With the announcement thatThe Sims 5, orProject Reneas it’s being called at EA, is going to be “free-to-enter” thanks to a job posting at Maxis for a Head of Monetization and Marketing, players have been speculating what exactly that could entail.The Sims 5is still in its very early stages of production and players haven’t gotten the chance to see much gameplay of it as yet, but the franchise has remained fairly consistent over the decades in terms of what players can expect from a free-to-play model.
The job posting, which has since been pulled, also offered someperspective into what players can expect inThe Sims 5that differs from the other games in the franchise. WithThe Sims 4’s move to free-to-play, and the industry trending towards a live-service model even for single-player games, the move towards a free-to-play model forThe Sims 5wasn’t one that was unexpected, and there are some features that can reasonably be predicted ahead of time even if the developer hasn’t released details yet.
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Big Changes Are In Store for The Sims 5
LikeThe Sims 4,The Sims 5is probably going to have a base game of some kind, with add-on content such as expansion packs, game packs, and kits as optional paid DLC. This is expected and follows the pattern of all games inThe Simsfranchise. An additional feature that may return fromThe Sims 3is the Store that features additional items that are bought and downloaded from an online store.
The Sims 3Store had a mixed reception, with some Simmers enjoying the variety the Store had on offer, but others didn’t appreciate how the Store interfered with gameplay, with items being featured in Build and Buy mode. IfThe Sims 5has a Store as a part of its free-to-play package, it may feature the samebenefits and drawbacks asThe Sims 3Store, with smaller items on sale for players to augment their base game, but with the Store invading every part of their experience.
Sims 4 Modders Can Expect Some Changes
The job posting advertised by Maxis mentioned one of the job responsibilities as “Own Project Rene’s in-game marketplace of content and UGC (free and paid)”. UGC (user-generated content) is content such as reviews and streams that are created by users and posted to social media, and is essentially free marketing for the brand. For a brand likeThe Sims, UGC has always played a massive part of generating hype, especially forThe Sims 4such as players aligned with theEA Creators' Network and independent modders.
The job posting mentions both free and paid UGC, implying that Maxis intends to monetize at least some of the content users create, such as mods. This would be a new development forThe Sims, and is similar to whatBethesda did withSkyrim’sCreation Club. If EA did monetize mods through a SimsCreation Club, it would be expected both modders and EA would get paid through the transaction, which would be a big change from now where modding is free and largely unregulated.
This is a lot of add-on content to pay for, andEA needs to be careful to not wander into microtransaction helllike it has with its other properties. IfThe Sims 5is available as free-to-own, it mustn’t be a free trial masquerading as a game that’s free-to-play; it should still be a rewarding experience with or without the myriad of optional add-on content, and the add-on paid content shouldn’t be constantly advertised to the player to the point that the game is unplayable in its free state.
The Sims 5is in development.
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