User blog comment:LostInRiverview/The Sims 4? I thought we just started on The Sims 3!?/@comment-1519608-20100810164552

It's not unusual for a game to enter into design years before it's even close to release. I remember with Spore there was a lot of time between their initial announcement and its release, and if I recall correctly, TS3 started pretty quickly after TS2.