So, before I say anything else: yes, EA's monetization model is bad, I do not have high hopes for ~Project Rene~, I'm honestly not planning on picking it up, especially not with Life With You coming out soon
But that last panel is uh... probably being taken out of context.
In game dev, you have something called the Minimum Viable Product. The Minimum Viable Product is the smallest amount of game you can make that represents your game fully-- if you released this, people would still get the intended experience. You need to make sure that the Minimum Viable Product is rock-solid before you add any new features, because if it isn't, people aren't going to enjoy your game.
For example, the Minimum Viable Product for a Mario game would be a couple worlds' worth of increasingly difficult platforming challenges, with basic platforming, mushrooms and fire flowers, and a Bowser fight. Anything beyond that-- additional levels, new power-ups, new bosses, individual level gimmicks-- is not part of the Minimum Viable Product. It's worth spending time on them, and time making them good-- fancy features move product!-- but if you spend too much time on them, and not enough time on the Minimum Viable Product, your game is going to suck asssssssss.
Project Rene is still in ludicrously early development. Like, "I'm shocked they're showing us this much" early development. Like, "every single asset in these scenes is a placeholder, except for some of the animations probably" early development.
They're, uh... pretty clearly still working on the minimum viable product. The core gameplay loop. The basics of how Sims interact, take care of themselves, and progress their personal stories. The basics of how the player interacts with Sims and the world. The basic look and feel of the game.
And when you're working on your minimum viable product? It is genuinely important to figure out how little you can make to get the most bang for your buck. If you spend a whole bunch of time working on something that isn't a core feature, and it gets cut? you've wasted a bunch of dev hours on something players aren't ever gonna see. if you spend a whole bunch of time working on a game system, and it sucks ass and everyone hates it? you're back to square one.
People do not make bad games on purpose. I guarandamntee you everyone in the trenches is a Sims uberfan and wants the game to be as good as it can possibly be. The EA execs, not so much-- but the people doing the coding and art and programming, absolutely.
TLDR: The Project Rene devs are doing a normal part of game dev. It sounds slimy if you're not used to the process, but this is not proof that they're trying to scam you.
