10 years in, EA forms new The Sims 4 team dedicated to fixing "the core game experience" with new patches every 2 months

Jordan Gerblick
·2 min read
The Sims.
The Sims.

EA has formed a new internal team dedicated to improving The Sims 4's "core game experience" after years of players reporting various technical issues.

The Sims' official Twitter account shared a message from the development team on Thursday that emphasized the studio's efforts in improving the technical and performance side of The Sims 4.

"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 message reads. "Today we can share that we have assembled a team to invest in the core game experience, including tackling your reported concerns."

With this new team in place, EA says it'll have the resources to boost the amount and frequency of targeted updates. The first one is due out by the end of May - so just a few days away - and there will be a regular cadence of batched updates "roughly every two months" going forward.

The full patch notes for this month's update are available here, detailing a myriad of fixes to the base game as well as various expansions like Island Living, For Rent, High School Years, and more.

The next patch seems to be mainly focused on performance improvements. EA says it'll include optimizations across all platforms "so the game uses less memory," which ideally will help minimize crashes, improve frame rate, and make for a generally "more responsive" experience.

This is all great news for The Sims fans who've wanted a smoother game for years now, but it does strike me as slightly odd that a dedicated internal team has been formed just now, 10 years after launch. Regardless, EA says it's "more dedicated than ever to developing great The Sims 4 gameplay experiences into the foreseeable future."

While EA working on The Sims 4 for "the foreseeable future" doesn't bode well for fans waiting eagerly for The Sims 5, it's worth noting that the publisher has confirmed the free-to-play sequel will "co-exist" with The Sims 4 instead of replacing it. Still, we don't expect the sequel to release for a few more years yet.

Now might not be a bad time to peruse our list of games like The Sims to live your best virtual life.