I’ve lately contemplated getting again into The Sims 4. It has been over a 12 months since I had a correct go, and I wished to take a look at a number of the newer enlargement packs and kits – of which there are quite a bit. So, I went to Steam, opened the shop web page, had a take a look at the DLC itemizing, and browse that massive quantity on the backside. Yikes.
If you would like the complete Sims 4 expertise, get able to spend virtually £1,000. I do not want all of it, however simply seeing an inventory that expensive has turned me away. I do not wish to danger getting sucked right into a recreation that may plaster tempting photographs on the house web page, asking me to throw cash at it time and time once more after I know the content material isn’t going to cease coming regardless of what number of pennies I throw down.
As an alternative, out of curiosity, I ran my library by way of SteamDB’s calculator, which works out the worth of your account primarily based on the video games you personal. My complete library of 505 video games is price £2,108—slightly over double The Sims 4’s worth together with DLC. If I have been to purchase that complete load proper now, I might skyrocket my ten-year-old profile to a worth of over £3,000. That does not really feel proper.
As an instance you wished to play every part The Sims 4 has to supply or use its complete toolset supplied by the kits—you would need to pay £78 per thirty days for a whole 12 months. You possibly can shrink that all the way down to £39 over two years, however by then, extra DLC may have been launched. Alternatively, you might purchase a elaborate new TV on credit score and play the rest, since by the point you’ve got completed accumulating every part, The Sims 5 could be out.
That is nothing new. The Sims has at all times been a gleaming instance of the worst DLC practices within the business, however 4 is not significantly better. The Sims 2 used to promote cosmetics for £3 to £5 per merchandise on high of all of the packs and expansions. The Sims 3 in the meantime will set you again £341.81, which continues to be a big quantity, however considerably smaller than The Sims 4.
However to be honest to EA and The Sims, let’s take a look at different simulators. Cities: Skylines DLC will set you again £281.44, almost catching as much as The Sims 3, and Euro Truck Simulator DLC totals at £211.57. Large swaths of paid content material for simulation video games is the usual, EA simply does it extra—and extra successfully at that—than its opponents. It is the main simulation recreation, and its crown is a paid royal pack you are most likely greatest holding off on shopping for till there is a sale.
Nevertheless, it being on the high is precisely why The Sims 5 ought to strategy DLC in a brand new mild. It might set a brand new customary, and pave the way in which for the style to drop huge beauty bundles—as a substitute of ones which might be tiny, overpriced, and slowly creep as much as costing you tons of. Even its paid expansions that add wholly new gameplay mechanics are flawed.
Every new Sims recreation begins with a clean slate that, compared to the final one, feels empty and shallow. The Sims is not a very full expertise till these expansions launch, as every part that was DLC previously recreation tends to grow to be DLC yet again, so if you wish to have an analogous recreation, you have to fork out.
What makes expansions much more egregious is that the gallery will typically flood you with content material from different gamers that depend on this DLC, and to expertise it your self, you have to pay. These creations are the best rated, plastered in your face to say, “Look what you’ll be able to obtain in the event you simply spend slightly extra.” The house web page likewise lists DLC, turning The Sims 4 itself right into a storefront earlier than you even get caught in. All of this says purchase, purchase, purchase, however given the quantity you’d need to spend to purchase every part, the cycle is unlikely to finish for many. And by the point you tire of the shiny new factor, one thing else may have launched, and the backlog grows, so FOMO units in.
Given The Sims 4’s success, I anticipate to look over The Sims 5 in ten, or perhaps fifteen years and see a listing of DLC amounting to double that of 4’s. As an alternative of £900 for every part, it will be £1800—it really works, EA is aware of it really works, and other people will hold shopping for expansions, even when it is for the content material they’ve now purchased thrice over. And all it does is say to different simulation video games that that is the one option to generate income and hold gamers invested, turning a whole style right into a money cow that was milked dry a decade in the past.
