The Sims 5 gameplay leaks have us worried about microtransactions
While Maxis and Electronic Arts are seemingly happy churning out The Sims 4 expansions in hopes we've forgotten about The Sims 5 being announced in 2022, the mysterious Project Rene is at the forefront of our minds right now. 10 years after The Sims 4 was released, we're getting impatient for what comes next.
We've been told that Project Rene will be free-to-play, and although that sounds like a win on the surface, it's got players worried about how the franchise will make money. It's not as simple as selling skins like in Fortnite or Warzone, and with it, we're concerned that The Sims 5 will be a microtransaction minefield.
The Sims 5 gameplay hints at microtransactions
We'd already guessed that Project Rene would see the next chapter in the Simsverse bridge the gap between mobile and console, and while taking your builds on the move is another win, mobile games have something of a chequered past. Now, leaked screenshots of a pre-release version have hammered home these fears.
Multiple leaks of Project Rene gameplay are currently doing the rounds, with one showcasing leaked screenshots from Android. Reportedly coming from an October 22 playtest, we imagine things have come a long way since then. However, it's given some fascinating insight into what's coming.
Teasing something very different, it looks like Project Rene will let you furnish apartments instead of building houses. Saying that you can find player-created furniture through a Discovering tab and Maxis-built wares through the Buy button, its further confirmation that microtransactions will likely have a big part to play.
The Sims players aren't happy about Microtransactions
Click to enlargeWith dollar signs ringing in EA's eyes, players took to the comments to share their frustrations. One sceptic simply wrote, "Smells like microtransactions," while another added, "If you don't think they're going to monetize the hell out of that game, you should probably look up what KRAFTON has done to their other popular game lol."
Someone else had a more positive outlook and said, "From a CFO persecutive SIMs is the perfect title for micro transactions... just think about the idea of charging players for each differnt wallpaper they want to apply ... out of all games it is the game were players spend the most time thinking about aspects and everything is themabable."
Others are concerned that phones will be able to run Project Rene or that the console versions could be held back graphically to better suit phones. Still, remember that Apple had been going hard on promoting the iPhone 15 Pro Max as a console in your hand with the Resident Evil 4 remake port.
It's six of one and half a dozen of the other, as even though we're happy we won't be having to stump up $70 to get the base version of The Sims 5, we'll likely be shelling out even more for themed furniture sets and seasonal updates. We're not totally against microtransactions, but after the whole Battlefront II situation, EA doesn't have the best reputation.
