Latest / The Plumbob Report / Ads, Rivals, and New Content: What's Shaking Up the Sims World This Week

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Ads, Rivals, and New Content: What's Shaking Up the Sims World This Week · The Plumbob Report

• 0:12
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 0:12
  [Becca Hartwell] welcome back to the Plumbob Report.
• 0:15
  [Becca Hartwell] I'm Becca Hartwell.
• 0:16
  [Danny Reyes] And I'm Danny Reyes. And Becca, I have to say, this week's news is a lot.
• 0:21
  [Becca Hartwell] It is so much. Like,
• 0:23
  [Becca Hartwell] where do we even start?
• 0:24
  [Danny Reyes] I mean, EA decided to launch a whole new in-game advertising department this week, so.
• 0:30
  [Becca Hartwell] Yeah. Yeah, they did.
• 0:31
  [Becca Hartwell] We're going to get into all of that, including the fact that people staged an actual funeral outside EA's Orlando office.
• 0:39
  [Becca Hartwell] Yes.
• 0:39
  [Danny Reyes] A literal funeral,
• 0:41
  [Danny Reyes] with like,
• 0:42
  [Danny Reyes] I assume,
• 0:43
  [Danny Reyes] black balloons?
• 0:43
  [Becca Hartwell] You know what? I didn't ask,
• 0:45
  [Becca Hartwell] but I hope so.
• 0:47
  [Danny Reyes] Very on brand.
• 0:48
  [Becca Hartwell] Meanwhile,
• 0:49
  [Becca Hartwell] while EA's out here doing that,
• 0:52
  [Becca Hartwell] Paralives and a wild new MMO life sim called SEED are quietly making noise in the space.
• 0:57
  [Danny Reyes] Paralives has numbers now,
• 1:00
  [Danny Reyes] real numbers,
• 1:01
  [Danny Reyes] and a team of 15 people.
• 1:03
  [Becca Hartwell] Fifteen!
• 1:04
  [Becca Hartwell] I can't get over that.
• 1:05
  [Danny Reyes] And then there's Fable,
• 1:07
  [Danny Reyes] which,
• 1:07
  [Danny Reyes] Okay,
• 1:07
  [Danny Reyes] multiple outlets are calling its NPC systems an endless interconnected life sim,
• 1:13
  [Danny Reyes] and I have opinions.
• 1:15
  [Becca Hartwell] Oh,
• 1:15
  [Becca Hartwell] we're going to debate what counts as a life sim.
• 1:18
  [Becca Hartwell] I'm ready.
• 1:18
  [Danny Reyes] Conspiratorially, we've got Sims 4 update teasers, insider rumors about Project X,
• 1:24
  [Danny Reyes] free Marketplace stuff.
• 1:26
  [Becca Hartwell] And the Cottagecore CC scene is having an absolute moment right now.
• 1:30
  [Danny Reyes] A moment?
• 1:31
  [Danny Reyes] It's a whole era.
• 1:33
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 1:33
  [Becca Hartwell] Big episode.
• 1:35
  [Becca Hartwell] Let's start with the news that has basically everyone in the community talking.
• 1:39
  [Becca Hartwell] EA advertising is officially a thing now.
• 1:47
  [Becca Hartwell] We want to hear from you!
• 1:49
  [Becca Hartwell] Submit questions via the web form in the description or give us a call at 747-677-1037 and leave your question.
• 1:58
  [Becca Hartwell] Don't be shy.
• 1:59
  [Becca Hartwell] Our AI assistant makes it super easy.
• 2:06
  [Becca Hartwell] Yeah.
• 2:07
  [Speaker 3] Okay,
• 2:08
  [Speaker 3] so someone staged a funeral outside EA's Orlando office,
• 2:13
  [Speaker 3] like an actual funeral?
• 2:17
  [Becca Hartwell] With a coffin and everything.
