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

Becca HartwellOkay, welcome back to the Plumbob Report. I'm Becca Hartwell.

Danny ReyesAnd I'm Danny Reyes. And Becca, I have to say, this week's news is a lot.

Becca HartwellIt is so much. Like, where do we even start?

Danny ReyesI mean, EA decided to launch a whole new in-game advertising department this week, so.

Becca HartwellYeah. 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 ReyesA literal funeral, with like, I assume, black balloons?

Becca HartwellYou know what? I didn't ask, but I hope so.

Danny ReyesVery on brand.

Becca HartwellMeanwhile, 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 ReyesParalives has numbers now, real numbers, and a team of 15 people.

Becca HartwellFifteen! I can't get over that.

Danny ReyesAnd then there's Fable, which, Okay, multiple outlets are calling its NPC systems an endless interconnected life sim, and I have opinions.

Becca HartwellOh, we're going to debate what counts as a life sim. I'm ready.

Danny ReyesConspiratorially, we've got Sims 4 update teasers, insider rumors about Project X, free Marketplace stuff.

Becca HartwellAnd the Cottagecore CC scene is having an absolute moment right now.

Danny ReyesA moment? It's a whole era.

Becca HartwellOkay, 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 3Okay, so someone staged a funeral outside EA's Orlando office, like an actual funeral?

Becca HartwellWith 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 3And 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 HartwellInto The Sims. Into EA Sports FC. Ghacks reported on it yesterday. This isn't a rumor anymore.

Speaker 3Soul, soul, and also, what the heck?

Becca HartwellRight?

Speaker 3Like, 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 HartwellOkay, 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 3Wait, you're comparing a Stuff Pack collab to In-Game Billboards?

Becca HartwellI'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 3Right, you got something.

Becca HartwellNow the framing is transforming how brands connect with audiences. That's a very different pitch.

Speaker 3That's a shareholder pitch, not a player pitch.

Becca HartwellExactly. 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 320 billion.

Becca HartwellYeah.

Speaker 3Okay, 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 HartwellThe coffin was for the vibe.

Speaker 3The 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 HartwellAnd 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 3If my Sim autonomously walks into a sponsored fridge, I'm gonna lose my mind.

Becca HartwellThe autonomy really said choose violence and also choose brand partnership.

Speaker 4Okay, but genuinely, the community response has been loud. The Funeral protest, the Reddit threads, people are not quiet about this.

Becca HartwellThey 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 4They announce something like this.

Becca HartwellRight, 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 4Totally. The people at that funeral, they didn't show up because they hate the Sims. They showed up because they love it.

Becca HartwellThat's the thing about this community, the passion. Production cuts both ways.

Speaker 4Hmm. 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 HartwellWhich 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 ReyesFifteen! That Sim is not okay. I mean, EA is not okay. Like, that number is wild for an early access indie game.

Becca HartwellAnd it matters because Paralives is still in early access. They haven't even shipped the full game yet.

Danny ReyesWow.

Becca HartwellThat's not a fluke. That's a signal.

Speaker 4Right, and TheGamer ran a piece today, Gabrielle Castania, listing eight things Paralives already does better than The Sims four. Eight!

Becca HartwellOkay, I read that, and look, some of it I agree with, some of it I'd push back on.

Speaker 4Give me one.

Becca HartwellOne pushback.

Danny ReyesBuild 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 HartwellThat's fair. The Sims 4 has the history, but history doesn't fix a broken game, you know?

Danny ReyesNo, it does not. And I say that as someone who has been playing since day one. one.

Becca HartwellWe know, Becca.

Danny ReyesSo, anyway, the question I keep sitting with is: Has competition actually changed EA's behavior before, like, historically?

Becca HartwellHmm, I mean, not super fast, Right?

Danny ReyesNot 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 HartwellThis one's shipped; people are playing it; that's different.

Danny ReyesTotally. And then there's SEED.

Becca HartwellOh, SEED, SEED; and also what is happening over there? Right?

Danny ReyesSo 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 HartwellVery bold. Very bold.

Danny ReyesBut 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 HartwellOkay wait, so it's not you playing a household, it's you being a citizen?

Danny ReyesBasically, yeah.

Becca HartwellThat 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 ReyesWhich is kind of the interesting part. It's not head-to-head. It's expanding what Life Sim even means.

Becca HartwellAnd both of these are landing in a moment where players are already frustrated with EA. The timing is not subtle.

Danny ReyesNo, 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 HartwellIs this the Fable thing?

Danny ReyesIt's the Fable thing, because Playground Games was supposedly making an RPG, and then suddenly,

Becca HartwellYeah.

