8 Video Games That Made You Pay For Essential Features - Commenter Edition

1. The Sims 4 - Growing Families & Seasons

Nobody nickel and dimes quite as successfully and somehow without enormous fan outrage than EA with the Sims franchise. Gone are the days when you’d sit down with The Sims 1 and have a gay old time, maybe with the chunky expansions Livin’ Large, House Party, Vacation, or my favourite: Hot Date.

That’s not to say EA weren’t nickel and diming you back in the early 2000s but let me quantify this for you. The Sims had 7 add-on packs. The Sims 4 has 28 full expansions and game packs and 47 stuff packs and kits. One of these is free. One of them. Nobody does it like EA.

This has especially hit home with each new full sequel as you know full well they could have thrown in tried and true features like seasons, pets, university, and get together. A particular pain point, apart from paying for seasons which is a ridiculous exclusion for a life-sim, is that without 2023’s Growing Together expansion parents couldn’t meaningfully influence their toddlers, children, and adolescents. Players were also given infants as a free content update but it kind of baited you into grabbing this expansion because without it there’s not much you can do with them. There’s a reason they can get away with making the base game free now.