Last week, I wrote a quick post about some beautiful concept art for The Sims 4 that stood out because of how...different it looked compared to the final game. Unsurprisingly, I soon found out I wasn't the only one interested in alternate versions of The Sims.
Over the weekend, I received a few emails asking about a post on The Sims Community website. The article was about Sims 4 players uncovering some artwork in the final game that hinted at a similarly quaint and decidedly non-modern version of The Sims.
At least one player has masterfully recreated the set for Downton Abbey in The Sims 4 already, so I understand the longing that other Sims fans are probably feeling right now. Unfortunately, it sounds like the concept art is just going to remain concept art for the time being. I reached out to EA to ask about the images that had been surfacing online, and a representative from the company had this to say:
It's really cool to see some of these old concept art pieces surfacing on the internet. Over the course of development, the artists in The Sims Studio explored so many different things, and there was a stack of concept art produced. The team looked at all kinds of different visual styles, locations and even time periods during this exploratory phase. That's what pre-production is all about. As you will already understand, just because there is concept art, that doesn't mean that there was ever any intent to take any of it into production.
Sigh. Well, we can still hope for another Sims Medieval someday...