What is this ?

Dr Ruth A Deller, MAC/CCRC(r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk @ruthdeller)

PR, Promotion and Play during the launch of a new PC game

What is this Sims 4? PR, Promotion & Play during the launch of a new PC game

Background and context Sims fans and EA pre-TS4 PR and promo work Pre-release fan responses Reviews, praise and criticisms Post-release fan responses Post-release marketing strategy

Anyone who buys this game is a sucker, and anyone who pirates it is wasting their time (C273: F, Canada age 40-49)

I really do think that a lot of work and effort has been put into this game and I really don't think the community as a whole are appreciating it for what it IS - not what it ISN'T. (C105: F, England age 20-29)

It has gotten to the point where, if I hear EA is launching a game, I suspect it`s a) buggy & unfinished; b) way too expensive; c) boring. They have nothing but contempt for their customer base, and boy does it show. (C273: F, Canada age 40-49)

(C273: F, Canada age 40-49)

EA Spouse blog (2004): Exposing labour conditions: over-long

hours, no overtime, unrealistic expectations, conflicts and failures, market (rather than product or player) driven deadlines.

Accusations of pursuing profit over employee health and wellbeing; player experience; gaming quality.

Ramifications not just for EA, but whole industry (Dyer-Witherford and de Peuter 2009)

Rise of indie gaming studios; increased mistrust of big corporations - YET this does not necessarily impact sales - monopolies of big franchises.

Now, after years of being ignored and relegated to steerage, game-players have voted to send a message to Electronic Arts and the gaming business as a whole: Stop treating your loyal customers like crap. After more than 250,000 votes, Consumerist readers ultimately decided that the type of greed exhibited by EA, which is supposed to be making the world a more fun place, is worse than Bank of America’s avarice, which some would argue is the entire point of operating a bank. (Morran 2012)

Following last year’s surprise Worst Company In America victory by Electronic Arts, there was hope that the video game giant would get the message: Stop treating your customers like human piggy banks, and don’t put out so many incomplete and/or broken games with the intent of getting your customers to pay extra for what they should have received in the first place. And yet, here we are again... Like many other competitors in the WCIA bracket, EA has repeatedly failed at three core requirements of running a consumer-friendly business: 1. Provide a Product People Want and Like; 2. Sell Your Product at a Reasonable Price; 3. Support the Products You Sell (Morran 2013b)

We're sure that British Petroleum, AIG, Philip Morris, and Halliburton are all relieved they weren't nominated this year. We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide. (SnrDirector of Corporate Communications John Reseburg in a statement to Kotaku featured in Schreier 2012)

Here’s the truth: each year EA interacts with more than 350 million gamers; Origin is breaking records for revenue and users; The Simpsons: Tapped Out and Real Racing 3 are at the top of the mobile charts; Battlefield 3 and FIFA are stunning achievements with tens of millions of players; and SimCity is being enjoyed by millions of passionate fans all over the world. Every day, millions of people across globe play and love our games – literally, hundreds of millions more than will vote in this contest. So here’s my response to this poll: We can do better. We will do better. But I am damn proud of this company, the people around the globe who work at EA, the games we create and the people that play them. The tallest trees catch the most wind. At EA we remain proud and unbowed.

(Peter Moore, then CEO, April 2013)

In coming out and responding to its previous win — and possible repeat victory — EA had the opportunity to show the gaming community the respect it deserves, but instead has insulted its intelligence by asking it to accept that its quite obvious faults are really just minor problems and that the actual source of trouble are faceless, homophobic hatemongers. A sampling of gamers’ reactions to Moore’s post indicate to us that EA has only done itself a disservice by trying to pin its own high-profile problems on homophobia and whiny gamers. These people are EA’s customers...

Companies like EA are happy to foster the misinformed perception of your average “gamer” as a whiny, nitpicky loner who will complain about anything, as that image only helps to discredit those who have a valid complaint about a relatively pricey consumer product. Here’s our question to Peter Moore: If your entire industry is engaged in the production of something so trivial as to not warrant inclusion in a contest that features a poop trophy, why do you even work in it? (Morran 2013a)

'Misinformation. Server errors. Fan backlash. Since EA launched SimCity two weeks ago, the online city-builder has been nothing short of a catastrophe for everyone involved... the game is fundamentally broken in a lot of different ways' (Schreier, Kotaku 2013)

SimCity launch a complete disaster

Good luck trying to move into the new SimCity. Ever since the city management game launched on Tuesday, countless gamers have found themselves battling error messages and random disconnections that prevent them from experiencing what SimCity was supposed to deliver in the first place -- fun.(MacManus, C|Net 2013)

So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It’s working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent....

The good news is that SimCity is a solid hit in all major markets. The consensus among critics and players is that this is fundamentally a great game. And to get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio... I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent. SimCity is a GREAT game and the people who made it are incredibly proud.

