The Sims 4 was released nearly a decade ago, and The Sims Studio has likely learned many things from its time working on it. With that in mind, The Sims 5 could come up with an entirely new business model to help alleviate its previous issues. One of its changes to it could be in the form of a battle pass.
Battle passes are nothing new to the gaming scene, having been mostly popularized by games like Fortnite. In games where they have been employed effectively, they have done well at generating hype and success overall. The Sims 5 could see a similar feature, which would go a long way in fixing The Sims 4’s most dire issue.
Why a Battle Pass for The Sims 5 Could Be Good
The biggest reason a battle pass could be justifiable is simply due to an excessive amount of DLCs for The Sims 4. Unlike other games that stop receiving DLCs a few years after their release, The Sims 4 continues to get DLCs all the way up to this day. As of this moment, purchasing every The Sims 4 DLC while not on discount would cost over $1,000 USD. Not to understate it, but this makes obtaining the entire experience a somewhat difficult task. For that reason, players may see a different approach to The Sims 5’s DLC, mostly in the form of an aforementioned battle pass.
A battle pass would be great because it solves the issue of monetization that The Sims Studio would face without the constant release of DLCs. Content DLCs that aren’t big enough to be considered expansions could become free updates as a result, so players wouldn’t have to worry about an excessive amount of DLCs in the future.
This kind of approach to The Sims 5 is similar to a live-service model, but that could ultimately be what the game needs. Not to mention, the use of a battle pass keeps players enjoying the game for longer in order to fulfil the requirements for rewards like cosmetics or housing items.
One issue that could arise during all of this is how exactly this model would be applied to a franchise like The Sims. It makes sense for games like Fortnite and Overwatch 2 because those games have very specific goals. The Sims is a much more freeform franchise, however, so applying this model would be a bit difficult. One method that could be used is having players fulfil random goals in The Sims’ world in order to progress. For example, making a certain amount of money or making friends with a certain amount of NPCs could be part of that. This would reward the players with items or in-game currency to use in The Sim’s character creation.
Overall, this could prove to be a more successful business model than the one The Sims 4 currently has going for it. Many games employ the free-to-play model accompanied by a battle pass, and it has seemingly come with great success when done well. Considering The Sims franchise’s popularity, it has the potential to do this just as well. This would also be a more future-proof business model than releasing a monstrous amount of DLCs over the course of nearly a decade. A battle pass would go a long way in preventing future monetization issues for The Sims 5.
That said, fans will have to wait for The Sims 5’s official release to see what the developer has in store. Considering how long it supported The Sims 4, players could see The Sims 5 stick around for quite a long time.
The Sims 5 is currently in development.