Sims 4 Announces New Virtual Marketplace
Posted on March 5, 2026 by Aywren
Remember that post I wrote last month with rumors of an incoming Sims 4 virtual currency? Turns out, it wasn’t a rumor (to no one’s surprise). Two days ago, EA announce the official Sims 4 marketplace, with a video and full FAQ and everything!
Oh, and using the cowplant as a symbol was also not a fake. The new currency is called “Moola” – as if that funny punny overwrites the concept of “cash cow” and the fact that the cowplant is literally a test of Sims greed in the game. Interesting take.
What’s Up with the Marketplace?
So, what is the Sims 4 marketplace all about? And why are some players up in arms about it?
Well, the marketplace will be an in-game store where you purchase packs of virtual currency to buy content that you use in game. That’s simple enough. We’ve had that in a form and fashion for years with stuff packs, game packs, and expansion.
The kicker to this is that it opens up a marketplace for what they are calling “makers.” Basically, this allows the community custom content (CC) creators to put their fan-made content in an official game marketplace and take a cut of the profit.
Since the dawn of the Sims franchise, CC creators have been making stuff for the community for free – note that putting CC behind a paywall indefinitely is against EA policy. Of course, you could support a creator through donations or something like Patreon. But it was a big no-no to directly charge for fan content for Sims games.
Well, now, these makers can charge other fans for their work in an official sense. Sounds good for the makers on first blush, right?
That is until you realize that EA is taking 70% of the profit cut in the marketplace. Yes. You read that right.
I’m not even sure why their FAQ went into all the details about how if something is sold for 100 Moola that the maker only gets 30 cents of the sale. I mean… spelling it out makes it sound so much worse.
And of course, where you have virtual currency, you have limited pack sizes. Meaning, you can only buy Moola in certain increments.
Therefore, if you want to buy an item that’s 600 Moola, your only choice is to buy the 1000 Moola pack, spending more real money than you need to for the item. We’ve seen this sort of thing time and again with just about every virtual currency market in games – it’s part of the predatory practices used to mask how much you’re spending behind the concept of the virtual currency.
To add to this, after March 17, 2026, you’ll no longer be able to pay real money for official Sims 4 Kits as they’ll all be moved to the marketplace. This tells me that going forward, Sims 4 is probably going to double down on Kits as the new form of microtransactions – especially since we’re hearing more and more that there will be no more expansions.
If you look at Kits, you can see where the nickel and diming is going to begin. I mean, how about this “Essential Glam Kit” that includes “27 items”… basically just different shades of blush, eyeshadow, and lipstick. Is that worth your $4.99? Or, sorry, now probably your 500 Moola?
We don’t know yet if Kit prices will be tweaked or kept the same.
I’ve never bought a Kit or a Stuff Pack for Sims 4 because I just don’t think the cost in relation to how many items you get – when compared to bigger packs – is worth it. But then again, I’ve stopped paying full price for Sims 4 content as it is, and tend to wait for sales.
Dark Days Ahead?
While the official announcement states that there will be no change to community CC going forward – that fans will still be able to make and offer their creations for free – I have a lot of questions and concerns. For how long?
If EA hits some sort of success with this maker marketplace, and finds that using the creativity and resources of its own players to cash in is easier than paying devs to create content… well. Where is that going to lead?
It’s a slippery slope especially with a 70% cut of every sale in the marketplace. I have no intention of supporting this, as I noted it my previous post. There are two expansion packs left to complete my collection of Sims 4 content, and I’m waiting for those to go on sale before I buy them.
After that, I’ll just play what I own in order to get my money’s worth out of all the years of support I’ve given the franchise. The sad thing is, while I’m currently going back and updating code on old blog posts here on this site, I ran across some of my first Sims 4 posts written back in 2014, and saw how excited I was for this entry to the series.
I don’t regret the hundreds of hours I’ve put into Sims 4. I still plan on putting even more time into it. I just don’t plan on giving them any more money.