EA turns to the fans to keep The Sims relevant

Early in our chat, The Sims general manager Kate Gorman said the words: 'The speed of pop culture.'

I hadn't heard that particular phrase before. It sounds like a header you'd find on a corporate strategy deck. However, I am familiar with the phenomena it's referring to.

Modern popular culture is moving at quite the pace. It's rapid and chaotic. Moments and fashion trends, music and TV shows… they come and go in the blink of an eye. It's also fractured more than ever. Simply switching social media platforms can throw up an entirely different set of topics and conversations. What's dominating conversation in your world might barely register in someone else's, and vice versa.

This is a challenge for anyone looking to ride the wave of the next pop culture moment or trend. By the time you've noticed, say, 'Brat Summer', it's over before you've had a chance to react. And for The Sims, a franchise that likes to tap into what's hot in the world, it presents an interesting quandary.

"It's a thing we talk about a lot internally," Gorman tells us.

"Trends change faster than they ever have. What is popular today… that trend might be done in two weeks. The speed of transformation in every part of our lives because of technology has changed so much, but pop culture changes even faster. Chappel Roan can come out of nowhere to be this sensational icon… she will be here to stay, but you should be able to reflect that in the game [at the moment]. You shouldn't have to wait for us to create a pack that reflects what is going on. We'll never be able to keep up.

"So from our global perspective, from a pop culture perspective, that is why creators are so important. If you've got an idea and you're seeing it now, you will be able to help put that in the game and play with it. That is what we mean by the speed of pop culture. We really want to make this on-boarding ramp so our games move and evolve as quickly as the world does."

"You shouldn't have to wait for us to create a pack that reflects what is going on [in the world]. We'll never be able to keep up"

The Sims players have been able to create things in their games for a while now, and share them through The Sims Gallery. And it's through here that EA and developer Maxis feels it can keep up with what's going on in the world. However, finding things isn't always easy, and the segment has a few issues that have caused player frustration.

"[The Sims] is really an entertainment platform that we're building," Gorman says. "And our creators are part of that process. Being able to create and extend and augment new spaces, it does allow us to move at the speed of pop culture. It means you can create something in The Sims that you've seen in 15 minutes or less. And that means enabling players and creators alike to imagine their ideas faster, more easily, and more accurately.

"You'll see a lot of that coming forward. So how do you set up scenarios faster? How do you set up households, how do you build faster? What are the pain points of all of those processes?"

Part of this is a new Creator Program, which features a whole load of perks for creators, including the ability to earn money from their creations. The firm is also packaging up the best created content in 'Creator Kits', which will be distributed by EA in the same way 'official' packs are.

"There are over 100 million assets in the Gallery, and we know that our players are constantly adding things there," Gorman explains.

"Our creators, especially those with some really strong community following, are making their own creations… and that's not easy to do today. This is the first step in a many step process of understanding how to make that process easier, not only for creators to create content within the world of The Sims, but make it a better experience long term for the community. As people who play with CC [custom content] before, sometimes it overwrites an asset you've purchased and things like that."

She continues: "We have a partnership that we've put in place for our first set of kits, and we'll continue to learn and evolve to create a dynamic that works for our creators to be able to have their creations get the visibility and integration that they desire."

When it comes to The Sims 4, supporting the community creators is a core part of that game's future. And when it comes to future Sims titles, EA is also turning to fans to work out where to go next. There is no The Sims 5 in development, but there are multiple projects, including the upcoming Project Rene. And the firm plans to get these in front of its players as quickly as possible via The Sims Labs.

"We have so many ideas and spaces where we think the future of The Sims could expand into," Gorman explains. "The way we are helping ourselves prioritise that is putting those ideas early in front of the community. It could be anything from a new way to search in the Gallery on The Sims 4, it could be a whole standalone experience, it could be a new set of features… It's an outlet for us to continue to engage with the community more actively, and in ways that are not full game experiences yet.

"It's an early way to be part of that process, and know that these are experimental, and they're going to evolve. We might learn that they're great or something the community isn't interested in. You'll see a more iterative process there"

The plan to create multiple Sims projects has already seen EA remaster two MySims games for Nintendo Switch. It also stresses that Project Rene is designed to sit alongside The Sims 4, not replace it. The challenge whenever a company expands its games portfolio like this is that it can potentially split the community, and it's something Gorman is conscious of.

"Absolutely there is a chance that we could do that," Gorman acknowledges. "On the other hand, we could also grow the audience. Over 25 years we have seen The Sims be such a part of people's lives through many generations as they have grown up. And we have seen the explosion of how various generations have played. 25 years ago you had a specific computer that could do this, and now you can have it on your phone. That is why it is important to ensure we're looking at and are available on all those places.

"MySims on Switch is our first Nintendo product for quite some time, and we are really excited to be able to be on a platform that resonates so much with a community. If you have a Switch you couldn't play a Sims game before, and this is the first step to broaden our availability and meet players where they are."

And it's not just about broadening out onto other games devices, either. Indeed, last week's The Sims news brought confirmation and further details on the franchise's big movie adaptation, with Loki and Doctor Who veteran Kate Herron directing and writing, alongside co-writing partner Briony Redman.

"The Sims has a very passionate community," Groman concludes. "It's an incredibly optimistic and whimsical world with plenty of iconic animations and reactions, and there is so much about the ways we've played with nostalgia around that, which people want to see in a movie format.

"It took us the right partnerships to find some things that we felt would deliver on that. Amazon and MGM are an incredible partner, Kate and Briony are both incredibly passionate Sims fans, and so we trust them to deliver an experience that our players will love, and that will be something that will fit into the Sims world and universe."