• 2:20
  [Becca Hartwell] Sims Players Headquarters organized it.
• 2:22
  [Becca Hartwell] Sims Community covered the whole thing,
• 2:25
  [Becca Hartwell] photos included.
• 2:26
  [Becca Hartwell] It is exactly as unhinged as it sounds.
• 2:30
  [Speaker 3] And the reason for the funeral is EA just officially announced EA Advertising, a whole new department dedicated to putting real-world brand ads directly into games.
• 2:44
  [Becca Hartwell] Into The Sims.
• 2:45
  [Becca Hartwell] Into EA Sports FC.
• 2:47
  [Becca Hartwell] Ghacks reported on it yesterday.
• 2:50
  [Becca Hartwell] This isn't a rumor anymore.
• 2:51
  [Speaker 3] Soul, soul, and also,
• 2:53
  [Speaker 3] what the heck?
• 2:55
  [Becca Hartwell] Right?
• 2:56
  [Speaker 3] Like, I need a second.
• 2:58
  [Speaker 3] They looked at everything happening right now,
• 3:01
  [Speaker 3] the community frustrated,
• 3:03
  [Speaker 3] competitors gaining ground,
• 3:04
  [Speaker 3] and went,
• 3:05
  [Speaker 3] you know what this moment needs?
• 3:07
  [Speaker 3] Billboards.
• 3:11
  [Speaker 3] Billboards! Motherlode energy right there, honestly.
• 3:13
  [Speaker 3] Just conjure money directly from the void.
• 3:16
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 3:17
  [Becca Hartwell] but Danny,
• 3:18
  [Becca Hartwell] The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff Pack that came out in 2007.
• 3:23
  [Becca Hartwell] EA has done brand deals in this franchise before.
• 3:26
  [Becca Hartwell] That's not new.
• 3:27
  [Speaker 3] Wait, you're comparing a Stuff Pack collab to In-Game Billboards?
• 3:32
  [Becca Hartwell] I'm saying the history is there.
• 3:34
  [Becca Hartwell] Rock Paper Shotgun literally called it out.
• 3:36
  [Becca Hartwell] They mentioned the H&M pack by name in their coverage.
• 3:39
  [Becca Hartwell] The team really understood the assignment back then because it was content.
• 3:43
  [Becca Hartwell] You got clothes.
• 3:45
  [Speaker 3] Right, you got something.
• 3:47
  [Becca Hartwell] Now the framing is transforming how brands connect with audiences.
• 3:52
  [Becca Hartwell] That's a very different pitch.
• 3:54
  [Speaker 3] That's a shareholder pitch,
• 3:56
  [Speaker 3] not a player pitch.
• 3:57
  [Becca Hartwell] Exactly. And Simscommunity pointed to why this is happening. EA is caring about.
• 4:02
  [Becca Hartwell] About $20 billion in buyout debt,
• 4:05
  [Becca Hartwell] they need new revenue streams.
• 4:07
  [Becca Hartwell] That context matters.
• 4:09
  [Speaker 3] 20 billion.
• 4:11
  [Becca Hartwell] Yeah.
• 4:11
  [Speaker 3] Okay,
• 4:12
  [Speaker 3] so the funeral makes more sense now.
• 4:14
  [Speaker 3] I was like,
• 4:15
  [Speaker 3] that's dramatic.
• 4:16
  [Speaker 3] And then I heard that number and I was like, no, bring a second coffin.
• 4:21
  [Becca Hartwell] The coffin was for the vibe.
• 4:23
  [Speaker 3] The vibe is gone.
• 4:25
  [Speaker 3] According to Outlook Respawn,
• 4:27
  [Speaker 3] the in-game advertising market is sitting at 12.5 billion dollars. That's what EA is chasing.
• 4:33
  [Becca Hartwell] And look,
• 4:34
  [Becca Hartwell] I get the business logic,
• 4:36
  [Becca Hartwell] I do.
