As a player, I find the introduction of a dedicated "shop" button while in active gameplay extremely distasteful. Players have no trouble learning about packs via the ads in the main menu or by looking at the Origin launcher. Because of this, I don't believe that it is an "accessibility" feature at all. Even if it offered some sort of way to purchase packs while in-game, you would have to restart the game anyway to install the content anyway, correct? The only thing this accomplishes is making The Sims look more like a predatory mobile game, especially when you consider how often these new packs release with horrendous game-breaking bugs and features that don't even work properly (ie. My Weddings Stories).
Obviously, I don't know what development of The Sims 4 is like nor the relationship between The Sims team and EA. However, as a player and an observer of the game industry in recent years, an intrusive UI update like this leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Let's not forget, The Sims 4 already has a thriving community of players who bought the game for full price when it launched and have individually spent tens or even hundreds of dollars on expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs, kits, etc. for almost ten years now. Slapping a new button on-screen for the sole purpose of getting more money from players is just completely disrespectful and it makes me leery of continuing to support it.
@JoeyMagLightsNot to forget Dineout which never really worked.
Instead of trying to force all players to buy all the buggy games with an intrusive shopping cart, they should focus more on the bugs that have been in the game for years. But no, an intrusive shopping cart and vitiligo was more important. This audacity is hard to beat.
They really hit an all time low with this update, bleh
