The latest update to The Sims 4 has sparked a wave of conversation among players, and at the centre of it all is the newly Sims 4 marketplace launch and the broken state it has left people’s games in.
Designed to expand the ways players access, share, and purchase content, the feature marks a significant shift in how the game’s ecosystem operates, and reactions have been anything but quiet, revealing a player base both excited and uneasy about the game’s future.
You can use our unofficial poll below to share your thoughts on the new marketplace, as well as vote for your favourite maker packs.
The Sims 4 Marketplace Launch & Community Poll
You can see in the new in-game menu that maker packs have been prioritised over other pack types in the top navigation.
Community Concerns
The new marketplace seems to be leaving a bad taste in players’ mouths. Many of the comments across the official Sims social media, as well as our own, are talking about how this has been the final straw for them, and they aren’t going to be going back to the game despite loving it for many years.
Across social media and Reddit threads, players have raised concerns about monetisation, with some arguing the system prioritises profit over improving the base game. This Reddit thread from LowSodiumSimmers has also highlighted fears that the long-standing culture of freely shared custom content is under threat.
Comparing To The Sims 3 Store
Lots of comments have been shared around comparing this new marketplace to the old in-game storefront we had for The Sims 3. However, there are a lot of differences between the two, which this commenter, among others, pointed out on our recent marketplace post.
Honestly, people comparing The Sims 4 marketplace to The Sims 3 Store are missing the point completely. They are not even the same type of system.
The Sims 4 marketplace is basically a platform where creators sell their own content. These “Maker Packs” are made by simmers and sold through the game using a virtual currency, and there are no real promotions or structured deals behind it. It’s just individual paid content created by players, which already makes it fundamentally different.
The Sims 3 Store actually had a proper store system. It had constant sales, daily deals, and rotating discounts. You could get full worlds for very cheap, often bundled with a lot of extra content. It actually felt like you were getting value for your money.
And one of the biggest things people ignore is how it handled collections. If you already owned part of a set, you could complete the rest for free or for a very low price. It rewarded players instead of making them rebuy everything.
The Sims 4 marketplace doesn’t have any of that. No meaningful promotions, no system to complete collections, and everything is fragmented into small paid packs made by creators. It just feels like isolated purchases with no real player friendly structure.
A comment on our recent marketplace post
So comparing the two makes no sense. The Sims 3 Store was a proper store with a consumer friendly model, while the Sims 4 marketplace is just a paid creator platform with none of those benefits.
Comparing To Other In-Game Stores
The Sims 4 is not the only EA game out currently which has a microtransaction system that is being updated with new content.
skate. is the newest edition to the Skate franchise, and it also has its own in-game store, with four different currencies available to players. The main currency, San Van Bucks, costs around the same amount as Moola, and is what can be used to make the majority of microtransaction purchases.
However, the value for money is significantly lower, with currency only being redeemed for one in-game pose or a single hat, yet costing the same as some Sims 4 maker packs.
Have Your Say
Vote for your favourite marketplace items and have your say on the new online store by using our poll below.
How do you feel about the new marketplace and the potential impacts? Do you like the items currently on sale? Let us know below or on social media.
I can not vote its giving a bug message but i saw the results the most think the same way as i am !!
The comment about the comparison to the Sims 3 Store contains falsehoods. The Marketplace is not *just* for Maker Packs, but is the only place to buy EA Kits in the future.
This means the Marketplace has all the same evils of the Sims 3 Store:
* Disconnected prices of content from real money. Moola vs SimPoints
* Locking official content behind virtual currency
* Microtransactions
* etc.
But it also adds the additional evil of exploitation of custom content creators.
This Marketplace takes a 70% cut from all proceeds. That is ridiculous. Nearly all online digital stores take no more than %30 of a cut. (Steam, Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Sony Playstation, etc) And even with only an up to 30% cut they are fought by tooth and nail by nearly all creators. See: Epic v. Apple, Epic v. Google, etc.
Honestly, when it comes to kits vs the old worlds from sims 3 store, at least the world packs could be bought at physical stores and not just digital ones before being basically stuck behind the store only.
I do actively believe that realistically the marketplace is actually the sims 3 store for this era. Like ofc its worse for those who make content for it. The defence of “It WaS f2p FrIeNdLy” really doesn’t hold when sims 3 store is still currently live and sims 3 packs haven’t had its regional pricing fixed on steam so its probably more expensive to get the stuff if you choose not to search to get it for free but seen as cc.