Danny Reyesmultiple outlets are calling it an endless interconnected life sim.

Becca HartwellA life sim that wasn't supposed to be a life sim. I love chaos.

Danny ReyesThe autonomy really said choose violence on that one.

Becca HartwellOkay, we have to get into that.

Danny ReyesOkay, flip side of all that competition talk, Fable.

Becca HartwellFable? The RPG?

Danny ReyesThe RPG! And yet, GamingBolt is calling it an endless, interconnected life sim. Like, that is a direct quote from their preview.

Becca HartwellThat sim is not okay. Wait, that's not even a sim. That's a medieval hero.

Danny ReyesBut 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 HartwellOkay, but is that life sim or is that just an RPG with good NPC design?

Danny ReyesThat'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 HartwellThat's a bold claim.

Danny ReyesIt 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 HartwellWow.

Danny Reyescoming.

Becca HartwellOkay, 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 ReyesYes! 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 Hartwellwhich is either great news for the genre or slightly terrifying for EA. A.

Danny ReyesProbably 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 HartwellAnd for Sims fans specifically, do you think people are going to play Fable?

Danny ReyesUh, the ones who also play RPGs? Absolutely. The pure build mode obsessives? Maybe not. It scratches a different itch.

Becca HartwellI feel like there's a Venn diagram here, and the overlap is... Specifically, people who name all their NPCs.

Danny ReyesA hundred percent. That person is playing both.

Becca HartwellSoul soul, they say, Loading up their third game of the day.

Danny ReyesSo 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 HartwellRight. And speaking of things worth getting excited about,

Danny ReyesOh, we're going home.

Becca Hartwellwe are going back to Sims 4 because there is actually Stuff dropping. A June Update teaser, new Marketplace items, Kit collab details.

Danny ReyesAnd the Cottagecore CC community is absolutely delivering right now, I have to say.

Becca HartwellOf course you do.

Danny ReyesLet's get into it. Okay, shifting gears to some actually good news.

Becca HartwellOh, thank goodness, yes.

Danny ReyesSo the Sims team dropped a June Update teaser this week, Simscommunity covered it, and honestly, the crowd reaction was described as, uh, mild.

Becca HartwellMild. That's a quote that's on the official record.

Danny ReyesI mean, after everything we've talked about today, mild tracks, but still, a teaser's a teaser.

Becca HartwellWhat did they actually show?

Danny ReyesNot 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 HartwellThe Autonomy really said choose violence with that rollout timing.

Danny ReyesRight? And then Simscommunity also reported there's another kit collaboration on the way, plus some new Project X details from an insider.

Becca HartwellWait, Project X stuff? What are we getting?

Danny ReyesStill 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 HartwellI'll take crumbs. Honestly, at this point, crumbs are fine.

Danny ReyesSame. So...

Becca HartwellMeanwhile the Sims 4 Marketplace dropped some new stuff this week. There's a free couch...

Danny ReyesFree couch! Seussl and also free furniture, Let's go!

Becca HartwellAnd a free pair of heels, plus two paid drops alongside them. SimsCommuntiy rounded it all up.

Danny ReyesOkay, the free couch is doing more for player goodwill than any press release this week, I'm just saying.

Becca HartwellHonestly, 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 ReyesThirty-four?

Becca HartwellLinen, florals, aprons,

Danny ReyesWow.

Becca Hartwelllittle basket hats.

Danny ReyesI'm logging in after this.

Becca HartwellThis is giving main menu music energy. I cannot lie. The creators out there are just, they're delivering.

Danny ReyesAnd 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 HartwellAh, 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 ReyesThey don't wait for EA. They just build.

Becca HartwellThat's kind of... The end of the whole story of this week, right? The players showing up regardless.

Danny ReyesMm-hmm. The game is still worth playing. The creators are still creating.

Becca HartwellAnd 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 ReyesI'm still thinking about that protest funeral outside EA's Orlando office. Like, that happened.

Becca HartwellIt really did. And honestly, Danny said it best. Those people showed up because they love this game.

Danny ReyesRight. And then on the flip side, Paralives pulling 900,000 copies with 15 people. The competition just got very real.

Becca HartwellThis is giving main menu music energy for the whole genre, honestly.

Danny ReyesSo cool, so cool, and also what a week.

Becca HartwellHa! 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 ReyesAnd share your wildest Sims stories with us over on social. We're at Plumbob Report.

Becca HartwellThanks for hanging out with us. We'll see you next episode.

Danny ReyesLater, Simmers!