EA addressed the removal of toddlers from "The Sims 4" in a new blog post about the upcoming title.
Many "Sims" fans were upset from the removal of toddlers, an aging stage originally introduced in "The Sims 3." The EA developers removed pools from the next franchise installment as well.
"The fact is, we owe you a clearer explanation for why pools and toddlers will not be in The Sims 4 at launch, so here goes," the developers wrote in "The Sims" blog. "It begins with new technology and systems that we built for this new base game for The Sims - a new AI system, new animation system, new audio positioning tools, new locomotion logic, new routing intelligence and much more are all entirely new in this game."
According to EA, the goal of "The Sims 4" was to create a "deeper" way for Sims to interact, which included developing new emotions and personality traits for them. In order to create a unique experience with "The Sims 4," developers needed to significantly upgrade their technology.
Unfortunately, the decision to revamp their technology meant there would be "trade-offs" in the gameplay. In this case, the removal of pools and toddlers seemed like the best decision for the developers in order to create a new, different game for players.
"Hard pill to swallow, believe me, but delivering on the vision set out for The Sims 4 required focus," EA wrote. "Focus on revolutionizing the Sims themselves. So, rather than include toddlers, we chose to go deeper on the features that make Sims come alive: meaningful and often amusing emotions; more believable motion and interactions; more tools in Create A Sim, and more realistic (and sometimes weird!) Sim behavior.
"Instead of pools, we chose to develop key new features in Build Mode: direct manipulation, building a house room-by-room and being able to exchange your custom rooms easily, to make the immediate environment even more relatable and interactive for your Sim."
Read more about EA's decision to remove toddlers and pools from "The Sims 4" here. "The Sims 4" will be released to PC on Sept. 2.
