Hi, I've been having this same issue as of just a couple days ago (June 26th.) Had no issues prior to that day, usually playing daily.
Game Version: 1.107.151.1020
Windows 10
When I attempt to launch The Sims 4, my EA app tries to load for a bit, then, there is either a pop-up that says, "An update is required to launch this game," despite no update actually being available, or there's nothing at all and it just redirects me back to the EA app game page.
I've tried a bunch of other different solutions and none of them have worked yet.
So far, I have:
- cleared EA app cache
- cleared localthumbcache
- repaired game in app
- restarted PC (Dell laptop)
- ended all EA tasks w task manager (including background activity)
- tried toggling offline mode in EA app and launching w/o internet
- removed mods
- turned off VPN
- tried running both EA app and Sims game as administrator
- checked my storage (more than 40GB free space left)
- made sure OneDrive was uninstalled
- disabled the Windows Defender's Controlled Folder Access to allow TS4.exe (after doing this and attempting to launch, I got the first and last error message I received: "Unable to start: initialization error at startup. [135dec40:29f00e76:00000084:18a1dd51]")
Only when I tried...
- playing with a "clean folder" (moving the Sims game folder to my desktop)
- moving the Electronic Arts folder to my desktop
- playing on a new local admin Windows account
...did the game ever actually launch and load to the main menu, albeit without any of my saves or gallery library.
(When I moved the EA folder to my desktop, it did not duplicate, and I did not get an error message. A new EA folder with a Sims 4 folder inside was created in Documents.)
((When the game launched successfully the first time, I used that opportunity to disable mods as well.))
Any help at all would be so, so appreciated! I've been at this for two days pulling my hair out trying to get this sorted. Dxdiag included below.