BeyondSims No Deep Snow in The Sims 4 Seasons with Efforts “Focused Elsewhere”

A lot of people have been asking about the depth of snow found in the trailer for The Sims 4 Seasons, which was announced last week. It’s the second most highly anticipated expansion pack for The Sims 4, behind Cats & Dogs, and it’s understandable that a lot of people have questions about it.

One of the key things noticed in the trailer for The Sims 4 Seasons was the depth of snow, which appeared to be non-existent in the trailer. While this is something that I didn’t initially notice, and doesn’t necessarily bother me as a player, for many people this is something that has been important to them – especially as we had snow depth in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3.



With the goal of being more open with the community, which is great to see, Lead Producer Grant Rodiek took to Twitter to discuss the situation with snow depth in the expansion, confirming that snow depth will not be in The Sims 4.

We knew deep snow would be important from the very beginning and we researched a variety of solutions to implement it. However, we never had confidence we’d be able to achieve the visual quality bar we expect for The Sims 4, which is key on an aesthetic feature!

Therefore, as lead producer I made the difficult decision to focus our efforts elsewhere. As we share more of TS4 Seasons, you’ll see the gorgeous, intricate details of winter, spring, summer, and fall we dedicated ourselves to instead of deep snow.

We think this is the best version of Seasons ever, visually and from a feature standpoint, and cannot wait to share it with you. Thanks, and stay tuned.

– Grant Rodiek, Lead Producer
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While the news may be hard pill to swallow for some people, and has gathered mixed reactions, I do believe it’s clear from the initial trailer that The Sims team have focused on a variety of new features. Small details such as flowers dying in the winter and blooming in the spring, or even the addition of gameplay elements such as bee keeping.



Grant continued to answer questions from fans who had questions about his comments on the snow depth in the upcoming expansion. From reading these tweets, it appears that the two main reasons behind this decision is the engine behind The Sims 4 but also the visual style of the game, which is more stylised than previous entries to the series.

We do things differently in every game. Some engines do some things well, other things worse. I think we ultimately stack up VERY well to The Sims 3, but this was a case where it wasn’t the right direction for The Sims 4.

– Grant Rodiek, Lead Producer
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On the topic of game engines, I would have to agree that The Sims 4 engine has aged much better compared to The Sims 3. The engine for The Sims 3 suffered from lag and crashing, regardless of the spec of the computer you ran it on, whereas The Sims 4 remains buttery smooth to this day. I would rather a stable and smooth experience to one which is comparable with The Sims 3’s performance.

What are your thoughts about depth of snow being missing from The Sims 4 Seasons as a trade off for other gameplay elements?

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