• 4:36
  [Becca Hartwell] But the execution question is everything.
• 4:39
  [Becca Hartwell] Are these ads in Sims builds?
• 4:42
  [Becca Hartwell] Loading screens?
• 4:43
  [Becca Hartwell] Are my Sims going to walk past a real Doritos billboard?
• 4:46
  [Becca Hartwell] Spill board?
• 4:47
  [Speaker 3] If my Sim autonomously walks into a sponsored fridge,
• 4:51
  [Speaker 3] I'm gonna lose my mind.
• 4:53
  [Becca Hartwell] The autonomy really said choose violence and also choose brand partnership.
• 4:58
  [Speaker 4] Okay,
• 4:58
  [Speaker 4] but genuinely,
• 4:59
  [Speaker 4] the community response has been loud.
• 5:01
  [Speaker 4] The Funeral protest,
• 5:03
  [Speaker 4] the Reddit threads,
• 5:04
  [Speaker 4] people are not quiet about this.
• 5:06
  [Becca Hartwell] They shouldn't be.
• 5:07
  [Becca Hartwell] The Sims player base has been incredibly patient.
• 5:10
  [Becca Hartwell] Theyve been patient through paid kits.
• 5:13
  [Becca Hartwell] Through the base game going free-to-play,
• 5:15
  [Becca Hartwell] through packs that felt half-finished,
• 5:17
  [Becca Hartwell] and every time EA asks for a little more trust?
• 5:21
  [Speaker 4] They announce something like this.
• 5:22
  [Becca Hartwell] Right,
• 5:23
  [Becca Hartwell] and the frustration isn't irrational,
• 5:25
  [Becca Hartwell] that's what I want people to hear.
• 5:27
  [Becca Hartwell] It comes from a place of caring so much about this franchise.
• 5:31
  [Speaker 4] Totally.
• 5:32
  [Speaker 4] The people at that funeral,
• 5:33
  [Speaker 4] they didn't show up because they hate the Sims.
• 5:35
  [Speaker 4] They showed up because they love it.
• 5:37
  [Becca Hartwell] That's the thing about this community,
• 5:40
  [Becca Hartwell] the passion.
• 5:40
  [Becca Hartwell] Production cuts both ways.
• 5:42
  [Speaker 4] Hmm.
• 5:42
  [Speaker 4] Okay,
• 5:43
  [Speaker 4] so we've got EA asking players for more and at the same time there are other games quietly showing up and saying,
• 5:49
  [Speaker 4] hey,
• 5:50
  [Speaker 4] we heard you.
• 5:51
  [Becca Hartwell] Which raises the question,
• 5:53
  [Becca Hartwell] when the game you grew up with starts feeling like it's drifting away from you,
• 5:56
  [Becca Hartwell] what do you actually do?
• 5:58
  [Becca Hartwell] Do you wait?
• 5:59
  [Becca Hartwell] Do you look somewhere else?
• 6:01
  [Becca Hartwell] Or do you find out that somewhere else has already sold 900K copies and you just weren't...
• 6:07
  [Becca Hartwell] weren't paying attention.
• 6:13
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 6:14
  [Becca Hartwell] so speaking of players looking elsewhere,
• 6:16
  [Becca Hartwell] Paralives, 900K copies sold,
• 6:19
  [Becca Hartwell] over $31 million earned,
• 6:22
  [Becca Hartwell] the Sims Community reported that this week and I had to read it twice.
• 6:26
  [Becca Hartwell] From a studio of Fifteen people.
• 6:29
  [Danny Reyes] Fifteen!
• 6:30
  [Danny Reyes] That Sim is not okay.
• 6:32
  [Danny Reyes] I mean, EA is not okay.
• 6:34
  [Danny Reyes] Like, that number is wild for an early access indie game.
• 6:38
  [Becca Hartwell] And it matters because Paralives is still in early access.
• 6:41
  [Becca Hartwell] They haven't even shipped the full game yet.
• 6:43
  [Danny Reyes] Wow.
• 6:43
  [Becca Hartwell] That's not a fluke. That's a signal.
• 6:46
  [Speaker 4] Right,
• 6:46
  [Speaker 4] and TheGamer ran a piece today,
• 6:48
  [Speaker 4] Gabrielle Castania,
• 6:49
  [Speaker 4] listing eight things Paralives already does better than The Sims four.
• 6:54
  [Speaker 4] Eight!
• 6:54
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 6:55
  [Becca Hartwell] I read that,
• 6:56
  [Becca Hartwell] and look,
• 6:56
  [Becca Hartwell] some of it I agree with,
• 6:58
  [Becca Hartwell] some of it I'd push back on.
• 6:59
  [Speaker 4] Give me one.
• 7:00
  [Becca Hartwell] One pushback.
• 7:01
  [Danny Reyes] Build mode.
• 7:02
  [Danny Reyes] Paralives has the scaling tools,
• 7:04
  [Danny Reyes] the freeform placement,
• 7:05
  [Danny Reyes] genuinely impressive,
• 7:07
  [Danny Reyes] but The Sims 4 has like 20 years of community knowledge behind it.
• 7:11
  [Danny Reyes] Tutorials, CC,
• 7:13
  [Danny Reyes] legacy builds,
• 7:14
  [Danny Reyes] that institutional weight is real.
• 7:16
  [Becca Hartwell] That's fair.
• 7:17
  [Becca Hartwell] The Sims 4 has the history,
• 7:19
  [Becca Hartwell] but history doesn't fix a broken game, you know?
• 7:22
  [Danny Reyes] No,
• 7:23
  [Danny Reyes] it does not. And I say that as someone who has been playing since day one.
• 7:27
  [Danny Reyes] one.
• 7:27
  [Becca Hartwell] We know,
• 7:28
  [Becca Hartwell] Becca.
• 7:29
  [Danny Reyes] So,
• 7:30
  [Danny Reyes] anyway,
• 7:30
  [Danny Reyes] the question I keep sitting with is:
• 7:32
  [Danny Reyes] Has competition actually changed EA's behavior before,
• 7:36
  [Danny Reyes] like, historically?
• 7:37
  [Becca Hartwell] Hmm,
• 7:38
  [Becca Hartwell] I mean,
• 7:39
  [Becca Hartwell] not super fast,
• 7:40
  [Becca Hartwell] Right?
• 7:41
  [Danny Reyes] Not fast at all.
• 7:43
  [Danny Reyes] We saw challengers come and go,
• 7:45
  [Danny Reyes] but Paralives hitting thirty one million in early access?
• 7:48
  [Danny Reyes] That's a different pressure point than a studio promising a competitor and then going quiet.
• 7:53
  [Danny Reyes] Yet.
• 7:53
  [Becca Hartwell] This one's shipped; people are playing it; that's different.
• 7:57
  [Danny Reyes] Totally.
• 7:58
  [Danny Reyes] And then there's SEED.
• 8:00
  [Becca Hartwell] Oh,
• 8:00
  [Becca Hartwell] SEED,
• 8:02
  [Becca Hartwell] SEED; and also what is happening over there?
• 8:02
  [Becca Hartwell] Right?
• 8:05
  [Danny Reyes] So SEED is positioning itself as an MMO life sim.
• 8:05
  [Danny Reyes] Gaming Bible and TechRadar both had coverage from Summer Game Fest.
• 8:09
  [Danny Reyes] Dashiell Wood at TechRadar called it the most revolutionary life simulator since The Sims.
• 8:13
  [Danny Reyes] That's a big claim.
• 8:19
  [Danny Reyes] Bold.
• 8:20
  [Becca Hartwell] Very bold.
• 8:21
  [Becca Hartwell] Very bold.
