The Sims 5 Seemingly Adopting Possible Free to Play Model

By Cade Onder

The Sims 5 is seemingly going to be a game that players can play for free. The Sims franchise is one of EA's longest running series. It is a life "simulator", but it is incredibly heightened and absurd, so it's not necessarily a realistic simulator. You can start a family, own a home or business, go to school, form relationships, burn your home down, drown your character in a swimming pool, and many, many other intense, morbid things. It is incredibly accessible and has found a wide, casual audience that is willing to dump dozens or hundreds of dollars into the game thanks to expansion packs. Due to that, it may drastically affect The Sims 5.

The Sims 5, officially known as Project Rene at the moment, may be "free-to-enter". As spotted by Sims Community (via IGN), EA posted a job for a head of marketplace and monetization for Project Rene. The job listing describes the game as "free-to-enter" and candidates will "own pricing of all content in this free-to-enter game, ensuring we have an optimal pricing and content architecture [and] provide guidance to content teams on in-game content needs to meet player demand." They will also manage user generated content, which will be both free and paid for. This has been compared to Fortnite which is obviously free-to-play, but has a bunch of content behind pay walls which is how Epic Games generates so much revenue from the game.

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It would make a lot of sense for The Sims 5 to also make itself free-to-play, but lean in to its premium expansion packs. That way a lot of people can play the game, enjoy it, and get really obsessed with it, making it easier to sell them on expansions. Obviously, if done wrong, this could generate a lot of controversy, but if done right, it could be a really smart and modern balance for The Sims franchise.

What do you want to see from The Sims 5? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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