EA Changes Sims 4 Paid Mod Rules After Fan Backlash

Last month, EA announced new rules and restrictions on paid mods, early access, and how creators can advertise their creations. And this led to many unhappy responses and ongoing controversies within the sims community.

The Sims 4 It may have been released in 2014, but the life simulator continues to receive massive official updates and boasts a large, active community of modders who regularly produce user-created content for the game on PC. Some of these creators make a living by selling mods or receiving donations from players who enjoy their work. So it’s no surprise that EA’s July 26 policy update, which outlined that mods would no longer be allowed to be sold or locked behind a Patreon sub, set off a firestorm online.

In the update published in the official EA sims 4 help site, the company explained that the mods cannot be “sold, licensed or rented for a fee” and that the mods cannot add or support “monetary transactions of any kind”. What this means is that you cannot place your own digital store within The Sims 4 and sell NFT t-shirts or sell your mods through a website.

EA acknowledged that developing a mod takes time and resources and allows creators to sell ads on their mod sites and receive donations, but creators can’t include those things in the game itself.

Read more: sims 4 Accidentally updating adds incest

But when this support page first went live, the part mentioning that paid early access was allowed was not included. This caused a lot of backlash, as many content creators and modders use the early access model to release mods to dedicated fans willing to pay before everything is working properly or finished. The idea is that once the mod is ready, the developers release it for free and that pay period helps support them as they work to finish the mod.

Apparently EA comes after this fairly old system that was mostly accepted by the community worked as well as you’d expect. It’s also a great twist, since the publisher usually supports your sims mod community. game point spoke to some content creators about the situationand some explained that selling access to mods was the way they were able to survive.

“Early access to Patreon is one of the only reasons I can pay for my own medicine, food, pet care, and apartment so I can live on top of my disabled dad to take care of him.” sims 4 modifier JellyPaws saying game point.

After much negative reaction from players and bad press, EA has now changed course and today updated the help article to include a specific exception for paid early access. While selling mods directly or locking them behind a paywall is still a no-no, this new update enables the community-approved Patreon system.

Here is the text that EA has added to confirm that you are ok with this type of paid mod system.

Offer an early access incentive for a reasonable amount of time. After a reasonable early access period, all users should be able to access the mods in their entirety for free, regardless of whether or not they donate.

However, although this helped to turn off some of the fire, others are still nervous about how vague this new rule seems to be. How long can a mod stay in Early Access before EA declares that it should be removed and released for free? EA only says a “reasonable amount of time” but doesn’t specify, which likely allows the publisher some wiggle room as they assess mods on a case-by-case basis.

Kotaku has contacted EA about the early access rule and asked for clarification.

For now, sims fans and creators like kawaii foxita seem cautiously optimistic about the situation. Of course, if EA reveals that a “reasonable amount of time” is like five days or a week, you’ll likely be in another mess.