The Sims 2 Delayed
Yesterday EA announced their financial results over the third quarter of
fiscal 2004, which ended 31 December 2003. In the
full press release there's also a bit of outlook on the fiscal 2005. This is what we can read about The Sims 2:
"We expect that The Sims(TM) 2.0 and Medal of Honor Pacific Assault(TM) will ship in fiscal 2005."
GameSpot reports that it won't even be the second or third quarter of fiscal 2005 until we see the release of the two games. That has also been confirmed by the official site, which now states that The Sims 2 will be released in the "
later half of '04" in a
news update. If so, that'd mean the game would be released between July and December 2004. Such a delay would be necessary to polish up the games, although it's probably also a strategic move to boost the fiscal 2005 sales. More information can be found at
this page (Press release),
this page (News Update),
this page (IGN) and finally
this page (GameSpot).
Finally there's a bit of news about Bustin' Out in the same press release: it's said that that game is one of the big games which performed well during the holiday sales, as the results of the third quarter of fiscal 2004 were driven by that as well as several other games. Of course we'll keep you updated about the Sims 2 release date.
Written at 11:52 on Wednesday, 28 January 2004 by
ChEeTaH.
29 Comments
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Written at 21:54 on Friday, 30 January 2004 by Eric (SumKindaMiracle)
Maxis makes me mad! Y do they torture us so??
Written at 21:59 on Friday, 30 January 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
According to Maxis it's all about polishing up the game, so the Sims 2 will be the greatest ever. That takes time...
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Written at 06:04 on Saturday, 31 January 2004 by fangy171
Takes time? I bet they made some huge errors and hafta fix 'em; either that or they like seeing everyone squirm and suffer...
Written at 13:42 on Saturday, 31 January 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
Maxis probably also wants to release the game as early as they can, so they don't like to see everyone "squirm and suffer". In fact they suffer a bit themselves as the delay resulted in a lot of angry (flaming) posts at the BBS, which of course is not nice to read. Personally I think we should give Maxis the time they need to finish the game, so we don't have to play a half-done game when it's out. Screaming and shouting won't get the game out early, so it's the best to just be patient and wait for the game to be released.
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
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Written at 17:26 on Saturday, 31 January 2004 by Utalkin2me93
I looked on toysrus.com and it says the game is shipping on June 15, 2004. ebgames.com says it's shipping on June 30, 2004. So we can expect the game sometime in June.
Written at 18:18 on Saturday, 31 January 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
That is still not definite, at least not until Maxis has provided a precise date which holds until approximately a month before the actual release... So far there are only speculated dates, and those from online stores cannot just be trusted as they often are different and inaccurate, especially when no exact date has been given yet.
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
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Written at 21:06 on Saturday, 31 January 2004 by ASimFan11733
When I heard that the Sims 2 was being shuttled for release early Spring 2004, I was very excited, but this delay is a real bummer! So many people have been waiting for this games release for months! Although, it's still possible that the game can be released earlier then expected, hopefully before June 2004. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks. What we are certain of is that we can be looking foward to a great game!
Written at 10:34 on Monday, 2 February 2004 by gakoo
Edited at 12:37 on Monday, 2 February 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
I m very angry about this news...i ve planned to buy it for months...
I can t believe this marketing and strtegical mistake of EA only for Financial reasons...
BUSINESSES only BUSINESSES...until they kill the pleasure of billions of poor gamers..but a day it may change
Written at 12:42 on Monday, 2 February 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
No swearing in French (or English) please, I've removed it.
As Maxis says, they need time to polish up the game. That they delayed it to boost the sales for fiscal 2005 is what other sites (Gamespot, IGN) said. In the end it'll be worth the wait though.
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
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Written at 16:07 on Monday, 2 February 2004 by Jess (TheOriginalSim)
Just think about it... at least we'll probably have all summer to play it.. schools a drag and I wouldn't have any time to play other wise.
Written at 21:19 on Monday, 2 February 2004 by Hayley (girlygirl09)
I agree! I'm pretty mad too but I would rather play a great game than a game with buggs everywhere? Don't you agree? I want to thank Maxis for all of their hard work! I bet they are under a lot of stress because of the delays!
Written at 21:46 on Monday, 2 February 2004 by kimberleigh (kimberleigh)
ohhhhhhhhhh no my life cant go on! i eat sleep and live the sims and i feel i cant breath without sims 2 its the only thing thats kept me sain since the release of makin magic. hehehe what on earth am i gonna do
oh please help me will ts2 be released in the uk the same time as the usa.?