My problem with Sims 3 Store was, it was so often unable to download something, broken, spend much time to download one by one … And when it’s in-game, it could be broken, so you have to install all of it once again (Made a tutorial in german EA forum about it), What means, every time you launch Sims 3 you have (still) to look if the stuff is really installed.
But it was your’s forever, when you have it on your Computer as Files. Now I have an even bigger concern: It’s all download-content. And if they switch-off the servers and we have to install Sims 4 on an other computer, we couldn’t do that anymore! All the real money we spent they have and we have nothing! THAT’S my problem I have with that.
What you said about digital current paid with real money comes in addition, too.
I voted but I will not be purchasing anything, I think its disgusting that creators earn 30% for their work, I will continue to support the creators via patreon.
Not at all surprised sunburst is in last place. It gives burst pimple and pus vibes through and though
About the moola I answered : I don’t like it, it makes buying sets more complicated. Being complicated is not the reason why I dislike it. I dislike it because it disconnects content from their actual price. I dislike it because in 90% of the time people have left over moola in their accounts.
Also a lot of the sets are overpriced. If you calculate the moola per item of a kit to the moola per item of some of these sets, they just aren’t worth it.
I’m disappointed that so many of my longtime favorite creators are participating, and I’m against the whole marketplace operation. At the same time, it’s EA who should be ashamed. Not only are they cheating the community by introducing the marketplace model in the first place, but also, they’re stealing earnings from participating creators by profiting off their work without actually hiring them as legitimate employees for reasonable wages. It’s lazy, greedy, and disgusting. There is no point in turning on creators, who have made a poor choice but are also being taken advantage of, when it’s EA who’s exploiting the community as a whole.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Simulation
Inspired
Monetisation
System
This was not a good start to the Marketplace, especially given where Maxis is headed after the buy out.
When 3 first launched, the Sims 3 store was filled with content that felt like it was must haves and Maxis managed to maintain this momentum year over year. Some of the content in the store was better than Stuff Pack and Expansion Pack items. The Ultra Lounge set launched with 15 years ago is still one of the best furniture sets released for 3, made better by CAST, mix a mix of basic and abstract items modern items, and some being multipurpose. Maxis put their best foot forward to try to secure sales from the store.
Here, the sets are blatantly overpriced, many lackluster, and better can be gotten for free or have already been purchased. Sadly, the store launched entirely too late.
After over a decade with 4, a little more creativity is needed than overcharging for content either worse or no different than we already have. Snazzy Living Room by Syboulette looks amazing, but it is yet another living room. I have tons of living rooms. What incentive do I have to buy basic fitness clothing? I’ve purchased multiple packs with fitness clothing – Spa Day, Fitness Stuff, Discover University, Adventure Awaits. There’s more. The game has maybe 40 lipsticks already across a ton of packs. Why would I buy more?
There isn’t one set that launched that said to simmers, “This is a new experience!” What new rooms can I make? What new fashion styles can I dress Sims in? What new buildings can I make with this? What new niche does this fill? What story does this tell?
We have enough basic jeans and plain t-shirts. We have enough bedrooms and living rooms. You know what we don’t have? Items to create new types of community lots, like arcades, themed nightclubs, and lounges. Couture and runway fashion. We don’t even have a set of actual Victorian, Colonial, or Spanish Colonial architectural items. Instead of filling in the gaps, we get yet another set of basics we’ve gotten several times over. How about some a variety of simple wall paneling in some basic wood and paint colors – the game doesn’t have that. How about wallpapers that don’t look like something out of the 1920s? Stuff that makes laws and gardens look “finished”, like hedges, topiaries and trims. Content for neglect parts of the house like attics, homes offices, hobby rooms, entrances, and verandas?
What if I don’t like any of the first two questions?
It’s impossible to vote without choosing favourites, which I won’t do since I oppose the entire system. I will not use the marketplace, ever. I have bought what I need to buy from EA and will not support them further at this point.
The price of the items is just ridiculous compared to what you receive. I’ll buy EA kits but everything else, no thanks. Being forced to vote for a marketplace item in order to submit your final vote is not a honest answer.