Ads, Rivals, and New Content: What's Shaking Up the Sims World This Week

Becca Hartwell: Okay, welcome back to the Plumbob Report. I'm Becca Hartwell. Danny Reyes: And I'm Danny Reyes. And Becca, I have to say, this week's news is a lot. Becca Hartwell: It is so much. Like, where do we even start? Danny Reyes: I mean, EA decided to launch a whole new in-game advertising department this week, so. Becca Hartwell: Yeah. Yeah, they did. We're going to get into all of that, including the fact that people staged an actual funeral outside EA's Orlando office. Yes. Danny Reyes: A literal funeral, with like, I assume, black balloons? Becca Hartwell: You know what? I didn't ask, but I hope so. Danny Reyes: Very on brand. Becca Hartwell: Meanwhile, while EA's out here doing that, Paralives and a wild new MMO life sim called SEED are quietly making noise in the space. Danny Reyes: Paralives has numbers now, real numbers, and a team of 15 people. Becca Hartwell: Fifteen! I can't get over that. Danny Reyes: And then there's Fable, which, Okay, multiple outlets are calling its NPC systems an endless interconnected life sim, and I have opinions. Becca Hartwell: Oh, we're going to debate what counts as a life sim. I'm ready. Danny Reyes: Conspiratorially, we've got Sims 4 update teasers, insider rumors about Project X, free Marketplace stuff. Becca Hartwell: And the Cottagecore CC scene is having an absolute moment right now. Danny Reyes: A moment? It's a whole era. Becca Hartwell: Okay, Big episode. Let's start with the news that has basically everyone in the community talking. EA advertising is officially a thing now. We want to hear from you! Submit questions via the web form in the description or give us a call at 747-677-1037 and leave your question. Don't be shy. Our AI assistant makes it super easy. Yeah. Speaker 3: Okay, so someone staged a funeral outside EA's Orlando office, like an actual funeral? Becca Hartwell: With a coffin and everything. Sims Players Headquarters organized it. Sims Community covered the whole thing, photos included. It is exactly as unhinged as it sounds. Speaker 3: And the reason for the funeral is EA just officially announced EA Advertising, a whole new department dedicated to putting real-world brand ads directly into games. Becca Hartwell: Into The Sims. Into EA Sports FC. Ghacks reported on it yesterday. This isn't a rumor anymore. Speaker 3: Soul, soul, and also, what the heck? Becca Hartwell: Right? Speaker 3: Like, I need a second. They looked at everything happening right now, the community frustrated, competitors gaining ground, and went, you know what this moment needs? Billboards. Billboards! Motherlode energy right there, honestly. Just conjure money directly from the void. Becca Hartwell: Okay, but Danny, The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff Pack that came out in 2007. EA has done brand deals in this franchise before. That's not new. Speaker 3: Wait, you're comparing a Stuff Pack collab to In-Game Billboards? Becca Hartwell: I'm saying the history is there. Rock Paper Shotgun literally called it out. They mentioned the H&M pack by name in their coverage. The team really understood the assignment back then because it was content. You got clothes. Speaker 3: Right, you got something. Becca Hartwell: Now the framing is transforming how brands connect with audiences. That's a very different pitch. Speaker 3: That's a shareholder pitch, not a player pitch. Becca Hartwell: Exactly. And Simscommunity pointed to why this is happening. EA is caring about. About $20 billion in buyout debt, they need new revenue streams. That context matters. Speaker 3: 20 billion. Becca Hartwell: Yeah. Speaker 3: Okay, so the funeral makes more sense now. I was like, that's dramatic. And then I heard that number and I was like, no, bring a second coffin. Becca Hartwell: The coffin was for the vibe. Speaker 3: The vibe is gone. According to Outlook Respawn, the in-game advertising market is sitting at 12.5 billion dollars. That's what EA is chasing. Becca Hartwell: And look, I get the business logic, I do. But the execution question is everything. Are these ads in Sims builds? Loading screens? Are my Sims going to walk past a real Doritos billboard? Spill board? Speaker 3: If my Sim autonomously walks into a sponsored fridge, I'm gonna lose my mind. Becca Hartwell: The autonomy really said choose violence and also choose brand partnership. Speaker 4: Okay, but genuinely, the community response has been loud. The Funeral protest, the Reddit threads, people are not quiet about this. Becca Hartwell: They shouldn't be. The Sims player base has been incredibly patient. Theyve been patient through paid kits. Through the base game going free-to-play, through packs that felt half-finished, and every time EA asks for a little more trust? Speaker 4: They announce something like this. Becca Hartwell: Right, and the frustration isn't irrational, that's what I want people to hear. It comes from a place of caring so much about this franchise. Speaker 4: Totally. The people at that funeral, they didn't show up because they hate the Sims. They showed up because they love it. Becca Hartwell: That's the thing about this community, the passion. Production cuts both ways. Speaker 4: Hmm. Okay, so we've got EA asking players for more and at the same time there are other games