3 Reasons Why Sims Mobile Misses the Mark: In-depth Analysis
Everyone
knows The Sims. The sandbox life simulation has not only defined its
own genre but counts among the top-selling game series ever and all
major platforms. After four major releases on PC/consoles and countless
DLCs, EA and Maxis came with a sequel to a 6-year-old Sims FreePlay,
which has racked up close to 300 million installs and over 300 million
in IAP bookings (source: Sensor Tower)
The Sims Mobile launched globally in early March 2018 after a long and tumultuous soft-launch, during which massive changes to the game mechanics were made. Yet despite the fantastic visuals, long soft launch and the support of an internal benchmark, Sims Mobile tumbled down. It took less than a month for the 6-year-old Sims FreePlay start outperforming the sequel in terms of revenue despite the fact that Sims Mobile daily installs were over four times higher during the same period of time.
It would be easy to make a case, based on numbers, that launching sequels on mobile is not the way to go about it. After all, there are more than enough warning examples. But the Sims Mobile didn't fail because it's a sequel. The game failed due to much simpler and obvious reason: poor design that didn't deliver to what made the Sims a great franchise in the first place.
*Please remember that we love games. Our goal, as always, is to deconstruct what successful games do right and to understand what keeps other not-so-successful games from reaching their potential. We are all game developers and understand very well how hard it is not only to launch but also to grow a game. Build > Launch > Learn > Repeat!
Matt Brown, current studio technical director of EA Maxis, spoke at this year’s GDC about emergent narrative in the original Sims, and how the game combines a natural human tendency to nurture for others with the Maslow hierarchy of needs.
Use of timers in Sims: FreePlay. Each Sim’s action takes time.
The Sims Mobile launched globally in early March 2018 after a long and tumultuous soft-launch, during which massive changes to the game mechanics were made. Yet despite the fantastic visuals, long soft launch and the support of an internal benchmark, Sims Mobile tumbled down. It took less than a month for the 6-year-old Sims FreePlay start outperforming the sequel in terms of revenue despite the fact that Sims Mobile daily installs were over four times higher during the same period of time.
It would be easy to make a case, based on numbers, that launching sequels on mobile is not the way to go about it. After all, there are more than enough warning examples. But the Sims Mobile didn't fail because it's a sequel. The game failed due to much simpler and obvious reason: poor design that didn't deliver to what made the Sims a great franchise in the first place.
*Please remember that we love games. Our goal, as always, is to deconstruct what successful games do right and to understand what keeps other not-so-successful games from reaching their potential. We are all game developers and understand very well how hard it is not only to launch but also to grow a game. Build > Launch > Learn > Repeat!
LOOKING BACK AT PC SIMS
The genius of the original Sims PC franchise lies in its approachability. It is easy to understand what is expected from the player and the Sim alike: The actions and choices are intuitive, learned from our own life experiences. The metrics of success do not have to be explained, because they are inherently ours: Make more money, get a promotion, get married. The franchise builds on our own fantasies about how we live our lives.Matt Brown, current studio technical director of EA Maxis, spoke at this year’s GDC about emergent narrative in the original Sims, and how the game combines a natural human tendency to nurture for others with the Maslow hierarchy of needs.
These needs create the baseline structure of the game:
- Sim is hungry →
- Sim needs a fridge to make food →
- The player needs to buy a fridge →
- The player needs money →
- Sim needs to get a job!
At
the same time, the feedback to any action is visible and gives it
meaning and progress. Tracking actions reward you for taking them while
in real life these are not nearly as gratifying. For example:
All in all, the game is a great combination of actions the player can control and those the player has to respond to. Regardless of your story: freedom, feedback, and intuitive goals are the trademark features of the brand and the design principles on which the narrative is built.
Sims FreePlay (iOS, Android) and has been a staple of the top games on mobile since 2011. The mobile version used timers to break up the sessions and provide progress in times of player’s absence. These timers break the flow and make the game feel very different from the original, but it keeps its stable audience, presumably because the it stays quite true to the brand’s principles, keeping the narrative choices similar as in The Sims.
- Read a book → See the Sim’s “logic” skill go up
- Talk to a person → Watch your relationship level with this person increase
All in all, the game is a great combination of actions the player can control and those the player has to respond to. Regardless of your story: freedom, feedback, and intuitive goals are the trademark features of the brand and the design principles on which the narrative is built.
THE SIMS WENT FREE TO PLAY
As a shift to F2P, The Sims actually had two previous attempts:- The Sims FreePlay launched 2011 for mobile
- The Sims Social launched 2011 on Facebook.
Sims FreePlay (iOS, Android) and has been a staple of the top games on mobile since 2011. The mobile version used timers to break up the sessions and provide progress in times of player’s absence. These timers break the flow and make the game feel very different from the original, but it keeps its stable audience, presumably because the it stays quite true to the brand’s principles, keeping the narrative choices similar as in The Sims.
Use of timers in Sims: FreePlay. Each Sim’s action takes time.
The
new Sims Mobile game was soft-launched in May 2017 in Brazil and
launched globally this year in March. From the very first moment, you
notice how different the game’s visuals are. It walked a long way from
the quirky, robotic animations in Sims FreePlay into a very polished,
full 3D experience with a wide range of animations and short loading
times, resembling the Sims 4 PC game.
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