Friday, May 8, 2009
Sims 3 expansions and downloadable content are incoming.

It doesn’t actually matter that the game is not out yet; EA is making The Sims 3 their “number one priority”. The advertising budget for the game is huge, and while I was not given an actual number, I am told that it is roughly four times the size of the advertising budget of the second Sims game.

That’s not all though, as the company is currently working on three separate expansion packs for the game, all of which are in different stages of development, with the first scheduled to release “just months after the game is launched”. EA is also working on “downloadable content” for the game, which will be available for “most platforms”.

Speaking of platforms, the game will eventually be out for the following: PS3, Xbox360, Wii, DS, iPhone and a PSP as well as PS2 versions are looking likely as well. Wait… That’s pretty much everything out on the market right now! Add to that the PC and Mac versions, and you got everything covered, which is what EA seems to be doing.
Posted by RPGnut at 5:46 AM 0 comments
Labels: EA, The Sims

Resource: http://rumorfeed.blogspot.com/

If this is true, Ea hasn't been telling us the truth. They always say that they are focused to make The Sims 3 base game the best Sims experience. And that they are not thinking of expansion packs at the moment.
I think they will add all the things they took out the sims 3 in an early stage to the Ep's.

i think this is great news.... 3 expansions at once? i bet we will get the first around august.
wooots

I thought it was great news too. Don't mind if they were lying. They want to keep the excitement in. I actually like that!

I don't know...this person doesn't provide any sources, have any of their other predictions or rumors come to be?

It's nice if this is true because I've been thinking about buying TS3 when the first EP comes out. Three expansion packs sound perhaps a little bit too many but I'm sure that they're already working on at least one EP.

Well, EA started working on TS3 before TS2 came out, so I wouldn't be suprised if they've started working on TS4, let alone some expansion packs.

I doubt they would be working on a TS4 now since they don't know how their gamble with a complete redo of The Sims will go with the players, maybe they will begin a few months after... if their ever is to be a 4th version...

As for expansion packs, I don't doubt it... their will probably be at least one expansion this year so their have to be working on at least one.

It's pretty obvious that they've been working on at least the first EP for awhile now, but because they're trying to push the base game right now, they won't talk about it. But I'm sure as soon as TS3 is released, they'll start giving us info on the first EP, little by little, until it's released. Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if the first EP came out later on this year. That way they'll have the base game and the first EP to sell for the holiday season. And after that, they'll probably go back to their old release schedule which gives us an EP every Feb/March and again in Sept/Oct, so two a year. In order to get back to this release schedule (because of the TS3 delay) they'd have to be working on at least 2 EPs right now. The first one's probably closer to being done than the 2nd one. Just because EA won't talk about EPs, doesn't mean they're not in the works. I'm sure they'll still release SPs, as well as the Sims 3 Store stuff, and I'm sure they have lots of stuff in the works to take more of our money. I just hope weather is in the first one.

Exactly. I'm also 99% sure they've already decided on several of their expansion packs. It will be interesting to see whether they continue the alternating cycle of something new/remake of something old/repeat and so on.

The article says various stages of development, which could mean anything. I'm betting the third is being discussed, the second has most of it's features nailed and some design work done, and the first has just gone or is going into development as of Sims 3 going gold, which means we may see an expansion pack this year, in time for christmas.

Anywho... we all KNEW there would be expansions

My biggest worry right now is what sort of DRM and copyprotection this game has. I'm wary of pre-ordering the game until I know for sure.

Its already been confirmed that their is no Securom on TS3.

Its even on the official TS3 website, http://thesims3.ea.com/view/pages/n...item=-608201177

Outstanding! No worries, then! :D

Ahh, now I'm starting to freak out, I want to play... I'm drooling over all the new vids and screens lol

The earliest I have ever known of an EP to be released for Sims is 5 months (which was SEASONS) and the latest has been 7 (which was PETS). But all the others have roughly been about 6 months. So if it will still be 6 months, that would make the first EP out in December. But seeing as how that may force their normal EP release schedule to change (seeing as how March is only three months after that), they may want to release it earlier this fall so that the next one can be released in February/March. But of course they may change that. They may now want different months for EP releases like June and December of each year as an example, which are both great months for sales.

Also, just because it says 3 EP's in the OP doesn't mean they are all actual EP's. One or two of them could very well be SP's.

I dunno, I have a feeling we'll see an expansion pack toward the end of 2009. Several packs have had 5 month release cycles. Ddevelopment is frequently ongoing on several projects, and like you point out, stuffpacks as well. From june 2nd, you have what? Almost 7 months left of the calendar year 2009. I don't see EA willingly missing the christmas window this year. Maybe they're going to change release dates from sep-oct/feb-mar to early summer/in time for christmas in the hopes of boosting sales?

Well rumor is a rumor, but I wouldn't be horribly surprised. Ride the hype of a major release and have a lot of extra stuff to sell for Christmas. Sounds just like something EA would try.

I wouldn't be very surprised either. EA loves to milk things. I'm just afraid the they're going to try and get away with only providing the very minimal amount of content to encourage us to buy at the store. I really want to get my moneys' worth with any EP that comes out.

Same here. I don't want them leaving stuff out on purpose to get people to buy more. That would be annoying and turn me off from EPs all together.

Yes, exactly! And it could very well happen because remember, EP's are more about new features and gameplay, not new items. Just that they happen to come with new items to complete the package. So they could just release crappy items and make the store have the better items. That would totally suck.

They definately milk it for all it's worth, and I thought the stuffpacks were overpriced, but the online store really kicks it up another notch... it works out to what, a few of dollars per functional new object? Absolutely rediculous!

And yeah, expansions are just that... expansions. They expand on the core content, and while I do understand that it would take them several more years to put in more core content, they definately and consciously use new playability as a marketing ploy.

The amount of money we end up spending on these games are kind of silly, but at least it's spread out over several years, and besides World of Warcraft, which I also spend an unseemly amount of money on, I don't really play a lot of other games extensively, so to be the devil's (EA <grin>) advocate for a minute, it *does* work out, for many of us, probably to thousands of hours of entertainment.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was true. I think the first EP will probably have less substance to it than the rest of them so I predict a fall release for EP1. Then most likely they'll have something big like a Pets/FT remake or weather in the second one. The first EP would be like a small thing to tide us over and then boom something big for the second one. The Sims 2 University didn't feel much like an EP to me but then Nightlife came along and blew it out of the water.

As for the third one, your guess is as good as mine. They're probably thinking up something new for this one. Could be a SP, got to cater to people without Internet.

I'll be looking forward to seeing how they will make The Sims 3 for the consoles. I doubt it would have a seamless neighborhood unless it was an extremely small one, but I can imagine the development team going crazy with the traits and implementing the direct control system from the previous console games.