There are few franchises out there who have garnered as much controversy and criticism around them as The Sims franchise. Given how revolutionary its first game was for its time, it's no wonder why the franchise has been really struggling to live up to its name in an era of gaming in which players are becoming increasingly more demanding.
Although the franchise isn't totally destroyed yet, with The Sims 4 having recently reached a milestone of 30 million players, there's so much dirty laundry to look back to that it's hard to know where to start. The controversial nature of the franchise starts long before its first game was even properly released, all the way to its most recent developments.
10 The Kiss
Not all controversies are necessarily bad. In fact, good things can often come from people challenging the ruling norms of an industry, and that's certainly what happened back in 1999 when The Sims was being showcased at an E3 event.
Unplanned, two female Sims shared a kiss in front of the large audience of gamers and fans, which made the game famous at the time. It also set the standard for the entire franchise to remain as diverse and accepting as possible, making history for its time.
9 Banned Expansion Pack
These days, custom content is mostly free and available on the sites of whoever actually made them. Back in the day, however, custom content was more of a grey area. Original fans will remember X Media's controversial third-party expansion packs That's Life 1 & 2, which stole tons of CC from independent creators and sold them as expansion packs.
The pack was eventually banned, but the can of worms had been opened. During The Sims 2's heydays, the issue of paywalls and paysites surrounding custom content brought about a debate on whether or not players could make money off of custom content.
8 The Sims Online Failure
One of the most revolutionary things that The Sims did was publish The Sims Online, which aspired to be an online community version of the original The Sims game. Way ahead of its time, it allowed players to chat and play with other Simmers.
Unfortunately, it also faced a lack of sales and servers that eventually closed down due to not enough users being interested in it. Moreover, the in-game economy system had countless issues, such as horrible inflation.
7 Issues On Nudity
EA has weathered quite a few accusations, and The Sims 2 wasn't any different for the company, which came under attack by a Florida attorney around 2005. The game was accused at the time of having full-blown nudity due to a cheat that was still left in the game and various mods that were available.
However, these accusations were dismissed by the developers, who pointed out that, when naked, Sims had nondescript Barbie and Ken body types rather than actual nudity.
6 Console And Mobile Releases
It would take forever to point out all the cringy and horrible alternative releases of the game on various platforms because there's just so many of them, and none of them really did that well. From PSP releases to the console version of The Sims 2, most of them were failures.
Lately, The Sims Mobile and The Sims FreePlay have also been criticized for having little to no substance, other than to extract more revenues through micro-transactions.
5 The Sims 3's Lag
The Sims 3 was one of the greatest releases to have come out of EA due to how much it did to please the fans. Many features that players had only been able to dream of were implemented, including an open-world and color wheels.
Sadly, by the end of its run, The Sims 3 was so bloated that it could barely run even on high-end computers. Those with all expansions and stuff packs, in particular, were irritated they couldn't get their money's worth in performance.
4 Releasing The Sims 4 Unfinished
One would think after The Sims 3 something better would be on the horizon. At first, it definitely seemed that way. The truth couldn't be further from this, sadly, as The Sims 4 saw a release that was far too early and in an incomplete state which didn't even include pools or toddlers.
To this day, The Sims 4 still lacks some key features that could make the game more immersive and interesting to play. Although emotions and whims make the game dynamic compared to previous games, most of the world feels like a lifeless, plastic place that lacks a special spark.
3 Stuff Pack Shenanigans
Stuff Packs were initially introduced with The Sims 2, and, back in the day, they actually had quite a bit of substance to them. Players would actually get bang for their buck. However, as time went on, some questionable releases were made.
In The Sims 3, the Katy Perry collaboration stuff pack was a particular miss that had barely any interesting content and seemed like a totally niche pack. Most of The Sims 4's stuff packs were low on content as well, with My First Pet Stuff being the worst of the worst, as it requires players to have Cats & Dogs.
2 20th Anniversary Fiasco
In the early spring and later winter of 2020, fans were expecting something special to come out from the Sims team, which was preparing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. Many were expecting a re-release of The Sims 2 or even The Sims on Origin.
Instead, EA simply organized a massive sale of its Sims games on Origin and gave everyone a hot tub for free. It was a huge disappointment and a slap in the face, especially for fans who had been supporting the franchise for two decades.
1 Eco Lifestyle
It's an interesting time for the franchise. On one hand, EA is trying to extend the life of The Sims 4 and reap its benefits, and, on the other, The Sims 5's development has most likely started, with multiplayer elements included. In this context, it was a bit of surprise to see an expansion like Eco Lifestyle pop out.
The theme was community voted three years ago, and so feels no longer relevant to most people. Moreover, the expansion could have easily included elements from stuff packs, game packs, and other expansions to make it feel more robust.