quietly showing up and saying, hey, we heard you. Becca Hartwell: Which raises the question, when the game you grew up with starts feeling like it's drifting away from you, what do you actually do? Do you wait? Do you look somewhere else? Or do you find out that somewhere else has already sold 900K copies and you just weren't... weren't paying attention. Okay, so speaking of players looking elsewhere, Paralives, 900K copies sold, over $31 million earned, the Sims Community reported that this week and I had to read it twice. From a studio of Fifteen people. Danny Reyes: Fifteen! That Sim is not okay. I mean, EA is not okay. Like, that number is wild for an early access indie game. Becca Hartwell: And it matters because Paralives is still in early access. They haven't even shipped the full game yet. Danny Reyes: Wow. Becca Hartwell: That's not a fluke. That's a signal. Speaker 4: Right, and TheGamer ran a piece today, Gabrielle Castania, listing eight things Paralives already does better than The Sims four. Eight! Becca Hartwell: Okay, I read that, and look, some of it I agree with, some of it I'd push back on. Speaker 4: Give me one. Becca Hartwell: One pushback. Danny Reyes: Build mode. Paralives has the scaling tools, the freeform placement, genuinely impressive, but The Sims 4 has like 20 years of community knowledge behind it. Tutorials, CC, legacy builds, that institutional weight is real. Becca Hartwell: That's fair. The Sims 4 has the history, but history doesn't fix a broken game, you know? Danny Reyes: No, it does not. And I say that as someone who has been playing since day one. one. Becca Hartwell: We know, Becca. Danny Reyes: So, anyway, the question I keep sitting with is: Has competition actually changed EA's behavior before, like, historically? Becca Hartwell: Hmm, I mean, not super fast, Right? Danny Reyes: Not fast at all. We saw challengers come and go, but Paralives hitting thirty one million in early access? That's a different pressure point than a studio promising a competitor and then going quiet. Yet. Becca Hartwell: This one's shipped; people are playing it; that's different. Danny Reyes: Totally. And then there's SEED. Becca Hartwell: Oh, SEED, SEED; and also what is happening over there? Right? Danny Reyes: So SEED is positioning itself as an MMO life sim. Gaming Bible and TechRadar both had coverage from Summer Game Fest. Dashiell Wood at TechRadar called it the most revolutionary life simulator since The Sims. That's a big claim. Bold. Becca Hartwell: Very bold. Very bold. Danny Reyes: But the concept is genuinely different. Every character in the world is controlled by a real player. You're not managing NPCs; you are the NPC. Klang Games built it so players literally construct the world together. Becca Hartwell: Okay wait, so it's not you playing a household, it's you being a citizen? Danny Reyes: Basically, yeah. Becca Hartwell: That is a completely different thing. That's not replacing The Sims, that's a That's a different genre wearing a Life Sim jacket. Danny Reyes: Which is kind of the interesting part. It's not head-to-head. It's expanding what Life Sim even means. Becca Hartwell: And both of these are landing in a moment where players are already frustrated with EA. The timing is not subtle. Danny Reyes: No, but I'll say this. Competition hasn't killed The Sims before. It's nudged it occasionally. What's different now is the variety. Paralives is the cozy indie option. SEED is the MMO experiment, and there's something else coming that we need to talk about. Becca Hartwell: Is this the Fable thing? Danny Reyes: It's the Fable thing, because Playground Games was supposedly making an RPG, and then suddenly, Becca Hartwell: Yeah. Danny Reyes: multiple outlets are calling it an endless interconnected life sim. Becca Hartwell: A life sim that wasn't supposed to be a life sim. I love chaos. Danny Reyes: The autonomy really said choose violence on that one. Becca Hartwell: Okay, we have to get into that. Danny Reyes: Okay, flip side of all that competition talk, Fable. Becca Hartwell: Fable? The RPG? Danny Reyes: The RPG! And yet, GamingBolt is calling it an endless, interconnected life sim. Like, that is a direct quote from their preview. Becca Hartwell: That sim is not okay. Wait, that's not even a sim. That's a medieval hero. Danny Reyes: But hear me out because the mechanics they're showing off are genuinely wild. Your reputation changes how every NPC of the world treats you. You can buy property. Relationships evolve based on every choice you make. Becca Hartwell: Okay, but is that life sim or is that just an RPG with good NPC design? Danny Reyes: That's the question, Danny, and multiple outlets are landing in the same place. Ben Janca over at Yahoo Tech said the life sim systems could could basically stand alone as their own game. Becca Hartwell: That's a bold claim. Danny Reyes: It kind of is! Game Informer's Brian Shea called it choices that actually matter moment to moment, and the Engadget piece from Kris Holt, Fable hits Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC on February 23rd. It's real. It's Becca Hartwell: Wow. Danny Reyes: coming. Becca Hartwell: Okay, so let me push on this, though, because Paralives' SEED and now... Now Fable, these aren't all the same thing. Paralives is a direct Sims competitor. SEED is an MMO. Fable is an