It appears anything released for The Sims 4 so far can be repurposed and sold again as an additional paid Maker Set.
It’s a not so free market after all for Sims players. Yesterday we reported about player talks of a repurposed DLC assets included within the new Spring Wardrobe Maker Set by Oakiyo. At the cost of 4USD, or 400 Moola (5USD as you only have the 500 Moola purchase option), you get 17 Create A Sim items. With around 7 which appear to be repurposed meshes from both the Base Game and past DLC releases.
Latest Sims 4 Maker Set Situation
There are alleged repurposed clothing assets from The Sims 4 Incheon Arrivals Kit, High School Years Expansion and other non-paid releases.
In the official Sims 4 Marketplace Q&A The Sims Team stated that they’re providing the creators with Base Game stencils and assets for helping create their own original creation. However, there hasn’t been any clarifications regarding how much can be copied, and if Sims 4 Makers can unofficially port over content from paid DLC releases into their own paid Maker Sets.
EA’s Statement on Repurposing DLC Content
Well, clearly the answer is yes. As long as there aren’t infringements with other third party IP franchises, Makers appear to be able to go beyond The Sims 4 Maker Suite and just port anything paid-for within The Sims 4 ecosystem into their own Maker Set.
Thanks to felixfae for bringing up this short official Discord Q&A session with EA Community Managers:
Question: can i ask a question to flag with the team? do makers need to own the rights for the models they upload to the marketplace? or can you use models from other sources?
EA Community Manager: Sure! Makers will receive and comply with a Content Policy outlining common-sense guidelines and legal requirements. As long as their creations comply with that policy, meet our technical requirements, align with The Sims’ age ratings (ESRB, PEGI, etc.), and do not infringe on third party intellectual property, they are free to create using the supported tools within the Maker Suite.
Question: so they’re allowed to use any of the sims ip freely without copyright infringement?
EA Community Manager: That will be further analyzed on the human-review phase, but if it doesn’t infringe on third party intellectual property, they are good to go.
I unfortunately cannot provide further information since I’m not part of the team that analyzes content made by Makers, that’s all I’m currently aware of. Sorry guys 🙁
I know how some stuff can bring out the worst in us when it’s about something we care a lot, but as long as you are respectful and thoughtful about the way you express yourself, any message can be heard. Appreciate you all!
Images source: felixfae
Some extra clarifications regarding what’s allowed and what’s not in terms of “frankenmeshing” previous paid DLC releases are still in hold. This aspect possibly hasn’t been thought through completely by the EA legal team, but an assumption of this continuing with future Maker Pack releases is normal following the approval of the Spring Wardrobe CAS Set.
What this means for The Future
We’ve already seen examples of repurposing DLC content happen officially from The Sims Team. After all, they’ve already tested out the limits of repurposing content already done in collaboration with their own The Sims Creators with Royalty & Legacy objects.
If repurposing DLC content within The Sims 4 Maker ecosystem is allowed, then can regular CC makers make free repurposes of already repurposed content, considering that they’ve been already repurposed once? Or is there now an added, double EA terms of service layer protecting the repurposed asset from being distributed for free?
It’s free real estate for The Sims 4 Makers in the year of 2026. So why not go wild and copy things done from other EA Creators and push back the limits with EA even further. If we all work together we can make this game Innovation Neutral by the year 2030!
What are your thoughts on the latest rule clarification for The Sims 4 Makers? Let us know what you think of seeing content from previous DLC releases in future paid Maker sets in the comments down below!
It’s disappointing but alas! What can we do. I really hope this is the exception within the marketplace and doesn’t become the standard.
Okay, so, someone release an asset bundle of expansion content ripped directly from each pack and charge 0 Moola for it.
Since it’s a free marketplace.
They don’t actually allow them to price sets for free, they have a minimum price in their pricing restrictions. What a joke.
Soooo reskins???? Wow thanks?
Hi, Waffle here, I’ve been keeping careful track of things like this, and I think this specific article is not fair to make at this time. The Community Manager in question- responding to people that included me- stated very clearly they do not have information on if this is ok, can’t say anything themselves personally, and will have to follow up. They also said they would push the issue to someone higher up to review, AND said that it’s up to EA in the market review process to check for things that break the rules.
That does not mean “EA thinks this is totally cool and fine”, we do not have that information yet.
I also think the R&L situation is completely different- R&L came with more items across the board than most packs and is a huge, massive pack. If EA repurposed anything, the difference there is
-It’s their content
-It’s an extremely small part of the total pack
-It’s clearly “extra” and not “taking the place of” what would otherwise have been a unique item
And it’s not worth harping on at all IMO, but more importantly it’s not really relevant to the issue of a CC creator getting the go-ahead to paywall THEIR content…and instead paywalling STOLEN Maxis-made content.
Regardless, this article supposes a conclusion that has NOT been reached, and is irresponsible because of it. Please clarify and make sure it’s absolutely clear that there’s NO answer just yet!
I got muted on the discord for a week for asking Oakiyo directly to respond to this (albeit with accusations of “Did you just think nobody would notice?”), so I’m taking this situation a little more personally now, but IMO this article’s not fair to the CMs.
They said that one of the reasons for creating this Marketplace would be to provide more content for console players, since we can’t download custom content (unlike PC players). But we continue in the same way, since the resource did not reach us. I don’t think PC gamers who can download custom content for free will choose to pay to download packages from the Marketplace. So I think they’re wasting time not releasing the feature right away to console players, who have no other option to have new content in the game but to buy it from the Marketplace…
Maker: I want to sell this content.
EA: Does it infringe on 3rd party IP?
Maker: (crosses fingers) Absolutely not!
EA: Cool. We’re in business!
3rd Party: Hey, it infringes on MY IP. See?
EA: (counting money) We’ll look into that…
(Crickets…while EA continues to count money)