• 8:23
  [Danny Reyes] But the concept is genuinely different.
• 8:25
  [Danny Reyes] Every character in the world is controlled by a real player.
• 8:29
  [Danny Reyes] You're not managing NPCs; you are the NPC.
• 8:33
  [Danny Reyes] Klang Games built it so players literally construct the world together.
• 8:37
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay wait,
• 8:38
  [Becca Hartwell] so it's not you playing a household,
• 8:40
  [Becca Hartwell] it's you being a citizen?
• 8:42
  [Danny Reyes] Basically, yeah.
• 8:43
  [Becca Hartwell] That is a completely different thing. That's not replacing The Sims,
• 8:47
  [Becca Hartwell] that's a
• 8:47
  [Becca Hartwell] That's a different genre wearing a Life Sim jacket.
• 8:50
  [Danny Reyes] Which is kind of the interesting part.
• 8:52
  [Danny Reyes] It's not head-to-head. It's expanding what Life Sim even means.
• 8:56
  [Becca Hartwell] And both of these are landing in a moment where players are already frustrated with EA.
• 9:01
  [Becca Hartwell] The timing is not subtle.
• 9:02
  [Danny Reyes] No,
• 9:03
  [Danny Reyes] but I'll say this.
• 9:04
  [Danny Reyes] Competition hasn't killed The Sims before.
• 9:07
  [Danny Reyes] It's nudged it occasionally.
• 9:09
  [Danny Reyes] What's different now is the variety.
• 9:12
  [Danny Reyes] Paralives is the cozy indie option.
• 9:14
  [Danny Reyes] SEED is the MMO experiment,
• 9:17
  [Danny Reyes] and there's something else coming that we need to talk about.
• 9:20
  [Becca Hartwell] Is this the Fable thing?
• 9:21
  [Danny Reyes] It's the Fable thing,
• 9:23
  [Danny Reyes] because Playground Games was supposedly making an RPG,
• 9:27
  [Danny Reyes] and then suddenly,
• 9:28
  [Becca Hartwell] Yeah.
• 9:28
  [Danny Reyes] multiple outlets are calling it an endless interconnected life sim.
• 9:33
  [Becca Hartwell] A life sim that wasn't supposed to be a life sim.
• 9:36
  [Becca Hartwell] I love chaos.
• 9:38
  [Danny Reyes] The autonomy really said choose violence on that one.
• 9:42
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 9:42
  [Becca Hartwell] we have to get into that.
• 9:48
  [Danny Reyes] Okay,
• 9:49
  [Danny Reyes] flip side of all that competition talk,
• 9:52
  [Danny Reyes] Fable.
• 9:53
  [Becca Hartwell] Fable?
• 9:54
  [Becca Hartwell] The RPG?
• 9:55
  [Danny Reyes] The RPG!
• 9:56
  [Danny Reyes] And yet,
• 9:57
  [Danny Reyes] GamingBolt is calling it an endless,
• 10:00
  [Danny Reyes] interconnected life sim.
• 10:02
  [Danny Reyes] Like, that is a direct quote from their preview.
• 10:04
  [Becca Hartwell] That sim is not okay.
• 10:06
  [Becca Hartwell] Wait,
• 10:06
  [Becca Hartwell] that's not even a sim.
• 10:08
  [Becca Hartwell] That's a medieval hero.
• 10:11
  [Danny Reyes] But hear me out because the mechanics they're showing off are genuinely wild.
• 10:15
  [Danny Reyes] Your reputation changes how every NPC of the world treats you.
• 10:20
  [Danny Reyes] You can buy property.
• 10:22
  [Danny Reyes] Relationships evolve based on every choice you make.
• 10:25
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay, but is that life sim or is that just an RPG with good NPC design?
• 10:30
  [Danny Reyes] That's the question,
• 10:31
  [Danny Reyes] Danny,
• 10:32
  [Danny Reyes] and multiple outlets are landing in the same place.