(Bradshaw, EA blog 2013)

Battlefield 4 spotlights EA's inability to launch games, treat players with dignityThe reaction of EA and DICE hasn’t just been inadequate, it has been infuriating. The attempts to hide behind corporate speak and mealy-mouthed pseudo-apologies completely fail to address their customers, who have spent $60 or more on the product, as human beings. You can argue about the validity of EA being the worst company in the world, but it’s clear that their marketing department has a tin ear when it comes to owning up to its own mistakes.

It’s been fascinating to talk to the players about this situation, because so many seemed resigned to broken games as a state of normalcy for EA products. When I asked if there had ever been a launch this poor, most told me SimCity was just as bad, if not worse. They also brought up the long history of Battlefield games suffering less severe glitches at launch.

This is a fascinating situation to be in: EA doesn’t cause outrage by selling broken games because they have successfully trained the market to expect inept launches. A popular attitude among players is that people are wrong to be mad, as they should have known what they were getting into.

(Kuchera, Polygon 2014)

RPS: SimCity and BF4 both had terrible launches. SimCity didn’t work for more than a month, and BF4 still has issues. Surely you’re overhauling how you approach launches internally from now on?Hilleman: I’m not sure I accept your premise. Battlefield 4 has been an exceedingly successful product on both consoles and PC. From a sales perspective, from a gameplay perspective.RPS: Sure, BF4 is fundamentally a good game, but you can’t just write off months of glitches and server issues. Some people straight up could not play for the first couple weeks.Hilleman: I think there was a lot of noise about the game, but some of that is a function of your surface area. The more customers you have, the more noise becomes available. We did things wrong. We know that. We’re gonna fix those things. We’re gonna try to be smart about what customers want in the future. But I’m not willing to accept – and I don’t think most of my customers are willing to say – “it’s a bad product, I wish I didn’t buy it.” That’s not the conversation we’re having now. I think what we’re hearing is, “You made a game we really liked. We would’ve liked it a little better if it didn’t have these problems.” Many of those problems we can fix, and we have and will.

(Rich Hilleman interviewed in Grayson, RockPaperShotgun 2014)

I bought some store content at the beginning but the vast, vast majority of it is from [site]. Basically, I just do not think the prices the Store charges for their content is worth it. The worlds, in particular, are completely ridiculous in price. I think they're very sneaky to put all their prices up in "SimPoints", so you don't really realise how much you're paying... I think everyone should do it [pirate store content]. I actually get angry when I hear about people paying $40 for a store world that they won't play, just so they can get the "premium" objects (which are always either buggy or not that great anyway). The reason EA can keep charging the prices they do is because they know players will pay... I think this goes well beyond running a business and is skirting very close to an actual scam. It's a really nice little racket they have going and I dearly wish people would stop supporting it.

(Enchanted, Interview)

Maxis and EA today announced that The Sims™ 4 is currently in development at The Sims Studio for release on PC and Mac in 2014. The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience. The Sims 4 encourages players to personalize their world with new and intuitive tools while offering them the ability to effortlessly share their creativity with friends and fans. The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world. Your continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them to continually improve and innovate on one of the world’s most successful simulation game that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

As a thank you for the support of the more than 30 million fans that share and discuss stories about The Sims across global social networks, we held a special VIP briefing this morning where several of the world’s top fans were amongst the first to hear the news about The Sims 4. They got to speak with the creative team for The Sims 4 and will have special access to the development team. To stay up to date with the latest information please visit www.thesims.com/thesims4.Help us spread the word! #TheSims4

(Press Release from EA staff 2013)

Sims 4 in 2014? You Know Where You Can Stick It, EA!You can’t even get the existing game right and are reliant on Twallan’s mods for it to run properly... So why the plumbob would anyone want to buy a new version of a game when the current one required an outside hobbyist to keep it working?

Looks to us after all the whales of fail and bumnuggetry over the last few years (especially for Mac users), EA’s taken the usual corporate cop-out response – cut and run, get the mugs to shell out all over again in the hope this time it will work.

There’s also the promise that the game ‘will allow for Single Player and offline play.’ In other words, it is intended for online, interactive play, and you’ll still have to log online first to play it before being ‘allowed’ to play it.

If any of you truly believe EA or its flag of convenience Maxis will have learned the mistakes from the Sim City (2013) debacle of this year in little under a year’s time for the launch of Sims 4, there’s a few tins of tartan paint and rocking-horseshit we’d love to sell you.

