As a note, but of these are about leisure activities (dining, swinmimg) in location-specific themes (Paris, Mediterranean) so I believe the next theme is Travel or Culture.

An entire expansion pack based on romance?

Being fair, we have had social/romance packs in the past, but they typically revolved around more than just romance.

Hot Date was the pack that opened up the game and allowed sims to leave home, shop, dine, date and hang out at an entire area away from home in a variety of social settings.

Nightlife was also innovative, introducing several new venues for the family to engage in, dates, rage, an a new personality system enhancement. Of course CARS and new social mechanics.

Previous romance parks were innovative, and also introduced early in the game’s life span. They replaced romance with hanging out, so what innovations they’ll add are up in the air.

Romantic Attraction?
Astrology?
Online Dating?
Better Engagements?
Heart Shaped Tubs & Beds?

I stopped looking for logic in their packs. What difference it would make if people still buy these packs? Hardly any.

Who cares about astrology, internet invitation to date and heart shape objects, when those novelty are nothing without chemistry system. Sexual orientation options shown that the GAME CANT EVEN HANDLE ITS FLAGS. All of it would be broken.

even if you stopped playing just a year old, it would be very expensive to try to give this game a "2nd chance", not just the upcoming packs but the packs you already missed out on, the game has never been uglier.

I found the social compatibility system in Growing Together to be the basis for romantic compatibility. It was an easy in for the romance pack we have now. Same with rental lot zoning in For Rent being an easy in for hotels, or multi-lot zoning if they chose to add it later. I can see an "Attraction" filter in or in addition to the likes and dislikes category: Hair Colors, Wealth, Astrological Sign, etc.. If the goal is romance, why not?

I'd also like to see cute or otherwise "mature" things added back in to seal the idea or romance and dating. Ideas because I'm bored at home...

Romantic Items:
Bear Skin Rugs (For Woo-Hoo)
Picnic Blankets (For Woo-Hoo)
Heart Shaped Bed
Heart Shaped Hot Tub
Couples Swing Set (For Couples)

Gameplay Items:
"Poker" Table
Arcade Cabinet
Large Covered Arcade Machine (For Woo-Hoo)
Slot Machine

Venues & Neighborhood:
New Festivals: Film, Romance
Gift Vendor (Flowers, Stuffed Animals, Chocolates, Perfume/Cologne)
Theater (NPC Sims autonomously perform romantic music, sing, read poetry, or act. Sims may dine and drink, while a service NPC cooks and serves food. Televisions play pack unique movies.)
Arcades (Place for teens to play arcade game and for adult Sims to gamble).
Escape Room Venue (Sims fiddle with specific gameplay objects in themed rooms until they randomly solve a puzzle which can be done in groups of up to 4. Players can make their own. Requires high logic).
- Example: Desks, Wardrobes, Grandfather Clocks, Trash Cans, Chests, Cabinets, Stuffed Animal, Paintings, Mural, Statues)

New Interactions:
Hand Holding While Walking
Serenade (Guitar, Singing, Saxophone, Violin)
Kiss Up Arm
Table Engagements
Text Breakups

New Skills:
Perfume Making
Saxophone
Opera

Additionally, romance shouldn't be limited to adults. Teens should have dates to experience, and kids should at least have crushes.

Pretty sure the shotgun will take is Elevators Ascending Stuff/Kit pack. Will include one fugly elevator in the whole pack or just an elevator shaft extension to skip floors with nth else mechanical.

Maxis: yall still not happy? Oh ok- -
We will just thrown in a reskin of a bike as a seatable wheelchair. How’s that?
Fans: OmUG! Thx for inclusion. You really outdone yourself this time!

Geez, every time I hear news about Sims 4, the worse it gets. Sometimes I don't even know if the community's comments on forums are satire/parody, and which are real ridiculous EA packs/kits.

And the sunken cost fallacy rears its ugly head when you see the constant praise from people. Anyone with a brain knows Sims 4 is such a buggy mess that keeps getting worse and more broken. :/

So, we’re getting 2 kits the same day as the free stuff?

Are the kits the free stuff? 👀
They haven’t announced them yet and there are no hints in the pics.

Genuine question for those who’ve played both - do you think ts3 with fixes would run better compared to current-state ts4?

TS4 runs well because it’s not doing much. TS4 is just buggy. The engine was dated 10 years ago, and will continue to run well as technology improves.

TS3 has a lot going on at once the player doesn’t even know about. At least TS4 has better cross pack compatibility, but I’ll take TS3’s openness and depth when actually playing the game.

Looking at the leaked images of the bistro kit, I’m seriously wondering why they spent more resources on the billionth bar we won’t use (I still actively use the base game bars, since they have matching counters - what a concept - and still look good), but we didn’t get a matching corner banquette to go with the straight banquette we got in the kit… which would actively be used frequently, since we only have 2.5 sets in the game, which came all the back with DINE OUT and JOURNEY TO BATUU.

