Over the years,The Simshas thoroughly proven that it is one of the greatest life simulators out there through its dominance in the genre. But as time goes on, things change, and so willThe Sims' business model as it goes forward. For that reason,The Sims 5should consider being a live-service game.
Becoming a live-service game would mean more frequent and free content updates that would trickle down over the years. It would also mean thatThe Sims 5would have to dig deeper into cosmetic packs to help recoup its losses. However, this would arguably saveThe Sims 5fromThe Sims 4’s biggest problem: its DLC pricing.
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How Sims 5 Could Utilize the Live Service Model
The Sims 4became free-to-playlast year. While this is great for players who want to get into the genre, it does little to fix the problem of wanting to own all TheSims 4’s DLC packs. One does not simply buy allThe Sims 4’s wealth of DLC content unless they have considerable wealth of their own. Unless it is on a discount, purchasing allThe Sims 4’s DLC packs would empty an individual’s wallet of over $1,000 USD. However, through the route of a live-service business model,The Sims 5may see itself avoiding this issue in the future.
The Sims 4came out in 2014, which at this point is almost a decade ago. Despite its age, it still sees various content and DLC pack releases, but years ofDLC packs forThe Sims 4have created the issue of making the game hard to get into if a player is looking for the full experience.The Sims 5could avoid this issue by providing free content updates, making what would have otherwise been DLC packs available for all. This bit of foresight would make the game more accessible for future audiences who may be interested in getting into the game, but may have been put off by the large amount of DLCs.
However, Maxis couldn’t just do this without reason. It would need some way to support its team financially in order to justify continuing to work on free updates forThe Sims 5. One route it could take is continuing to monetize certain DLCs that have a smaller impact on gameplay, such asThe Sims 4’s kits, and create an in-game cash shop out of them. That way, players would have a reason to continue spending money on the game to support the developer. However, there is one more method that could be employed by The Sims Studio, but it is arguably much more controversial.
Maxis could also employ the use of a subscription model, similar to many MMORPGs, but rather than one that grants player access to play the game, this iteration would simply allow players access to new content added over the years. Once content became old enough, it could be added to the base game, allowing players who do not purchase the subscription for it to have access to it eventually. However, this may be largelycontroversial forThe Simsbecause the idea of paying a subscription for what may be a single player game could be frustrating to many. It may be more viable for the developer to go through with the former method of continuing to sell kits.
Regardless of what method it employs, a live-service model would help future-proofThe Sims 5for future players. It may even help justify the existence of amultiplayer option inThe Sims 5, which would ideally see long-term support to keep the experience fresh.
