Monday, April 15, 2013

Sims Social shutting down June 14th...



See the thread here where it was officially announced, and then read the reactions.

EA's supposedly shutting down Sims Social (along with Pet Society and SimCity Social) on June 14th to free up development and server resources for new games they're making. They claim it's also because these games have gone downhill in popularity. Historically, they've dazzled us with this sort of incredibly well-thought-out bullshittery, tearing down other games in the past for the same given reasons in order to develop these very games we're watching the unplugging of at this moment.

I used to play Sims Social, though I never spent money on it like many did - and in the link I posted, you'll find some of them invested hundreds into this game. It's not hard to see why; it was addictive, and, well... it was the only Facebook game I could really get into.

My question is... How many resources could monolithic EA possibly recover by shutting down a successful and (almost certainly) profitable game that's small enough to launch in a browser window? I think they'd lose resources, if anything. And why get rid of Sims Social of all games, just to free up the manpower for another game which their now-angered customers probably won't even play, let alone pay for? In my suit-and-tie zen, I just don't see the point of obliterating the masterpiece they already have just to rebuild another in its place - it's just not necessary or logical.

You probably don't care, but hell, this was what my house looked like.
I keep thinking of the customers who just bought Simcash prior to this announcement, only to find, oops, they should spend it while they have it (not that it'll mean anything after June 14th) and kiss their Sims' asses goodbye. Then they'll look back and say, "Damn, that cash I spent isn't doing anything for me now. That sofa I bought yesterday doesn't exist today." It'll feel like a waste to have bothered at all with the game in the first place. That's not a good feeling to leave your customers with, because they'll remember you for it. They'll know that getting stuck with that same feeling starts with getting immersed in another EA game.

The game doesn't have a solid objective - every day, the limits of endgame status are pushed a little further. Some could keep up, others couldn't, but it was constantly chasing that kinetic goal which kept people playing. I sort of feel like EA really goaded the fuck out of their fanbase to snowball some serious momentum in this game - just to decimate it all. It's as if they expect the players to simply accept it, let it go, and never question it.

You know, there's a reason EA was voted worst company in America. It's entirely possible they drained their funds into some shitty Save The Chimps charity via those empty water cooler tanks you can find at each checklane in your local 800-pound gorilla. As a result, EA can't fund some of their developer studios any longer, and so proceeded to dicks-out-of-the-pants wave them an impromptu farewell. In very lame-man's terms: EA's notorious for relieving developers they can no longer afford. This is what I think they don't want us to know. This is what really happened. They went and let off the whole TSS programming team already. Which still doesn't make much sense, because: why TSS? Why not, fucking... some other dev team? Some shittier, less prominent, curly ginger-headed and freckle-nosed game?

Their excuse was, the game's losing popularity. Popu-fucking-larity. So assume they're being truthful - there really was a valley somewhere in the vast plain of the game's unassailable success. You can't find a better way to circumvent a little whoopsy-fuck than to yank the servers? I'm ingenuously not following your ping-pong ball of logic. Here's a kitten.


I'll be sad to see it go. Sims Social was like a second life for me. I suppose that duty will be relegated back to Halo PC - not that I dislike Halo, I just need some variety.