'The Sims 4' gameplay, update: New Community Stuff Pack underway hinting 'The Sims 5' announcement is not happening soon

EA Maxis recently came out with an announcement of updates for "The Sims 4." A new Community Stuff Pack content is just one of the new features arriving in the latest title, suggesting that its gameplay roadmap may still take some time before being completed. This could mean that "The Sims 5" is not getting released anytime soon.

'The Sims 4' update: Arts & Crafts wins over Happy Haunts for next community content

It has been the tradition of "The Sims" developers to give players a voice in deciding which content they should put out next. This practice continues today and was one of the agendas of the Maxis Monthly stream last Monday.

Video game producers Dave Miotke and Michael Duke hosted the event and announced what Stuff Pack category won in the first round of voting. They revealed that the Arts & Crafts were favored by more players over the Happy Haunts them, but the voting results were reportedly very close. The developers also confirmed that they saw the voter turnout grew by five times more compared to the polls that led to the release of the Laundry Day Stuff Pack.

In the next round, "The Sims 4," players will be picking their favorite of the three Arts & Crafts styles. The choices include Granny Chic, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Delight, and Cozy Craft Workshop that were previewed in the latest Maxis Monthly stream. Voting will start on Monday, Dec. 23.

EA Maxis also had other major announcements, especially for console players. Developers confirmed that the Gallery feature is finally arriving for non-PC "The Sims 4" players in 2020. Meanwhile, the baby Yoda craze has officially extended to the life simulation video game as the statue of the sci-fi character becomes the latest addition in the Build/Buy Mode.

'The Sims 5' release date, announcement speculations

Having many gameplay contents and new features in the pipeline for "The Sims 4" is great news. On the other hand, it might also be signaling a much longer wait for the announcement of "The Sims 5."

Many avid fans were expecting "The Sims 5" to be announced this year because 2019 marks the fifth anniversary of "TS4." Historically, there were four to five years of intervals between “The Sims” titles. Unfortunately, those expectations were not met, and EA Maxis remains very silent about the next game.