The Sims 4 Life and Death Ad Controversy Explained

One of the most interesting aspects The Sims 4 is a sequential DLC rollout for the game. With at least one major pack released every season, Simmers is constantly getting new content to expand his game. However, the players were very unhappy with how The Sims 4 showing off its latest expansion pack.

The Sims 4The Life and Death expansion pack promises to give players new ways to experiment with one of the game's most gruesome features – death. The expansion pack description confirms that Simmers can experience a new grim reaper career, build cemeteries, conduct funerals and more after purchase. Many fans were excited about the package, proving that the contents of Life & Death were not what Simmers was all about. rather, The Sims 4 constantly bombards players with ads for a new expansion pack.

EA's controversial promotional strategy for The Sims 4: Life and Death

Creepy Sims 4 souvenirs have caused a frenzy

Over the past few years, The Sims 4 promotes new DLC, especially for larger content such as expansion packs, by offering limited-time exclusive items to players who buy a new pack by a certain date. In the case of Life & Death, players who pre-order or purchase the bundle before December 12th will receive a collection of “Horrible Souvenirs”, including an enduring heirloom family portrait, a Mournful Melodies music box and an elegant feather mask.

Again, the controversy isn't about players being unhappy with exclusive items, which The Sims 4 the team offers them. Instead, the fault lies with the exclusive item pop-up ads that appear when the game is launched. Reward ads are present in the game's main menu, so additional pop-up ads seem redundant. The Sims 4 previously faced backlash from fans when it added a button to the game's UI that led to DLC purchases. Promoting Macabre Mementos so heavily has caused some Simmers to reconsider whether they'll even buy Life & Death despite how much it might affect the game, proving that this heavy-handed advertising style is still controversial in The Sims community.

Previous free rewards in The Sims 4

Now this The Sims 4 available to players for free, it makes sense that Maxis and EA constantly encourage players to buy DLC content. Obviously, that doesn't change Simmers' frustration, but it's a logical explanation.

Maxis has also included new free quests for The Sims 4. “Happy Home” Sims 4 the rewards program was a limited-time quest that launched in June. Players who logged in enough times over a four-week period could claim eight free unique rewards, including Bullseye darts, loungewear, and the Practice Makes Perfect trait.

Given that new traits are usually only included in game DLC, new free furniture and Create-A-Sim items for The Sims 4 are usually only available when The Sims developers update pre-existing elements in the base game, this limited-time login event was a great opportunity for Simmers. However, many players missed out on the Happy Home rewards program despite the massive promotional images and links The Sims 4 homepage during and before the event.

This could be another explanation for the massive promotion of Macabre Mementos. Life & Death was touted as an essential expansion pack in the same vein as Seasons or Cats and Dogs. These types of expansion packs not only build on pre-existing aspects of the game, but change the way Simmers plays The Sims 4 completely. As many Simmers plan to purchase the pack, The Sims the team can push them to buy the pack early so they don't miss out on the “free” exclusive stuff.

Some Simmers are not so optimistic about the motives behind this ad. In May, EA announced that it was considering implementing more advertising in its AAA titles, including The Sims 4. This ad will be in the game itself, unlike the controversial store button.

Those who want to buy The Sims 4The latest expansion pack can be pre-ordered now or you can wait until the Halloween DLC release. Either way, they'll get the awful souvenirs that Maxis and EA seem so eager to hand out.