action RPG that happens to have life sim flavor, Danny Reyes: Yes! Thank you! Exactly! They're drawing from the same well, relationships, property, daily life loops, but they're building totally different games with it. Becca Hartwell: which is either great news for the genre or slightly terrifying for EA. A. Danny Reyes: Probably both. Like, Simscommunity covered the Fable stuff and framed it as the next addition to the life sim space, but unconventional. That's the right read. Becca Hartwell: And for Sims fans specifically, do you think people are going to play Fable? Danny Reyes: Uh, the ones who also play RPGs? Absolutely. The pure build mode obsessives? Maybe not. It scratches a different itch. Becca Hartwell: I feel like there's a Venn diagram here, and the overlap is... Specifically, people who name all their NPCs. Danny Reyes: A hundred percent. That person is playing both. Becca Hartwell: Soul soul, they say, Loading up their third game of the day. Danny Reyes: So anyway, I think what's cool is the life sim genre is getting taken seriously as a design space, not just by indie teams, but by a Big Playground Games production. Becca Hartwell: Right. And speaking of things worth getting excited about, Danny Reyes: Oh, we're going home. Becca Hartwell: we are going back to Sims 4 because there is actually Stuff dropping. A June Update teaser, new Marketplace items, Kit collab details. Danny Reyes: And the Cottagecore CC community is absolutely delivering right now, I have to say. Becca Hartwell: Of course you do. Danny Reyes: Let's get into it. Okay, shifting gears to some actually good news. Becca Hartwell: Oh, thank goodness, yes. Danny Reyes: So the Sims team dropped a June Update teaser this week, Simscommunity covered it, and honestly, the crowd reaction was described as, uh, mild. Becca Hartwell: Mild. That's a quote that's on the official record. Danny Reyes: I mean, after everything we've talked about today, mild tracks, but still, a teaser's a teaser. Becca Hartwell: What did they actually show? Danny Reyes: Not much. It hit the official Discord, and it's vague enough to leave room for speculation, which, you know, the community will absolutely fill with spreadsheets and theories within the hour. Becca Hartwell: The Autonomy really said choose violence with that rollout timing. Danny Reyes: Right? And then Simscommunity also reported there's another kit collaboration on the way, plus some new Project X details from an insider. Becca Hartwell: Wait, Project X stuff? What are we getting? Danny Reyes: Still vague insider territory, so take it with a grain of salt, but the fact that there are updates at all feels like, Okay, something is moving. Becca Hartwell: I'll take crumbs. Honestly, at this point, crumbs are fine. Danny Reyes: Same. So... Becca Hartwell: Meanwhile the Sims 4 Marketplace dropped some new stuff this week. There's a free couch... Danny Reyes: Free couch! Seussl and also free furniture, Let's go! Becca Hartwell: And a free pair of heels, plus two paid drops alongside them. SimsCommuntiy rounded it all up. Danny Reyes: Okay, the free couch is doing more for player goodwill than any press release this week, I'm just saying. Becca Hartwell: Honestly, not wrong. And Danny, can we talk about the CC scene for a second? because Simscommunity put together a roundup of Thirty-four cottagecore CC sets and I... Thirty-four. Danny Reyes: Thirty-four? Becca Hartwell: Linen, florals, aprons, Danny Reyes: Wow. Becca Hartwell: little basket hats. Danny Reyes: I'm logging in after this. Becca Hartwell: This is giving main menu music energy. I cannot lie. The creators out there are just, they're delivering. Danny Reyes: And there's a layered skater skirt mod making the rounds too. I saw it on TikTok. On TikTok, the BeckmesserSpain account posted it. It's in that whole mods everyone needs category, and yeah, it earned that title. Becca Hartwell: Ah, this is the part I love. Like, while everything else is chaotic, ads, protests, competitors, the CC community is just quietly making the game gorgeous. Danny Reyes: They don't wait for EA. They just build. Becca Hartwell: That's kind of... The end of the whole story of this week, right? The players showing up regardless. Danny Reyes: Mm-hmm. The game is still worth playing. The creators are still creating. Becca Hartwell: And we've still got a June update to look forward to. Mild reaction and all. OK, that's a wrap on a genuinely packed week in the Sims world. Danny Reyes: I'm still thinking about that protest funeral outside EA's Orlando office. Like, that happened. Becca Hartwell: It really did. And honestly, Danny said it best. Those people showed up because they love this game. Danny Reyes: Right. And then on the flip side, Paralives pulling 900,000 copies with 15 people. The competition just got very real. Becca Hartwell: This is giving main menu music energy for the whole genre, honestly. Danny Reyes: So cool, so cool, and also what a week. Becca Hartwell: Ha! Okay, if you've been writing along with us, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and drop us a review. It genuinely helps other Simmers find the show. Danny Reyes: And share your wildest Sims stories with us over on social. We're at Plumbob Report. Becca Hartwell: Thanks for hanging out with us. We'll see you next episode. Danny Reyes: Later, Simmers!