The very controversial Sims 4 Marketplace, an addition to The Sims 4 that adds microtransactions funded by the virtual currency “Moola” with released sets released by partnered and approved Makers, has released for PC players as of March 17th, 2026, with console players expected to receive the Sims 4 Marketplace in the near future. One of these sets, the Sims 4 Sunburst Collection by well-loved and popular Maker and CC Creator CrypticSim, has come under especially heavy critique due to the pricing and actual content of the set. Many players and creators have pointed out pixelation and seemingly low quality, making many question the price tag and what the actual bar for quality is with releases found in the Sims 4 Marketplace.

The price of the set itself is 500 Moola, with the most basic conversion being $5 USD. The set includes 10 items, all being makeup available in Create-A-Sim. The price, amount of items, and quality of the collection is noticeably different when you compare this to a Creator Kit by the same creator, The Sims 4 Essential Glam Kit by CrypticSim. That initial creator kit released in August 2025 was a well-received kit, especially when compared to other releases in the last year or so, with 27 new assets for the same price as the Sims 4 Sunburst Collection.

When generally describing the content of the marketplace outside of this, most of these sets align heavily with the style and direction of The Sims 4, only include basic assets rather than full mods or off-the-wall custom content, and are priced by the creators themselves. As far as we know, Makers get 30% of every purchase while EA & Maxis take the remaining 70%.

The State of Sims 4 Mods & CC

As we’re sure many of you are aware, the update that occurred yesterday (PC: 1.122.205.1030 / Mac: 1.122.205.1230) to release bug fixes and to launch the Sims 4 Marketplace had a severe side effect of breaking the large majority of mods and custom content. Even things that normally don’t break from updates, like custom CAS items and Build & Buy Objects, have had multitudes of issues due to a break that messed with the ability for the game itself to recognize .package files, the only file type really used for modding the Sims 4, outside of .ts4script files.

Sul sul, CC and Mods are super important to our community and we've continued to share that the Marketplace does not replace free content. Makers can continue to offer free or paid early access on other platforms under our mod policy, which isn't changing

— The Sims Direct Communications (@TheSimsDirect) March 18, 2026

The developers of The Sims 4 have somewhat of a poor reputation of fixing issues that have upset the community, often leaving bugs unhandled for weeks, months, or years. However, the backlash of creating an update that breaks thousands of custom content items forced a quick reply, as the forums and social media were flooded with outraged PC players. Since the update in question is an introduction to the marketplace for PC only, many players that were actually effected by this were custom content and mod users, despite the primary justification for the marketplace being that it “gives” Sims 4 Console players access to “custom content”.

Sul sul, we have a fix for the issue that was unintentionally impacting CC. This update will start rolling out roughly within the next 15 hours & we’ll confirm once it’s live.

Thanks for your reports & patience while we worked to resolve this asap!

— The Sims Direct Communications (@TheSimsDirect) March 18, 2026

Players are now expecting a quick hotfix update, expected March 18th 2026, to fix the issue that leads to the game not properly recognizing .package files, which will hopefully reverse these issues and allow mod creators to move forward with the status quo of updates, as many have been stopped in their tracks because of this. With everything being up in the air, players and creators alike have felt stuck.

Community Reaction & Response

If you are anyone who has modded or used custom content in The Sims 4, you are likely well aware of updates often breaking mods. Recently, EA has been often giving a heads up and warning both creators and players, encouraging them to prepare accordingly to avoid game corruption. This update, like many before it, was expected to break some mods, but most players expected that custom content would remain intact, like just about every update before this.

However, the actual update led to a wide range of issues, from broken meshes, .package files not being recognized, and players not even being able to re-enable mods to test the update if they wanted to. The community reaction was swift, with creators big and small pointing out that this is not normal. This even led to conspiracies about the idea of this being intentional, as a way to push players towards the marketplace.

so apparently this update is causing a lot of cc to not appear ingame…?

(screenshots by ah00b i won't update) pic.twitter.com/H9HVJy9OvS

— dey (@deykxn) March 17, 2026

Umm… folks…??

None of my CC or mods besides script mods load into the game after the update…?? pic.twitter.com/adkDe7A07e

— SimMattically (@SimMattically) March 17, 2026

Look, we’re aware of our modding community, and we’ve finally decided to appreciate y’all by releasing a paywalled marketplace, an official toolkit exclusive for those makers — and, cherry on top, a CC-breaking update

— adrienpastel (@adrienpastelts4) March 17, 2026

We more specifically wanted to point this out as players will likely not be able to use CC items until this patch is released, unless they’ve disabled auto updates and played in offline mode.

The Sims 4 Sunburst Collection Maker Set by CrypticSim

The Sunburst collection is a vibrant makeup and blemish patch collection with bold blues, greens, pinks, reds, oranges, and yellows. This collection consists of two eyeshadows, a glossy and matte lip tint, and 6 different variations of blemish patches, including stars, hearts, butterflies, and smiley faces.

This set by Sims 4 Marketplace Maker CrypticSim comes with 10 total items, including two lipsticks, two eye makeup items, and six face paint category items that act and appear as star and smiley face pimple patches, somewhat reminiscent of the ones introduced in the Sims 4 Sweet Slumber Party Creator Kit by Trillyke, which was one of the first available and official creator kits.

Star & Kawaii Pimple Patches FREE CC Sets by DaisyPixels

DaisyPixels, a creator well-known for creating very cute and sweet clothing items and other pieces of custom content, was one of many people who felt a certain way about the marketplace and the quality of the items shown in previews. An anonymous follower expressed to DaisyPixels that they were sad because they wouldn’t be able to get the pimple patches that were shown in the marketplace preview, from the Sims 4 Sunburst Collection.

In response, DaisyPixels stated “I don’t really like the idea of anyone paying explicitly for PNGs and this thing took me like 10 minutes“, releasing the first set of Star Pimple Patches. After another anonymous ask, the Kawaii Pimple Patches were also released as a set by request.

Both sets come in five swatches each, with the Star Pimple Patches coming in single colors and a multicolor scheme, and the Kawaii Pimple Patches coming in multiple sets with various cute little stickers.

This CC set by DaisyPixels gives players options and decent quality without a price tag or virtual currency requirement, making it easily accessible for those who can mod or add custom content to their game. The colors provided can easily work with most custom content or base game clothing items and don’t seem to have any issues with warping or pixelation that we often see with some face paint textures, found both in custom content and in-game items.

While items placed in the Sims 4 Marketplace cannot be reuploaded anywhere else by the creators, and contain restrictions on multiple factors of the creation and publishing of these sets, we’re likely to see many free CC creators show true love for this game’s community by providing easily accessible custom content, whether they are free from the start or after an, often short, early access period.

What are your current thoughts and feelings on the Sims 4 Sunburst Collection, or any sets coming from the Sims 4 Marketplace in general?

Make sure to follow The Sims Community as we spotlight amazing free CC creators and provide accurate and honest reviews of any paid content, including Marketplace Sets, to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth!