The Sims 4 is a game that's almost eight years old, but fans don't seem to mind since the community continues to thrive on Youtube, Twitch, TikTok, and elsewhere. The Sims 4 still maintains its place as the most popular life simulation game on the market and continues to bring in revenue for Electronic Arts.
Fans may not be playing The Sims 4 because it's the best life simulator, however. In reality, it's practically the only option on the market that offers the capability a Sims game does. While the first four games in the series came out at steady intervals between 2000 and 2014, EA has only very recently confirmed that The Sims 5 is in development, and fans are not expecting to see any progress on the new game for a long time.
DLC Instead of New Games
It wouldn't be true to say that EA released The Sims 4 in 2014 and hasn't touched it since. The company has added frequent DLC, though almost all updates and additions to the base game cost money. Between different versions of The Sims 4 Packs like kits, stuff, game, and expansion packs, there are more than 45 unique purchasable downloadable content options for the game. The expansion packs, which are the largest and add new areas and NPCs as well as in-game items and events, cost $39.99 each — almost the price of an entirely new AAA game title.
The most recent DLC, Cottage Living, came out in 2021 and fans enjoyed the new content that allowed farming and added animals that players can raise. Still, many fans remain frustrated at EA for putting so much effort into a seven-year-old game rather than developing a better, newer experience. Players have also expressed disappointment in the high price tag for downloadable updates on a game as old as The Sims 4 — for a player to own the game and all expansion packs (without including stuff packs, game packs, or kits) would ultimately cost just under $500.
Competition for The Sims 4
The Sims 4 has a monopoly on the life simulator market, mainly because of the breadth of capabilities the game offers to players. While other simulation games generally choose one specialty and stick with it, The Sims games have always offered several ways to play the game, allowing players to explore all of it or one small aspect. Gamers have the opportunity to play an architecture, design, landscaping, dating, family, college, and career simulator all inside of one game — a feat that other life simulation games like Animal Crossing don't come close to pulling off.
In 2020, a potential competitor to The Sims 4 finally appeared on the horizon. Paralives is a new game in development with the dev team calling it a "dollhouse life simulator." The creators of Paralives claim to be huge fans of The Sims franchise and have taken on this project in order to help the genre grow and expand. Fans on social media have expressed extreme excitement about the upcoming game, especially as the development team has released consistent updates and videos, including a new video of the character creation process in December of 2021. The videos of the home and character creation in Paralives show off extreme flexibility and creative freedom, focusing on issues that fans have had with The Sims 4 for years, including a lack of curved walls and lack of freedom with tattoo placement.
While Paralives will likely be a strong rival to The Sims 4's domination of the life simulator genre, players aren't sure when that will become a reality. Paralives is still in development and while fans expected to see it sometime in 2021, the team behind the game has not confirmed or estimated a release date. For now, The Sims 4 remains the most capable life simulator available and maintains its throne.
The Sims 4 is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.