Earlier this month, Maxis announced that they were introducing paid mods to The Sims 4 via the new marketplace, and that “Creators” would only keep 30 percent of the revenue – suffice to say, the news wasn't met with much enthusiasm.
Players complained that stuffing the game full of microtransactions, in-game currency, and ads felt overtly cynical and corporate, even more than the hundreds of dollars worth of packs and expansions. So, in response, YouTuber and modder Just Joe completely removed not only the marketplace, but all other MTX elements, in an effort to bring the game back to basics.
You load into the game and it just looks like The Sims again. No store staring at you, no reminders, no pressure to click anything at all.
“What if we just removed it? Not complained about it, not argued about it, just got rid of it completely,” he explained. “So, I tried to make a mod that removes the entire marketplace UI completely. The market tab on the main menu — completely gone. The little coin wallet on the top right — gone. The promo cards on the side — gone. And even the in-game marketplace button — the little cart on the top right — gone. The sims just load back into the game, no, no, and it just looks in-game. reminders, no pressure to click anything at all.”
Removing The Sims 4 Marketplace makes the game feel “cleaner,” says Just Joe
Just Joe found that, without the marketplace or various prompts asking you to spend, spend, spend, “it feels quieter, it feels a little cleaner, and it feels like you're just playing the game instead of being sold something in-game.”
However, removing the marketplace wasn't as simple as toggling the cart icon in the top right. The MTX elements are much deeper and appear in the main menu, UI and HUD of the game, so designing a mod to take care of the game with these features required a lot of trial and error. It just goes to show how pervasive microtransactions and in-game currency have become in The Sims 4.
“This isn't really about the mod, it's about what it shows,” Just Joe concluded. “The fact that you're removing the marketplace changes the way the game feels and tells you everything about why people reacted the way they did. This isn't just new content, it's a change in how the game presents itself.”
- Released
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September 2, 2014
- ESRB
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T for Teens: Crude humor, sexual themes, violence
- Developer
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Maxis
- Engine
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Proprietary engine
- Cross-platform play
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The Xbox, PlayStation and PC versions of The Sims 4 are all separate games that are not compatible with each other
- Cross Save
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no
