Today I have some very exciting news to share. I and a few other Simmers have been invited to attend SimsCamp at GamesCom in Cologne.

I am super stoked/excited/psyched and extremely honoured that I was invited for this event! SimsCamp is from August 20th – 22nd and, starting today, we are allowed to talk about it! We do not have many details yet, just that we will be among the first to play The Sims 4, yes… play!! Did not think we would get that opportunity so soon but it really does mention play in my papers.

The sneak peek of the itinerary includes a tour of Cologne (it is a gorgeous city), EA press conference (August 20th 4PM CEST – 5PM BST – 10AM EDT – 7AM PDT) and The Sims 3 Livebroadcast (not sure if I can host a Bingo from Cologne). We will not get final details on the itinerary till we arrive at the hotel on August 19th.

And best of all, we are allowed to share our experiences with you through Social Media and our fansites 🙂 during the event! I will try to post as much as I can to our twitter: @PlatinumSimmers and our facebook page during the day and a blog with summary of the day in the evenings. (German Time)

Questions

I have been asked to come prepared with as many questions as possible. There’s loads I want to ask, but I would love to take your questions as well! What do you really want to know about with The Sims 4, The Sims 3 Into the Future, from the SimGurus, anyone else involved with SimsCamp? Please post the questions in the comments below or tweet them to me @platinumsimmers. I will make my master list of questions on August 17th so please let me know before then!

I will have internet access during the event, so you can ask me more questions until August 22nd, but Gamescon will be very busy so I cannot guarantee I will see any questions posted after the 17th.

My main question so far is: What will set The Sims 4 apart from the previous The Sims games? Like The Sims 3 added open world, The Sims 2 aspirations/aging, what will The Sims 4 add?

Looking back on GamesCom 2012, hopes for this year’s Gamescom

I want to take a moment to discuss last year’s Gamescom and how Maxis covered SimCity at GamesCom 2012. Most likely The Sims 4 will get similar coverage.

EA Press Conference Gamescom 2012



Here is the press conference from last year, around 34:40 it starts about SimCity. They discuss SimCity for about 5 minutes, announce that it will be available for Mac and that people can sign up for the beta.

So I expect/hope The Sims 4 will get about 5 min too in the main Press Conference this year (August 20th 4PM CEST – 5PM BST – 10AM EDT – 7AM PDT). As The Sims 4 will be a single player offline game, I do not know if there will be a (semi-public) closed beta of The Sims 4 like we got for SimCity.

Showfloor Gamescom 2012

At the showfloor itself last year we could play a 20min Demo of SimCity, it gave you a taste of curved roads and a disaster. Enough to show you that the game is awesome.

The booth for SimCity last year was gorgeous, and really big. This picture does not do it justice. On this website you can see that it was nearly the biggest booth for the EA games: http://www.ea.com/uk/gamescom/booth

Will The Sims 4 get a similar treatment? I hope so, because I have the sense they are pulling out all the stops for The Sims 4 like they did for SimCity.