Written at 22:08 on Monday, 2 February 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
In the UK it will probably be released about a week later than in the US.
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
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The Neighborhood Handler:
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Written at 02:12 on Tuesday, 3 February 2004 by Luke (Geek)
well, this is dissapointing, i wanted it!! but, i know how i feels, i waited for Rush Hour..... there nothing that we can do but wait..
"and idiot can ruin any complex system"
Written at 04:53 on Tuesday, 3 February 2004 by Travis....(i think) (sims_luv_me)
I cant believe the delayed it......... couple more months of this waiting and wanting....
Written at 18:46 on Tuesday, 3 February 2004 by Cool_J
Would you prefer a game filled with Bugs/Faults, or would you prefer one that is polished to perfection?
For a fresh, new Media Site, check out Sim Abyss:
www.simabyss.tk
Written at 22:53 on Tuesday, 3 February 2004 by Liss (PuRpLe_KiWi)
I was a little angry and disappointed, but really, this is a ton better because we won't have to squirm all day in school saying: thank god, first hour is over, only seven more till sims2! also, the game won't crash all the time. so why is everyone so angry?
~*~stop looking at me in that tone of voice please...~*~
Written at 00:04 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by Hayley (girlygirl09)
I agree I HATE HATE HATE HATE games with buggs! I'm very angry at my mean older brother for uninstalling my Sims game!!! HOW COULD HE DO THIS!!!!! I also have a question....I registered for downloading families off of the normal Sims site (www.thesims.com) and it STILL wont let me download them?? What am I going to do??
Written at 04:03 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by Charlotte (Mortis)
I think you should all think before you write your comments!
There are so many for you saying "I am realy upset & angery that TS2 it'ent coming out yet & I have to wait" Come on guys, realy it is not the end of the world, I am sure we can all wait a few more months? Maxis has explained & apologised for the inconvenience. Maxis has give us great games in the past so I think we should be thanking them not sending them negative comments on the slight delay of the game which they have put there life, money, time, effort & skill in to.
Written at 10:58 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
Hayley - post your question about the downloading in the Knowledge Database. Perhaps you will find help there. If you're in Europe though, it might not work because the official exchange is only supported on US versions of the game I think.
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
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Written at 14:27 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by Jason (jwdmgj101)
I have seen lots of release date and all of them have came from sorces that I would think you could trust. but then Maxis clames that it will but much later then what every one else is saying and I see that they need time to debig and fix and test but from what I have seen so far ( and I check on a weekly basis) is the game is working and they are playing it. (testing as they say) But I do not see why they even put the news out so soon, I mean there was a sneak preview with Makin magic, why say something about it so soon, and have to take so long to release it? I think it is to make sales better in 05. because the more you wait the more you want it. and they release the screen shots to make you want more, I am a sims fan and will buy the game the day it hits the shelf. but maxis just wants to make more money so they are taking there sweet time, thus making the people want it even more then they would have if they would have released the day they first broke the news.
Written at 16:32 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
A lot of time goes into making a game. Because this is a completely new game, they announced it earlier. The wanted to show it on the E3 (in May) once, and with the earlier scheduled release they had to announce it in 2003. They can play the game at the moment, but there are a ton of things they haven't properly shown yet because they aren't working yet, and many details of the gameplay haven't been finalized yet. Besides that there are probably still a lot of bugs in it which cause the game to crash, and a lot of code will probably still have to be optimized to make the game run better on low-end machines. Altogether, it will still take quite some time to properly finish the game.
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
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The Neighborhood Handler:
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Written at 17:14 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by Jason (jwdmgj101)
so you in no way feel that at least part of this is a ploy to maket the game? I do understand all of that, about the debuging and all, but don't you think that if they would have done a little more before the broke the news this would not be happening ? cuz from what I have gattered they just guessed on the release date without any concern about any of the tech stuff, then when it poped up they had a problem.thus the delay on the release date. even so I love Maxis games and right now will always but that does not mean that there is some other motive behind what they say.
