Longtime players of The Sims 4 are calling out the publisher Electronic Arts for its many expensive DLC releases.

Reddit user u/tiredsadandgay posted a thread expressing their frustration on the Sims subreddit. The Redditor states that EA has the habit of splitting content across many paid DLC packs when previous games had bigger content bundles for a lower price. In the comments, one user points out that The Sims 4 currently has 60 downloadable content packs available for purchase, whereas previous games in the series had around 20 content packs. If a player wanted to buy all existing DLC for The Sims 4 on Steam, it would cost $645.18 in total, at the time of writing. Other fans pointed out that while the base game is free-to-play, a great deal of content is locked behind a paywall.

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One other commenter pointed out that EA doesn't have much competition, so it's able to charge whatever it wants. There aren't many other life simulation games that have the same recognition or history as the Sims franchise. Some players recommend playing older Sims entries, as they contain lots of content that was cut or delayed for the fourth game. While the older games' content may be harder to find, it is all still accessible.

The Sims' Unofficial Expansions

Instead of the official content releases, some Sims players rely more on mods and fan-created custom content. Most custom content is free to download and offers players cosmetics and gameplay mechanics the main game currently does not. EA doesn't discourage fan creations; In fact, there is an official CurseForge gallery for modded content.

The Sims 4 base game was first released in 2014 and continues to receive updates in 2023. However, EA has confirmed a new entry in the series is in development under the working title Project Rene. There isn't much information out yet about what many players are simply calling The Sims 5, but multiplayer gameplay has been revealed as a part of the sequel. The new project is still in the early stages of production and is unlikely to release any time soon. It's expected EA will continue to release Sims 4 content packs up until the new game is ready to be released but this has yet to be qualified by the publisher.

Source: Reddit