As the Sims 4 continues to buckle under the weight of over $1,200 worth of DLC, EA has 'assembled a team' to focus on bug fixes
Hopefully it'll feel less like the game is being held together by sticks and chewing gum.
Buckle up Simmers, we're (hopefully) on the cusp of some meaty fixes for The Sims 4. As EA continues to pile expansions and kits on top of a game that's nearing the big 1-0, crashes and buggy gameplay have become part and parcel of The Sims 4 experience. It's become a mighty frustrating time—one that's recently led me to go crawling back into the loving arms of The Sims 2 in retaliation—and it seems like EA is finally realising the problem is too big to ignore.
In a tweet on the official Sims account, the developer admitted things have gotten a little out of control. "We know that technical issues with The Sims 4 have interrupted your gameplay over time and we recognize that this has caused you much frustration," the statement read. "Today, we can share that we have assembled a team to invest in the core game experience, including tackling your reported concerns."
I mean, to me that sounds like something that the developer should have already been doing, but I digress. The tweet continues: "This newly formed and focused team means we'll be able to increase both the number of fixes and the frequency with which we ship these batched updates." The first one should arrive sometime before the end of May, with following updates maintaining a cadence of around two months.
It's nice to see EA directly addressing the problem and promising a larger effort to rectify it, but I can't help but agree with the sentiment of "I'll believe it when I see it" being expressed in the tweet's replies. It's been a good few years since a survey around fixing buggy packs went around, and the only thing that ever seems to have manifested out of that was a big update for the Spa Day game pack. Packs like Dine Out—which released a whole-ass eight years ago—still have major bugs which impact their core gameplay mechanics.
Taking a look at the developer's laundry list of fixes, it does seem like Dine Out's core issues are on the to-do, along with a host of other problems that are plaguing the game. Some of the issues—like textures breaking when combining certain jewellery—seem like easy quick fixes, while others like routing issues will presumably take some more time.
For now, we can expect some "optimizations so the game uses less memory" in May's update, which should reduce the amount of crashes and make things more responsive all round. EA also promises that it'll "continue making core improvements to the performance of The Sims 4." Considering that it seems EA's plan is to have the game co-exist with the upcoming Project Rene, it's probably best that they get to cleaning house sooner rather than later.