• 10:35
  [Danny Reyes] Ben Janca over at Yahoo Tech said the life sim systems could
• 10:39
  [Danny Reyes] could basically stand alone as their own game.
• 10:41
  [Becca Hartwell] That's a bold claim.
• 10:43
  [Danny Reyes] It kind of is!
• 10:45
  [Danny Reyes] Game Informer's Brian Shea called it choices that actually matter moment to moment,
• 10:50
  [Danny Reyes] and the Engadget piece from Kris Holt,
• 10:53
  [Danny Reyes] Fable hits Xbox Series X,
• 10:55
  [Danny Reyes] PS5, and PC on February 23rd. It's real.
• 10:59
  [Danny Reyes] It's
• 11:00
  [Becca Hartwell] Wow.
• 11:00
  [Danny Reyes] coming.
• 11:00
  [Becca Hartwell]
• 11:00
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 11:01
  [Becca Hartwell] so let me push on this, though, because Paralives' SEED and now...
• 11:04
  [Becca Hartwell] Now Fable,
• 11:05
  [Becca Hartwell] these aren't all the same thing.
• 11:08
  [Becca Hartwell] Paralives is a direct Sims competitor.
• 11:11
  [Becca Hartwell] SEED is an MMO.
• 11:12
  [Becca Hartwell] Fable is an action RPG that happens to have life sim flavor,
• 11:17
  [Danny Reyes] Yes! Thank you! Exactly!
• 11:19
  [Danny Reyes] They're drawing from the same well,
• 11:21
  [Danny Reyes] relationships,
• 11:22
  [Danny Reyes] property,
• 11:23
  [Danny Reyes] daily life loops,
• 11:24
  [Danny Reyes] but they're building totally different games with it.
• 11:27
  [Becca Hartwell] which is either great news for the genre or slightly terrifying for EA.
• 11:31
  [Becca Hartwell] A.
• 11:33
  [Danny Reyes] Probably both.
• 11:34
  [Danny Reyes] Like,
• 11:35
  [Danny Reyes] Simscommunity covered the Fable stuff and framed it as the next addition to the life sim space,
• 11:40
  [Danny Reyes] but unconventional.
• 11:41
  [Danny Reyes] That's the right read.
• 11:43
  [Becca Hartwell] And for Sims fans specifically,
• 11:45
  [Becca Hartwell] do you think people are going to play Fable?
• 11:47
  [Danny Reyes] Uh,
• 11:48
  [Danny Reyes] the ones who also play RPGs? Absolutely.
• 11:51
  [Danny Reyes] The pure build mode obsessives? Maybe not.
• 11:54
  [Danny Reyes] It scratches a different itch.
• 11:56
  [Becca Hartwell] I feel like there's a Venn diagram here, and the overlap is...
• 11:59
  [Becca Hartwell] Specifically,
• 12:00
  [Becca Hartwell] people who name all their NPCs.
• 12:02
  [Danny Reyes] A hundred percent.
• 12:04
  [Danny Reyes] That person is playing both.
• 12:06
  [Becca Hartwell] Soul soul,
• 12:07
  [Becca Hartwell] they say, Loading up their third game of the day.
• 12:11
  [Danny Reyes] So anyway,
• 12:12
  [Danny Reyes] I think what's cool is the life sim genre is getting taken seriously as a design space,
• 12:17
  [Danny Reyes] not just by indie teams, but by a Big Playground Games production.
• 12:21
  [Becca Hartwell] Right. And speaking of things worth getting excited about,
• 12:24
  [Danny Reyes] Oh,
• 12:25
  [Danny Reyes] we're going home.
• 12:25
  [Becca Hartwell] we are going back to Sims 4 because there is actually Stuff dropping.
• 12:30
  [Becca Hartwell] A June Update teaser,
• 12:32
  [Becca Hartwell] new Marketplace items,
• 12:34
  [Becca Hartwell] Kit collab details.
