User blog comment:LostInRiverview/EA hits a rough patch - will this affect TS4?/@comment-2201555-20140203165705

A lot of the EA conspiracy theories are indeed true.

Maxis aren't as big as people think - they don't have the resources to maintain two AAA products, them being The Sims and SimCity, at once on a large scale and the recent EA staff departures are only another setback. The whole mis-management story reminds me of the Aliens: Colonial Marines saga, I'm not saying that TS4 will be on that level but the way things are going, it's a possibility.

If the worst should happen, I doubt EA will cancel the game because they're depending on it to counter their losses and they know it's going to be a big seller. They'll simply outsource to another of EA's internal studios (they have many), but then it'll come down to whether or not the developer is talented enough to handle a AAA title like The Sims 4, but as EA would just want the game out they won't care who's making it. Different studios are suited to different games; try to imagine somebody like BioWare or DICE making The Sims. You couldn't, could you?

Though imo, they need another studio if they want to keep going with the current business model for The Sims. We've already had other developers such as the defunct EA Black Box making stuff packs and Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) making Riverview but seeing as the Maxis team clearly isn't large enough, nor is development properly managed, it's an inevitability.