Back at the end of June, we reported that The Sims 5, previously known as Project Rene, was heading towards a free-to-play direction. Now, in a new blog post from EA, this has been confirmed.
"This means that when Project Rene is ready and fully open to players, you will be able to join, play and explore it without a subscription, core game purchase or energy mechanics. We want playing to be super easy for you to invite or join friends and experience new features, stories and challenges."
When The Sims 5 does launch, though, this doesn't mean the end for The Sims 4. "We will continue to support both at the same time and will plan to bring more exciting content to The Sims 4 community for the foreseeable future," writes EA.
While being free to download might sound like a blessing, it will likely mean that most of the content for The Sims 5 will be locked away behind paywalls. For some, this is fine as it means the base game will be more of a demo to see if it's worth putting the money in, but for others, this is going to be an instant turn off from the game.
What do you think?