So, I am sort of at a loss as how to react to this. EA has announced*
that - after 18 October - "The Sims 4" will become a free-to-play
game.
I mean, it doesn't really affect me. I've played "The Sims" games, but
never really enjoyed them. Mostly I let my inner-architect take over
and tried to make the sort of house I'd like to live in, but even that
became tiresome after a few hours. The popular past-time of torturing
the Sims never appealed to me, nor did the game's nominal goals of
guiding them through a happy and productive life. It was all too much
of a glorified dollhouse to keep me engaged. So it's not like this
change is going to suddenly draw me back into the franchise.
Nor is it completely out of the blue. EA has made all of its earlier
Sims games available for free already (or, at least, they have in the
past; I'm too lazy to fire up Origin to see if they're still doing
so). And - at least with the case of the first two games - they
released the titles with all the expansion packs included.
But the big difference here is that "The Sims 4" is still a going
concern. It's not an older game superceded by its sequel; EA is still
selling the fourth game and making new expansions for it. So it's not
quite the same as those past free offerings.
What it really says to me is that EA is, essentially, acknowledging
that the real money they are making is from the many, many expansion
packs, and losing the income from sales of the base game is so small
compared to the expansion pack sales that they can happily do without
it. Which, sadly, doesn't spell out a rosy future for any sequels;
"Sims 4" already felt desiccated in how bare bones it felt compared
to earlier games; but if ever there is a "Sims 5" and it is also
free-to-play, it's likely going to make "Sims 4" look comparatively
robust. And even if I never play the game, this penny-pinching
attitude where publishers strip down features only to resell them
later just isn't anything I like to see.
So, yeah, you could say there's historical equivalence with older Sims
games going free, but this also sets a nasty precedent for the future.
But then again, it's EA, so I'm not sure why I'm in any way shocked. Fortunately, the company has pretty much become inconsequential to my
gaming habits. Not being a big fan of FIFA or NLF or any of its other
sports titles, nor a diehard player of its Battlefront games, I've
been able to pretty much ignore their offerings ever since they
self-isolated themselves in Origin-world. So if they're going to
continue to burn customer goodwill with greedy moves like this, it's
not really going to affect me one way or another.
Hence, my ambivalence.
But, I suppose some Sims fans may be a bit more apprehensive of the
move.
=======================
* read it here:
https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/play-the-sims-4-for-free-beginning-october-18
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