@AgtScully1121 This is a known issue related to the recent exploit where people would buy EA Play subscriptions on Steam, add old games to their accounts, register the CD keys for those games in Origin, and cancel their subscriptions, thereby obtaining a large number of games for the price of one month of EA Play. The workaround from Steam and EA was to make those CD keys unavailable, even for people who'd bought the game outright long before this happened.
Do you currently have the game installed through Steam? If so, please check the registry for a CD key. The full path is this:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > WOW6432Node > Electronic Arts > Sims(Steam) > The Sims 3
If you were to install Pets, even temporarily, you'd get an entry for it in the same location; uninstalling the pack would require manually deleting that entry and another one as well, so please don't be surprised if you don't do this and your game won't start. (I can walk you through the process if you want.)
@puzzlezaddict Thank you for the information and assistance. (Cute avatar BTW, reminds of me of the cat I grew up with.) 🐱
Yes, the game is installed through Steam. The registry entry displays %CDKEY% when checking, but since I'm now able to view the basegame CD key through Origin after linking the Steam and EA accounts, I think I'm OK with that one.
I'm going to hold off on experimenting with a Pets installation, if that's OK, but I'll keep in mind to check the registry again after I do.
