EA is cracking down on modders selling their custom Sims 4 content

Enlarge/Look, we must have seen this photo of a Sims 4 mod "male pregnancy" while researching this story, so now you too!

Last month, EA released an update formalizing its policy that mods for The Sims 4 "cannot be sold, licensed, or rented for a fee" . But the publisher tells Ars that there is still one important exception that should ensure that many Sims modders can continue to earn significant revenue from their game expansion creations.

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EA's new modding policy, first released on July 21, is pretty straightforward in saying that Sims 4 mods "must be non-commercial and distributed free of charge" and that they cannot "contain features that would support monetary transactions of any type." According to the published policy, those wishing to monetize their Sims modding work are limited to indirect methods such as "passive advertisements and requests for donations" on their own websites (but not within mods themselves).< /p>

Despite this recent formalization, this policy is not entirely new. In late 2017, former EA Community Manager Amanda Drake wrote on the game's forums that modders "cannot lock content they create using our game behind a paywall." But this post also created a specific loophole for creators who wanted to offer an incentive to encourage donations through sites like Patreon:

As long as the content is still made available for FREE, we don't mind these types of pages. People who have a Patreon page are welcome to provide people with "early access" incentives for their content, but it should be available to the general public within 2-3 weeks of its early release.

Over the years, dozens of Sims modders have made use of this exception. Customers get priority access to in-development mods in exchange for monthly Patreon donations, and then finalized mods are released for free to all players weeks later. It can also be quite a lucrative arrangement; top Sims modders may have thousands of contributors who pay up to $10 or $20 per month each, in part for early access to new custom content.

A loophole left open

With EA's new policy update last month, however, many modders were concerned that special language regarding the Patreon "early access" exception was nowhere to be found. Instead, the new text simply states that "all users should be able to access all mods for free, whether or not they donate".

In the days following EA's update, affected modders sought clarification on whether their business models would be impacted. On Tumblr, modder marylnsims posted a response he received from EA Support saying "yes, you're right, Early Access is not allowed for modders."

Enlarge / Ever wanted to turn your Sim into a wizard? Mods can do this.

While some community members doubted the reliability of this answer, the uncertainty led some modders to remove their early access Patreon content out of an abundance of caution. "It's really upsetting to see such early access...