‘The Sims 4’ Leaks Plague Maxis Again
There has been a lot of good news recently for fans of The Sims 4. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, fans of the long-running simulation franchise have been disillusioned with the development team at Maxis. On launch, fans accused The Sims 4 of being a hollow shell compared to base games in previous eras. A series of free monthly content updates largely silenced the complaints. The monthly content updates to The Sims 4 patch potentially game breaking bugs and add new content such as swimming pools and ghosts.
Over the past year, fans have increasingly complained about a perceived lack of communication from the development team behind The Sims 4. The lack of communication reached a fever pitch when one of the producers announced via the official forums that there would be no release in April.
However, Maxis rarely releases new premium content during April. There has been a lot of speculation as to why April is a gap month for Maxis, but the most likely reason is purely business related. EA, Maxis’ parent company, ends their fiscal year in April. In a time when books must be balanced, launching a new expansion to The Sims 4 doesn’t seem to be a priority for EA. The frequent silence from Maxis on the subject of new content frustrated fans, who took to the official forums to vent their frustrations.
In response to the outcry from Sims 4 fans, Maxis promised to develop stronger lines of communication, and on that promise, they have made good.
On April 19, Maxis launched a new communication method to keep fans of The Sims 4 informed on upcoming releases. Every few months, the team at Maxis will release a short video highlighting upcoming releases.
The first video, released April 19, featured a new stuff pack and a new game pack for The Sims 4 but gave little information about either. That hasn’t stopped information about the new Sims 4 game pack from being leaked inadvertently.
However, it seems that SimGuruNinja has a more advanced version of the game than fans. SimGuruNinja’s screenshot clearly showed the option “Buy a Restaurant” which is not currently available in The Sims 4.
While SimiGuruNinja deleted the tweet, and presumably had an awkward conversation with the marketing team, the damage was done. SimGuruNinja’s tweet more or less confirms that sims will be able to dine in and own restaurants in the new Sims 4 game pack.
This isn’t the first leak in recent weeks from officials connected to The Sims 4. In early April, employees behind The Sims 4‘s Latin America Facebook page told fans to “sharpen their knives” and “work on their cooking skill” for the next content release. The statements were taken by many fans as confirmation that the next new release would be restaurant related. Unfortunately, the information came one week before the North American Maxis team planned to reveal the information to fans.
As it turns out, SimGuruNinja wasn’t the only Maxis team member to accidentally reveal information in April. According to Sims VIP, SimGuruSarah, also a producer working on The Sims 4, tweeted a photo in which a male sim wears hair designated for female sims. The photo, which SimGuruSarah quickly deleted, has caused speculation among The Sims 4 fans that the Create-A-Sim interface will be updated in the future for unisex selections.
If nothing else, all of the leaks seem to suggest that the team at Maxis are dying to share the cool content they’ve been working on with fans, but the laws of business dictate a slow burn when it comes to product announcements.
[Image via The Sims]
