Sims 4's Paid Mod Store Hits Consoles as EA Backtracks on PC

$2.49 to $49.99. That's the range of Moola bundles now available to PlayStation and Xbox players following The Sims 4's Marketplace launch on consoles, delivered via patch 2.31 on April 16. Moola is the premium currency required to buy Maker Packs and Kits inside the game's new in-game store for community-created content. If the setup sounds familiar, it's because PC players have been dealing with it since March, and they hate it.

Here's what makes this update absurd: at the same time EA is rolling the Marketplace out to console players, the publisher appears to be reversing course on PC. According to a leaked memo reported by SimsCommunity, EA intends to make Kits purchasable directly again on PC without requiring Moola. The change has reportedly already happened on the EA App, with Steam set to follow on April 20. So the system EA is actively retreating from on one platform is the same system it just forced onto two others.

I can't think of a cleaner example of a publisher knowing something isn't working and shipping it anyway. The backlash on PC was loud and specific: Moola denominations are structured so you almost always have leftover currency you can't spend, Kits were delisted from Steam and the EA App so the Marketplace became the only option, and some players resorted to installing a mod that strips the entire storefront out of the game. EA saw all of that, and its response was to push the same model onto consoles where players have even fewer alternatives.

Console Players Lose Store Access

The practical impact for PS4 and Xbox owners is this: Kits have been delisted from the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store entirely. If you want Kit content going forward, you buy Moola inside The Sims 4, then spend it in the Marketplace. Expansion Packs, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs remain on platform storefronts, but everything tied to the Maker Program now funnels through the in-game currency. Console players don't have the option of modding the Marketplace away.

There is a silver lining buried in here. Console Simmers have never had any real access to community-made content before, and the Marketplace does open that door. Purchased items install without a game restart, and a free download of the Country Kitchen Kit is available through the Marketplace until May 29. The patch itself also delivers meaningful quality-of-life fixes: Sims will now prefer talking to people they already know rather than accosting strangers, excessive autonomous flirting has been toned down, and new "Dislikes Phones" and "Dislikes Computers" preferences let you stop your Sims from gluing themselves to screens. Those are changes the community has been requesting for a long time, and they're welcome.

But wrapping a controversial storefront in a good patch doesn't change what the storefront is. EA is selling console players on a system it already knows doesn't work well enough to keep on PC. If the company does wait to see how console players react before making the same Kit reversal there, as VG247's reporting suggests it might, that means PlayStation and Xbox owners are essentially beta testing a monetisation model that PC players already rejected. That's not a rollout strategy; it's a stalling tactic.