• 12:36
  [Danny Reyes] And the Cottagecore CC community is absolutely
• 12:39
  [Danny Reyes] delivering right now, I have to say.
• 12:41
  [Becca Hartwell] Of course you do.
• 12:43
  [Danny Reyes] Let's get into it.
• 12:50
  [Danny Reyes] Okay,
• 12:50
  [Danny Reyes] shifting gears to some actually good news.
• 12:53
  [Becca Hartwell] Oh, thank goodness,
• 12:55
  [Becca Hartwell] yes.
• 12:55
  [Danny Reyes] So the Sims team dropped a June Update teaser this week,
• 12:59
  [Danny Reyes] Simscommunity covered it, and honestly,
• 13:02
  [Danny Reyes] the crowd reaction was described as, uh,
• 13:05
  [Danny Reyes] mild.
• 13:07
  [Becca Hartwell] Mild. That's a quote that's on the official record.
• 13:10
  [Danny Reyes] I mean,
• 13:11
  [Danny Reyes] after everything we've talked about today,
• 13:13
  [Danny Reyes] mild tracks,
• 13:14
  [Danny Reyes] but still,
• 13:15
  [Danny Reyes] a teaser's a teaser.
• 13:16
  [Becca Hartwell] What did they actually show?
• 13:18
  [Danny Reyes] Not much. It hit the official Discord,
• 13:21
  [Danny Reyes] and it's vague enough to leave room for speculation,
• 13:23
  [Danny Reyes] which, you know, the community will absolutely fill with spreadsheets and theories within the hour.
• 13:29
  [Becca Hartwell] The Autonomy really said choose violence with that rollout timing.
• 13:33
  [Danny Reyes] Right?
• 13:33
  [Danny Reyes] And then Simscommunity also reported there's another kit collaboration on the way,
• 13:38
  [Danny Reyes] plus some new Project X details from an insider.
• 13:41
  [Becca Hartwell] Wait,
• 13:42
  [Becca Hartwell] Project X stuff?
• 13:43
  [Becca Hartwell] What are we getting?
• 13:44
  [Danny Reyes] Still vague insider territory,
• 13:47
  [Danny Reyes] so take it with a grain of salt,
• 13:48
  [Danny Reyes] but the fact that there are updates at all feels like,
• 13:51
  [Danny Reyes] Okay,
• 13:52
  [Danny Reyes] something is moving.
• 13:53
  [Becca Hartwell] I'll take crumbs.
• 13:54
  [Becca Hartwell] Honestly,
• 13:55
  [Becca Hartwell] at this point,
• 13:56
  [Becca Hartwell] crumbs are fine.
• 13:57
  [Danny Reyes] Same.
• 13:59
  [Danny Reyes] So...
• 14:00
  [Becca Hartwell] Meanwhile the Sims 4 Marketplace dropped some new stuff this week.
• 14:03
  [Becca Hartwell] There's a free couch...
• 14:05
  [Danny Reyes] Free couch!
• 14:06
  [Danny Reyes] Seussl and also free furniture,
• 14:08
  [Danny Reyes] Let's go!
• 14:09
  [Becca Hartwell] And a free pair of heels,
• 14:11
  [Becca Hartwell] plus two paid drops alongside them.
• 14:14
  [Becca Hartwell] SimsCommuntiy rounded it all up.
• 14:15
  [Danny Reyes] Okay,
• 14:16
  [Danny Reyes] the free couch is doing more for player goodwill than any press release this week,
• 14:20
  [Danny Reyes] I'm just saying.
• 14:22
  [Becca Hartwell] Honestly,
• 14:23
  [Becca Hartwell] not wrong.
• 14:24
  [Becca Hartwell] And Danny,
• 14:25
  [Becca Hartwell] can we talk about the CC scene for a second?