Since these are now base game level, I assume we’ll get more in the romance pack? Idfk…

Kits are so funny to me, even when they're theme that interests me somehow they still manage to completely miss the mark and are completely useless so I never buy them. I literally only have the ones they've given out for free and have no desire to buy more and these two upcoming ones are no different. But I guess they're profitable for them since they keep pushing out more of them. The new Romance themed pack sounds like it'll either add some nice game mechanics, or it'll be another easy miss like they tend to be for me. I'm making a wild guess that they'll finally add the heart shaped vibrator bed in it, it just feels like such a no brainer, of course it'll be included in it. (and if not then I will question what the hell EA's thinking unless their eyes are on something like "nostalgia pack" or something where they'll add other classic items from the earlier games)

I like kits. I’m a builder and like having options of purchasing build buy without extra CAS assets I’ll never use.

There are so many kits they could put out… Landscaping, Architecture, Contemporary Furniture, Hobbies, Active Careers, Foods, Lot Types…

I would love a build kit that was PURE Ultramodern architecture, or even a large CAS-less stuff pack.

TS4 will be getting weekly updates soon.

Which is stupid, because players will just mod these into the game on PC.

Update: The event hasn’t even started and the content is already available online.

The Sims 4 is getting... a free battlepass?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYodD_jdVgc

This is looking very sim mobile-ish. I agree with the comment about this being a 'test' for Project Nay-Nay. Yikes!

Horrific. Are they trying to kill the game?

EA has been on a bender for years to make all of their games mobile. The mobile version of Apex Legends was a total flop and shut down. https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/31/...nds-battlefield

EA is tapping into the minds of those that have issues with FOMO and trying to lure people back into playing.

I wonder if they'll follow the exact path of Sims Mobile at some point and start charging people $5.00 for a single color swatch. This is same game were EA charged people $80.00 for some ugly bedroom furniture a few years ago. James Turner did a thing about it, then deleted it.

There is no way I'd spend over $1,500.00 for TS4 or any other game for that matter. Sims Mobile is even more expensive. They can get people to spend a easy $100.00 just by making the purchases look small and reasonable. If people don't pay attention, they find themselves spending a whole lot more than they intended.

There is a lot that could be said about this, but I'm not allowed to do that. I don't sugar coat it and pretend like EA somehow playing nice. It's disgusting and not just a EA issue...

The content was actually already in game, no mods needed. In Build/Buy, if you toggle the events filter and select all of the colors, or randomly generate Sims in CAS, the content will appear.

It's just all recolors... for now. EA / Maxis is testing the water for other things.

I heard about this news and I've seen a few simmers going "Why is everyone mad? This is free content with no effort!"

I can only assume they haven't been gaming for long or they only play Sims games. But it always starts like this. They are poor frogs on the stove, unaware that the water is getting hotter and hotter until it's too late. It's free NOW, but if this feature proves to work to lure more people back into signing in daily and playing, the "requirements" to get "free stuff" will become a lot more taxing. They'll just add on more and more systems and then suddenly, you only get "free" stuff every blue moon and everything else requires a microtransaction.

It doesn't matter how many times this is repeated though, people seem to keep falling for it and can't see the long game EA is playing. I have no doubts this new system will work on many simmers because it's a predatory practice that has been proven to work time and time again. It's why kits are a thing. Why expacs have less and less stuff in them. Why almost everything they release is broken in some kind of way but people will buy it anyway expecting it not to be broken.

Most of it is. The bar is similar to the existing base game bar, but smaller. The dartboard is a mostly new mesh. As long as the gallery exists, these objects will always be available for download, invalidating the entire system.

Although a recolor, the original minifridge never sat right with me. It had 4 color channels, none of which were normal looking.

The way I see it is that developers of two my beloved games are forcing me on microtransactions. If I really have to pick, I will choose Love Nikki. That game has much more free stuff than TS4. It also has way less bugs.

They started this very beloved (sarcasm) journey with kits and now we will have microtransactions, which is so frustrating. Since I play Love Nikki, I advise everybody to go by this rule: you cannot have everything. It is just too expensive. Also, stuff will accumulate over time. I have been playing Love Nikki for over 7 years now and I have 49 percent of everything.

The drink tray is functional, with what appears to be new drinks? Idfk anymore

I feel EA should spend their time rebranding their logos instead of wasting time on that kind of nonsense. Can I, or shall I say May I, submit my example for the position of graphic designers if they have it open. This is my idea how I think the plumbob should be switched to the new following signature association of the object that controls us all:

EA using that shopping cart like a flex.