(The Mare's Nest 2013a)

Fan blog reactions. (See The Mare's Nest 2013b)

Rumours of: Behind the scenes 'chaos' - staff arguments,

personnel changes etc. Game engine changed from online to offline

single-play in the wake of SimCity. Game redesigned visually. Stripping back content to concentrate on selling

DLC or premium memberships. 'From what I’ve been told, the game is a mess, the

studio is a mess, and people are so frustrated they are about to revolt... But believe me if EA could keep this stuff under-wraps, they would. I know from personal experience… There’s some reason they’re letting this stuff out now, probably to distance themselves for a design they wasted 3 years developing but no one really liked.' (Email cited as coming from former EA employee)

(Sims VIP 2013; Honeywell 2013)

They are pretty good, but I think that the choice for the gameplay demo was poor: it didn't match how a lot of people play. Family-style play would have matched that better. (B7, F 40-49, Canada)[T]hey have been extremely quiet and frustrating with their marketing. "No comment" is a stance that can only hurt them in the long run, and there are very few times that "no comment" can be employed by anyone without it seeming like an evasion for the worst reasons. (B23 M, 30-39, USA)

Juvenile, tasteless and unappealing to me. If I had never played a Sims game, I wouldn't want to after seeing what they've shown us so far. (B44, F, 50-59, USA)

The Sims 4 PR team dropped the ball. They haven't done a very good job. Sim Campers providing video footage and breakdown of features has done more to convince me to buy the game. (B110, F, 20-29, USA)

I think they're total BS. They all look very staged and it seems like EA is marketing the game towards more casual players, with no regards to its dedicated fanbase. They're all very annoying. Also, if I hear [producer]'s stupid voice or see his ugly face one more time (as a Sim or as a real human being), I might just take a hammer to my laptop and denounce the Sims for all eternity. (B214, M, 13-17, USA)

40 Simmer VIPs at 'Sims Camp' during GamesCom 2013 (SimGuru Delsyn 2013)

Creators' Camp July-Aug 2014 at EA HQ with around 30 simmer VIPs

Talk about a PR faux-pas. I mean we can't all expect to go, there is limited space for a start. But what a way to make the divide obvious and everyone else feel kind of surplus to community requirements (Joanie, modding forum, 2013)

EA do need the more prominent bloggers to do marketing for them, but to exclude our most prominent modders is a shame. Getting YES-mans to be their spokespersons are no way to convince the majority that their game is good or that the company is trustworthy. (B250, F, 40-49, Singapore)

It's fantastic. I think using actually sims gamers to test and feedback on the games is ideal. It lets them know what we actually want. (B391, F, 20-29, UK)

The fact is, we owe you a clearer explanation for why pools and toddlers will not be in The Sims 4 at launch, so here goes. It begins with new technology and systems that we built for this new base game for The Sims... The vision for The Sims 4 is a new experience that brings your Sims to life in deeper and uniquely personal ways – through emotions, personality traits, behaviors and interactions. To do that, our technology base needed a major upgrade.So the bottom line is that when we sat down and looked at everything we wanted to do for this game, all the new tech we wanted to build into it, the fact was that there would be trade-offs, and these would disappoint some of our fans. Hard pill to swallow, believe me, but delivering on the vision set out for The Sims 4 required focus. Focus on revolutionizing the Sims themselves. So, rather than include toddlers, we chose to go deeper on the features that make Sims come alive: meaningful and often amusing emotions; more believable motion and interactions; more tools in Create A Sim, and more realistic (and sometimes weird!) Sim behavior. Instead of pools, we chose to develop key new features in Build Mode: direct manipulation, building a house room-by-room and being able to exchange your custom rooms easily, to make the immediate environment even more relatable and interactive for your Sim. (Franklin 2014)

27.4% of survey users got to test CAS demo before public release; 72.5% didn't.

I am FUMING that they have released it piecemeal to some of the fans whilst excluding others, not only that, it has gone on for a month. (B10, F, 30-39, UK)

With only having watched youtube reviews, I think being able to "mold" sims looks pretty cool. I really don't like the lack of texture details, the sims look like plastic. I at least would have liked to see a color wheel. I would have liked to see a bigger variety of animations in the demo, they keep doing the same ones over and over again (B40, F, 20-29, USA)

I'd been worried about how intuitive the push/pull thing would be, and I've heard very mixed reviews about it, so I'm still iffy. Wish I'd get to try it myself! (B385, M, 18-19, USA)

The Sims 4 as a rule feels diminished when compared to even the vanilla version of The Sims 3... Much has already been made of the features that didn't make the cut, but even if you don't have a list of those features on hand when you play, the squashed purview is apparent... Limitations, limitations, limitations. It wasn't The Sims I had gotten used to over the last several years... In short, The Sims 4's biggest problem is that The Sims 3 exists, and describing where it stumbles by necessity means looking at where the series has been. (Van Ord, Gamespot, 2014)

