The Sims 4 will feature a Premium Membership option

A couple of days ago Maxis posted a new trailer showcasing 20 minutes of The Sims 4 gameplay complete with commentary. The video is worth checking out as it gives us a closer look at the Create A Sim creation tool that the company keeps bragging about since the game was first announced. This new tool seems to be more powerful than anything we’ve seen in previous installments and it does appear that it allows you to create any Sim you can possibly imagine. Now, while the game looks great and all, there’s a potentially annoying aspect  -depending on your stance on greedy business practices – we can spot at one point during the video.

The writing is admittedly very small in the screenshot so you may have to zoom in to be able to read it. Here’s what it says: “The Sims 4 Premium: Save on new packs with early access and exclusive items. Become a Premium Member to get early access to 3 new packs, with exclusive items. Your Sims can throw a spooky costume party, camp in the great outdoors, and toast to the new year in style.” This is by no means a new concept as publisher EA has been doing it for a while now and Battlefield 4 players probably know this best of all.

I’ve mentioned this might be annoying to some because if you’re not a Premium Member, you have to wait about two weeks until you can play the latest content. This is definitely a good business model for the companies as players are encouraged to spend more money to receive early access. But it seems rather unfair that you have to wait two weeks in order to play content that is already available if you don’t own a Premium Membership. Furthermore, in competitive games Premium Members automatically have an advantage seeing as how they can get used to the new maps and weapons before everyone else gets a chance to play. Luckily The Sims 4 is not a competitive title, but this business practice will still likely get on some people’s nerves.

We don’t know how much the Premium Membership will cost, but we assume that it will be around 20 bucks or so. We can expect to find out the exact price and further details as we approach the game’s release date. The Sims 4 will be available for PC on September 2nd in North America and September 4th in Europe. Stay tuned for more news and updates.