Confirmed: The Sims 5 Will Be Available for Free

Free, Sims 5

Rumors about a free-to-play version of The Sims 5 (also known as Project Rene) have been circulating online for quite some time now. In today’s The Sims Summit livestream, Lyndsay Pearson (Vice President of Franchise Creative for The Sims at Maxis) finally shared more interesting details about this!

Now it’s officially confirmed: The Sims 5’s base game will be available for free when it comes out.

Aside from that, we now also know that the game can be played without needing to pay for a subscription.

Besides regular updates to The Sims 5’s base game, there will be additional content and packs that can be purchased. The core game will have basic gameplay and features. By purchasing packs, you can expand this.

Currently, it’s not completely clear what these packs will look like and if microtransactions (for purchasing in-game items and features) will be added to the game, but it seems very likely.

At the moment, there’s still no official release date for the fifth generation of The Sims. The game won’t be available very soon. It will probably take at least another year.

We’ll keep you posted!

What are your thoughts on The Sims 5 becoming a free-to-play game? Leave a comment in our Sims 5 Facebook Community.

The Sims 5 Free-To-Play? This New Hint Suggests That It Will

Free, Sims 5

Simmers, we’ve got some news for you! Based on the discussions online, we know that many of you are wondering if The Sims 5 can be played for free after its launch. Even though there are plenty of rumors online, we now have some new exciting details about this.

On June 29th, Maxis published a new job vacancy online with a few very interesting details. This vacancy talks about “Project Rene”, which is the working title for The Sims 5. In one of the paragraphs about responsibilities for this role, they talk about “free-to-enter”. Even though we’re not 100% sure, it looks like they are talking about the possibility of making the next generation of The Sims free-to-play.

“Own pricing of all content in this free-to-enter game, ensuring we have an optimal pricing and content architecture. Provide guidance to content teams on in-game content needs to meet player demand.”

– Maxis

What does free-to-play mean, you may wonder? It means that the actual game can be played for free, but that it may include the option for microtransactions. Microtransactions allow players to buy in-game items or features. This usually means that the game is stripped down and requires in-game purchases to improve the gameplay.

In 2022, we asked group members of our Sims 5 Community about the possibility of having microtransactions in the next Sims game. This poll allowed users to vote on multiple options based on their preferences. 83% of the voters voted for big expansion packs and another 9% voted for game packs. But what’s perhaps more interesting is that only 1% voted for in-game microtransactions. A total of 462 group members voted on this poll.

In another similar poll from 2021, we asked group members whether they prefer standalone expansion packs or microtransactions in The Sims 5. 69% voted for standalone expansions and 28% voted for both standalone expansions combined with microtransactions.

This data shows that most Sims fans are not that excited about microtransactions in the fifth generation. Even though nothing has officially been confirmed, it looks like The Sims 5 may become a free-to-play game with microtransactions.

What are your thoughts on this? Feel free to share them in the Sims 5 Facebook Community.

Thanks, SimsCommunity.info and The Henford Hen for making us aware of this news.