Written at 22:10 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by ASimFan11733
Edited at 22:12 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by ASimFan11733
I agree with Jason now that i think about it. Maxis had announced that the game was slated for release early Spring 2004, why would they tell us this if they knew that the game was still not complete for release? If they knew that the game still had bugs, they shouldn't have mentioned any release, especially if they knew they needed more time to fine tune the game. Maybe they wanted to make sure the game would run better then it already did or they just simply changed thier mind about the release in early Spring.I think that the reason for the delay was that they wanted to increase sales now that I think about it (I am still undecided really).I'm not entirely sure, but from what I read on websites I think this whole delay could have been avoided but wasnt. If the delay for the game really was because they wanted to work on the game, I am glad they decided to delay it and fix any problems they had, but it just seems alittle bizzare that they would tell us about a release in early Spring.
Written at 23:01 on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
Video Games tend to be delayed all the time, it happens
a lot. As Luc Barthelet
told us, creating a game as big as The Sims 2 is a "huge undertaking". They expected to be able to release it during Spring 2004, and because many fans wanted a release date they've given the estimate of Spring 2004. If they knew it would be Summer, then they'd have told us from the start. Now it apparantly turned out - unexpectedly - that they need more time to finish the game. Perhaps some major problems occured, and I've also heard that CaSIE and The Sims 2 were not working together very well yet (which also caused the delay for CaSIE). Such problems take time to fix. Programming is never easy, and the fans expect a lot of the game. Maxis is just trying to give us what we want. Quoting Luc, the decision to delay the game was a very hard one to take, so I personally don't think it's a "ploy". I think EA would get more sales if they'd release it early since the summer is usually a more "quiet" time and people don't buy so many games as in other seasons then. Besides that, an early release - if bugfree (as far as possible) of course - will cause more positive reviews. If a game is delayed and turns out to be worse than expected (which for example happened with Black&White), it simply won't be as big because the reviews are more negative. Not living up to the expectations will cause 'fans' to spread that word and so less people will buy it.
Games are delayed all the time. Some games years(!), others just a couple of months. If you think the reason the developers give are real or not, it just happens, and there's nothing we can do about it except accepting the delay and waiting patiently.
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
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The Neighborhood Handler:
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Written at 00:56 on Thursday, 5 February 2004 by ASimFan11733
Edited at 01:01 on Thursday, 5 February 2004 by ASimFan11733
That's good enough for me, you know far more about these situations then myself, but, isnt it true that maxis might be able to finish the game early? Perhaps before June? They havent made a real "relase date" yet and if maxis works on fixing the game and finishes it early (very unlikley) we might have the game earlier then we thought? Isnt it true that we could be expecting the game to be released anytime between March 2004 til' January 2005?
Written at 01:09 on Thursday, 5 February 2004 by ChEeTaH (TSZ Webmaster) (ChEeTaH)
It is entirely possible that Maxis finishes the game early, but don't count on it. I guess we'll all have to wait and see. The date will be definite when the game goes gold about 2 weeks before the release, before that we can only guess and speculate - even if Maxis does provide an exact date (although I guess when they do they'll try their hardest to live up to it).
C-yAh,
ChEeTaH
*************
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The Neighborhood Handler:
http://www.thesimszone.co.uk/tnhh
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Written at 14:55 on Thursday, 5 February 2004 by Jason (jwdmgj101)
see thats just the thing it's a BIG game and they knew way before they said anything about releasing it the there could be problems. and why not say the release date to work with these problems. and I do not want to sound like a person who thinks that everything is something more. but there is a really good point about all of this, they want the sales to be up in 05 just like every other company in the world. so they see that everyone is going crazy to see and get there very own copy on the sims2 so they delay it to get just a few more adds out so that way even more would know about it and want it, the question to ask your self is if you seen that you could make 50 billon dollars more then planed by holding back just a little while longer wouldent you do it, it's all about the maket and whos on top.
Written at 22:29 on Saturday, 6 March 2004 by Ashley (freaky_grrl)
This lack of Sims 2 is killing me! I can't wait for it to come out... and, although it sucks that we have to wait, it's probably for the best! I'm sure Maxis isn't doing this just to be jerks... they have a lot of fans they don't want to dissappoint! But when they released Sims Online it had a ton of bugs and it disheartened people. And, what does it say about a game when a patch is released right after? If this extra time lets them fine tune (and maybe even add some cool stuff), then that's great! Did you hear about the rumor about basements being a possibility? They can take this extra time to figure out if it's feesable, figure out the "ceiling issue" (sims currently look up and see clouds) and fix the weather issue. Everything I have heard basically points to the game not being ready before August at the least... and I will wait for it... but I'm not going to be happy about it
