walk & talk options were paywalled.
Actually can’t believe we have to pay to have things such as milestones, personality and motor skills… Maybe i’m in over my head here but it’s extremely greedy on their part. Infants without the new pack so far are boring, we don’t even get a change table or play mat, we have to pay for that as well. Also, forgot to mention you also have to pay for a DIAPER BIN. Without the pack, your sims throw them on the floor," wrote Reddit user solarlunaas
Importantly, the changes made by the update are not optional.
What does this mean? Every player is put in a situation where he has to choose: either in all his games he will have to go through the boring and annoying stage of the Sims' lives from now on, or they will decide to pay.
For those who follow the industry, this situation is not so surprising.
- EA and publisher-owned studio Maxis have for years been recognized as companies specializing in extensive monetization of their products.
- This time, however, the disappointment of fans is mainly due to the promises of free changes, which turned out to deceive players unwilling to pay.
Growing Together costs $39.99. Its release tomorrow will give us a full picture of the situation.