MetaCritic scores for: TS1 - 92 TS2 - 90 TS3 - 86 TS4 - 70

I've watched a lot of Twitch and YouTube videos of gameplay to determine if this is a game I would want to own and it is not. I find myself bored watching the gameplay and I'm surprised that players aren't bored... I watched a YouTube video where 2 Sims simultaneously died of embarrassment and the player did not force this in any way, yet we were told that these "goofy" ways of dying would be difficult to achieve. Now, when this YouTuber plays, if she sees her Sims are embarrassed, she rushes to do whatever she can to make them ok again so they don't die... I hate that almost every single action can adjust a mood - moods shouldn't change that fast. It's terrible. (C266: F, 'Caucasian', age 30-39)

The sims 4 is a load of wasted potential. There is no denying that the emotions are somewhat deeper than previous games and the multi tasking is a win. While I found the game to be boring and repetitive and not worth playing for long I did love to see the husband come into the kitchen and flirt with his wife while she was cooking dinner or the kids chatting with mom while doing their school work. These things were a nice innovation. It is a shame that they were shoved into a shallow, boring, shell of a game. The sims 4 could have been amazing, instead it is a huge disappointment that fails on almost every level. (C296, F, 30-39, USA)

Rejoice! Pools are Now in The Sims 4!Hey Party People!!I’m very excited to announce that we have just released a new, free update to The Sims 4. You’re invited to dive right in today! POOLS!!! OMG!!! ☺

One of the aspects of pools in The Sims 4 that I’m personally very excited about is the new way to build. For months now, we’ve been talking with you about Build mode and just how easy it is to create homes. All that great technology has now been applied to pools, making pool building faster and easier than ever before. (Rauschnot and Copur, 2014)

It’s hard to believe it’s been a month since we launched The Sims 4, but in that short time we’ve received a ton of great feedback as you’ve started exploring the game. We’ve designed The Sims 4 to be a live service, so we can continually evolve the experience, add new content, and incorporate as much of your feedback as possible. That’s what I’m here to talk about today. So let’s get to it. Live RIGHT NOW is the first of three major game updates coming to The Sims 4 over the next three months, each with new features, new content and more. The updates will be free for everyone playing The Sims 4 who downloads the latest patch, and yes, there will be pools!

...Our players are just the best. Period. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy seeing so many creations from The Sims 4 shared in The Gallery, in forums and streams on Twitch... This is why all of us working on The Sims 4 just love making this game – the creativity that comes to life in our community is like nothing else. Please keep showing us more, we can’t get enough.

We’ve been keeping our ears and eyes on all of the comments and questions you have about The Sims 4. It’s awesome to be able to help with tips and tricks for some questions right away... Other topics may take a bit more time. We know our players on Mac are looking to hear more. We are working on it. When we have more to share, we’ll bring the news to you right here. We look forward to sharing more about the November and December content updates right here as we get closer to release. We’re also exploring new features and some expansion packs for further down the line, and we’re always listening to your feedback to help us decide what to build. We’ve said from the beginning that The Sims 4 is all about endless play possibilities, and we hope each of these updates add fun new dimensions to your experience. Happy Simming!

(Franklin, Sims 4 Official site, 2014)

I actually liked the exclusions of "pools, toddlers, cars, create-a-style, ghosts, babies as individual Sims" but now they have added ghosts back and are planning on adding pools next month so that kinda annoys me. (C274, F, 30-39, USA)

Their bringing pools and ghosts so i'm good. (C267, F, 20-29, "white")

I don't know which makes me happier: getting all this new content for free, or the fact that I won't have to read any more whiny posts about pools anymore! (Commenter on EA blog)

They gave you what you paid for ...... finally. That's not Christmas, that's a risky investment in your own entertainment that FINALLY paid off (a little). I can't be the only one that's not all that happy about getting something I should have gotten in the first place. I can't be the only one that expects to be treated like a normal customer even in the virtual market. (Commenter on EA blog)

EA continues its campaign to generate good will towards The Sims 4; this time with Christmas gifts (TS4 news blogger)

There have been no surprises to me after the game was released. Except perhaps that the silly little ghost and star wars patch was released for free. I might get the game when the price has dropped, but so far I don't see me buying the game. I just feel, like I said, that maybe I'm just getting to old and wise to be screwed by EA Games again. (C299, F, 30-39, Norway)

User 1: I'm assuming pools equal hot tubs too? User 2: That might be pushing it in terms of generosity from them. Just be happy we're getting pools for free XD (modding forum)

Okay... Thats great... Finally get an update for somethin that should have been in the base game 2 begin with... Soooo... Toddlers??? Simmers shouldnt have 2 wait for base game features... I still think this is ridiculous... If you needed 2 time 2 get your shit 2gether you could have jus pushed the release date back.. (YouTube commenter)

Perhaps because of its shambolic marketing? I bet EA were counting on people to buy the game in droves on name alone. Hopefully those figures will be a slap in the face to get it together - and from the uncharacteristic generosity of the patches, it looks like it's working. (modding forum)