• 14:27
  [Becca Hartwell] because Simscommunity put together a roundup of Thirty-four cottagecore CC sets and I... Thirty-four.
• 14:34
  [Danny Reyes] Thirty-four?
• 14:37
  [Becca Hartwell] Linen, florals, aprons,
• 14:40
  [Danny Reyes] Wow.
• 14:40
  [Becca Hartwell] little basket hats.
• 14:41
  [Danny Reyes] I'm logging in after this.
• 14:43
  [Becca Hartwell] This is giving main menu music energy.
• 14:45
  [Becca Hartwell] I cannot lie.
• 14:46
  [Becca Hartwell] The creators out there are just, they're delivering.
• 14:49
  [Danny Reyes] And there's a layered skater skirt mod making the rounds too.
• 14:53
  [Danny Reyes] I saw it on TikTok.
• 14:54
  [Danny Reyes] On TikTok,
• 14:54
  [Danny Reyes] the BeckmesserSpain account posted it. It's in that whole mods everyone needs category,
• 14:59
  [Danny Reyes] and yeah,
• 15:00
  [Danny Reyes] it earned that title.
• 15:01
  [Becca Hartwell] Ah,
• 15:02
  [Becca Hartwell] this is the part I love.
• 15:03
  [Becca Hartwell] Like, while everything else is chaotic,
• 15:06
  [Becca Hartwell] ads,
• 15:07
  [Becca Hartwell] protests,
• 15:07
  [Becca Hartwell] competitors,
• 15:08
  [Becca Hartwell] the CC community is just quietly making the game gorgeous.
• 15:13
  [Danny Reyes] They don't wait for EA.
• 15:15
  [Danny Reyes] They just build.
• 15:16
  [Becca Hartwell] That's kind of...
• 15:17
  [Becca Hartwell] The end of the whole story of this week,
• 15:18
  [Becca Hartwell] right?
• 15:19
  [Becca Hartwell] The players showing up regardless.
• 15:21
  [Danny Reyes] Mm-hmm.
• 15:21
  [Danny Reyes] The game is still worth playing.
• 15:23
  [Danny Reyes] The creators are still creating.
• 15:25
  [Becca Hartwell] And we've still got a June update to look forward to.
• 15:28
  [Becca Hartwell] Mild reaction and all.
• 15:35
  [Becca Hartwell] OK,
• 15:35
  [Becca Hartwell] that's a wrap on a genuinely packed week in the Sims world.
• 15:40
  [Danny Reyes] I'm still thinking about that protest funeral outside EA's Orlando office.
• 15:45
  [Danny Reyes] Like, that happened.
• 15:46
  [Becca Hartwell] It really did.
• 15:48
  [Becca Hartwell] And honestly,
• 15:49
  [Becca Hartwell] Danny said it best. Those people showed up because they love this game.
• 15:53
  [Danny Reyes] Right.
• 15:54
  [Danny Reyes] And then on the flip side,
• 15:55
  [Danny Reyes] Paralives pulling 900,000 copies with 15 people.
• 15:59
  [Danny Reyes] The competition just got very real.
• 16:02
  [Becca Hartwell] This is giving main menu music energy for the whole genre,
• 16:06
  [Becca Hartwell] honestly.
• 16:07
  [Danny Reyes] So cool, so cool, and also what a week.
• 16:10
  [Becca Hartwell] Ha!
• 16:11
  [Becca Hartwell] Okay,
• 16:11
  [Becca Hartwell] if you've been writing along with us, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and drop us a review.
• 16:16
  [Becca Hartwell] It genuinely helps other Simmers find the show.
• 16:19
  [Danny Reyes] And share your wildest Sims stories with us over on social.
• 16:23
  [Danny Reyes] We're at Plumbob Report.
• 16:25
  [Becca Hartwell] Thanks for hanging out with us.
• 16:27
  [Becca Hartwell] We'll see you next episode.
• 16:28
  [Danny Reyes] Later, Simmers!