I wanted to round out my March content with a topic that’s been on my mind lately. Not only has it been on my mind, this comes as a kind of collection of internal ramblings I’ve had recently. Now, this post may make sense, or it may not, but I feel that it’s time to put those thoughts onto paper. Well, at least the virtual screen, I guess.
For those who know me and have followed either my content or me over on social media, The Sims franchise as a whole has been one that not only have I grown up alongside like many, but also one that also means a lot to me. The Sims 4 opened up my journey of sharing my writing and creating content on the internet. It allowed me to take the next step and write countless articles for the website The Sims Community as well as for my own site. I’ve made numerous friends, some of whom I’ve met in real life, in person. People who I can’t imagine not being friends with. I’ve created stories, built numerous builds, tried to make fashionable looks and so much more since its 2014 release. All of these moments are ones I greatly appreciate.
Let me try and break this down into some smaller bitesize chunks.
The EA Buy Out
I think it’s safe to say that the moment this news came out I was concerned for a number of reasons. To simply put it, the reasons behind why I am not a fan of the buyout are obvious, but at the end of the day it just doesn’t align with my own personal beliefs.
Instantly, I dropped the game. I didn’t want to play at that moment in time, and I felt this huge sense of confliction. I still do now. I wanted to play however, at the same time, I didn’t because I felt that was supporting something I didn’t believe in. On the other hand, though, I’d paid for all these packs, expansions and everything in between prior to this announcement. I wanted to play, but it felt wrong at the same time.
While it has been a good few months since I last even loaded up The Sims 4, let alone any of the other games. My last purchase was the Adventure Awaits expansion pack, which even now, I’ve barely touched. Now I’m at the point where I feel okay to play again, but whether I continue to support it with any future purchases at the moment remains to be seen. While the deal hasn’t been fully formalised or gone through, there’s still time for things to change, but I guess we will have to wait and see.
The Addition of the Marketplace
It was bound to happen at some point, I suppose. A ‘successor’ to The Sims 3 Store. Now it’s here, and I don’t really know how I feel about it. I think it could work well however, there’s been so much mixed feelings across the community about it that I’m not sure long term if it would work. At least not without some changes.
Personally, the Marketplace at this moment in time is not for me. Don’t get me wrong, there are some nice additions on the Marketplace, however, I just don’t see myself purchasing the additional Moola coins to make purchases. If I want to add additional outfits or objects into my game, I’ll continue to search for creators like I have always done and continue to support those whose work I like and enjoy having in my game.
As I was talking with a fellow long time Sims player and friend of mine, we got onto the topic of how Kits going forward will only be purchaseable via the Marketplace. For me, it just feels like it’s complicating the process of purchasing them rather than keeping it simple on the relevant platform’s shopfront. The way of purchasing Kits before was absolutely fine, at least I thought it was. So to move them further into the game doesn’t make complete sense. I guess that’s a question that won’t get a full answer, at least not for a long time.
So Many Bugs All The Time
This mainly goes back to the most recent March 2026 update, which then resulted in a hotfix, and I’m pretty sure there’s been a hotfix for the hotfix update since. I don’t play with mods or custom content in my game any more. I go through phases of playing with them, you could say.
For the most part I’ve been playing mostly vanilla with only MC Command Center installed. Even without mods, I’ve previously experienced so many glitches and crashes that it has got to the point where I’ve given up trying to play until the next game update. I do my best to give feedback via the EA forum and provide my save files when possible to help the team find fixes, but I guess the easiest way to put it is I’m tired of the constant bugs in the game. Yet, at the same time, I’ve also come to accept that it’s just a part of playing The Sims in general.
While frustrating, I know it’s not always as simple as flicking a switch or editing a piece of code. There’s a lot more that goes into it, and I do appreciate the team working to get things as fixed as quickly as they can.
However, while on the topic of mods and custom content, I do feel for those creators making additional content for players. They work incredibly hard on all these mods just to worry about how badly their work is going to break each time a new update is about to be released. On the flip side of that, I, like many, hugely appreciate how hard they work to ensure their mods are back up and compatible with the most recent patch in a timely manner. So, before I round out this small section, thank you modders and custom content creators for all of your hard work! Rest assured it doesn’t go unnoticed by so many of us in the community!
My Future with The Sims Franchise
I guess you could say that the three points mentioned above are my main things that, while more negative topics, in some way there can be a small shining light of positivity in them. How exactly? I would have to say that is purely down to personal interpretation of how we each feel about those points, however, I also hope that the buyout is reconsidered. Yet, that’s a topic to discuss further another day.
I want to play, tell stories, and create different builds, regardless of which version of The Sims I play. Right now, I am leaning more towards jumping into either The Sims 2 or The Sims 3. I still have so much in each of those games to explore. Each of the games, spin offs included, has played such a part of my life, and while I’ve purchased pretty much everything up to and including The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits, I still want to enjoy those packs and games while making memories and having fun.
Do I think that this is the right move for me, personally, as a The Sims player right now? Yes. Will it continue to stay that way moving forward? I’m not sure, especially with more to happen with the EA buyout. Has it helped writing out these points and tapping away at them? In a roundabout way, it has, and while it might not make complete sense to everyone, it’s given me some things to take away and think about as well.
In a way, I guess you could say this is a combination of thoughts and opinions that have been building up over the past several months. While a lot of these words could probably be cut out, I think it’s okay to say that you can still enjoy something that you’ve grown up with and purchased, but it’s also okay to stop believing in a company and stop supporting them moving forward.
At the end of the day, we are all individuals, with different beliefs, thoughts and opinions on a huge variety of things in life. In this instance it’s one that, respectfully, many of us will navigate in different ways and will probably take a few different approaches to while navigating and figuring out what we each want to do moving forward. Remember, it’s okay to feel different things compared to others, and it’s also okay to change your mind on how you/we each feel about a topic. After all, we are only human and will forever be learning and expanding our knowledge as we progress through life.
As to what the future holds for The Sims franchise in general, I guess as a community we will just have to wait and see. For now, feel free to share your thoughts on this topic in the comments below!
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