Thanks to Lime for the info!
Hi Simmers! It’s Ryan Vaughan, Lead Producer on The Sims 3. I hope everyone’s excited for the upcoming release of The Sims 3 Showtime! The Sims Studio has been hard at work on it, and we think you’re going to love it.
As with any new release within The Sims 3 series, there will be a new The Sims 3 Game Update available to all players who have The Sims 3, regardless if you’ve installed The Sims 3 Showtime. This Game Update will be available the same day that The Sims 3 Showtime is available and it doesn’t cost anything. As soon as you install the update, you’ll be able to take advantage of the new Family Wardrobe, Bubble Columns in build mode, and earn badges for achievements!
Whenever we release a Game Update, we get a lot of questions about why they are released. I thought it would be a good idea to give you some background on why we release The Sims 3 Game Updates and all the benefits that come along with them!
Did you know that The Sims 3 is a living, breathing beast? One of my favorite stories from when The Sims 3base game shipped was explaining to a friend that we weren’t really done with the game, we were just getting started! The fact of the matter is The Sims 3 is a massive game that’s constantly evolving, and the development team is always working to improve the core game. From providing you with the latest game version to fixing issues that you and our Quality Assurance teams have identified, Game Updates are designed to ensure that you have the best possible experience playing the game.
But that’s not all! The BEST part of keeping your game up to date is all the new content and features that are included within the updates that everyone has access to (regardless of whether you’ve purchased any new games). That’s right! If you bought The Sims 3 base game and then updated it to the latest version, you’d receive tons of new features including these (just to name a few!):
- Basements
- The ability to place new lots in your world
- Tattoos
- Body sliders in Create a Sim
- Dating
- Movie Maker Mode cheats
- Memories
- Body Hair!
- Buy Mode Collections
Because The Sims 3 is such a complex game, a lot of thought, time, and testing go into ensuring we’re able to release each Game Update to all of our players. One of the ways we strive for this is by having multiple dedicated Quality Assurance teams that never stop testing The Sims 3. They test the game while we’re developing new expansion packs, in between releases, and especially when we’re preparing a Game Update.
Testing the game is no small task! The Sims 3 is available on both Windows PC and MacOS platforms, so you can imagine how many different video cards, processors, amounts of RAM, and other component combinations that players mix and match to each create a different game environment. We also test all installable combinations of the game with expansion packs and stuff packs. For example, we need to make sure the Game Updates work for players who only own The Sims 3. We need to test it for players who ownThe Sims 3 and The Sims 3 Showtime. We need to test it for players who own The Sims 3 and all the expansions! The testing combinations get complex really quickly as I’m sure you can imagine.
Due to all of the different configurations of hardware, software, and game combinations, Game Update sizes vary. For instance, a game that is currently up to date when The Sims 3 Showtime is released won’t have to download as much data as a The Sims 3 base game that is fresh out of the box. The base game will need to install a combination of all the updates we’ve released over the last three years, whereas the updated game will only need to install the latest upgrades required for The Sims 3 Showtime. Keeping your game up to date will minimize the size of the update and the download time required to get you the latest software. It also will help us diagnose any issues you might be experiencing.
All of us on the development team play a lot of games outside of work, so we understand any frustrations you may have when there’s an issue that affects your gameplay experience. We despise anything that keeps us from enjoying games just as much as you. From driver upgrades to bug fixes to all-new features, every Game Update we release is designed specifically to make your experience playing The Sims better!
We really appreciate your support and love hearing from you! Please continue to let us know about your gameplay experiences and feedback. We’re listening!
Thanks,
SimGuruRyan
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