Misleading promo images in today's (Sept. 18th, 2025) Game Update Announcement

"Show off and share your amazing playgrounds with the new BASE GAME playground venue!"

Base game playground items:

• Monkey bars
• Spaceship/pirate ship

End of list. Even SWINGS are a premium item locked behind DLC. This is more than just "misleading" atp. You couldn't even make swings base game for this update at least?? #playground ..with 2 items. 😑

I was also confused. I seen the article and seen the picture so I thought this was part of the base game. Why would they be showing gameplay objects from an Unreleased expansion pack. 
I was sadly shocked that in fact that wasn’t part of it. It was misleading and false advertising ! 

what would have been acceptable is a photo of park with base game equipment in the photo. But the new venue does require 6 playground pieces to be functional and bad game doesn’t have much variety so I see how it may be hard to make an appealing promo Picture … 

tangent. But why didn’t they put like a free base game swing in the upcoming event ? 

Like o said in my post. They had a perfect opportunity to add a free swing set in the event even 

I agree, this is good actionable feedback. Adding a swing in a free SDX update would be brillant!

Then EA can stop adding swingsets to so many DLCs! We have so many swings, I really don't feel the need for more, unless its a free BG update to help newer players participate in this upcoming playground challenge.

Otherwise, it just feels like an awkward push to buy packs (especially the upcoming new EP) and it doesn't belong anywhere near the patch notes, as it just causes confusion.

Thanks for your input btw! Always nice to meet a fellow simmer who is passionate about the game! 💚

Its now been confirmed that the playground venue requires 6 playground items to meet the the venue requirement and base game only has 3! 1 monkey bars and 2 jungle gyms. (Technically it's 4 but there are literally 2 pirate ships!) So this can't be enjoyed by basegame players at all without putting multiples of monkey bars and jungle gyms! This is ridiculous! Sims really needs to address this and make it right! 

I was really looking forward to turning this fully loaded kid's Park (original by MeganJo) into a Playground. I have all the packs. I've had it in my game forever and have added activities as they come out. But? Nope. Only works if I add another jungle gym and a rocket ship. 

I started a second feedback thread, because I think there are 2 issues here.

1. The misleading promo image
2. The playground equipment requirements are too high

Yeah, I was super exited to make custom playgrounds just to realize they were using a dlc image, would've been nice to have a disclaimer or something 

The playground item requirement was clearly designed with Adventure Awaits in mind because why have 6 playground equipment requirement on the lot when the base game has only 2? (3 if you count the spaceship and the pirate ship as two separate).

According to Google Gemini 

This kind of marketing is often referred to as "bait and switch," where a company advertises a desirable feature to lure in customers, only to reveal later that the feature is not included in the advertised product but requires an additional purchase.

2. Legal and Financial Consequences

The consequences for such a violation would mirror those for aggressive practices, and in some cases, might be even more likely to be pursued by consumer protection bodies.

• Fines Based on Turnover: As mentioned before, the EU's "New Deal for Consumers" allows for fines of up to 4% of a company's annual turnover in the relevant member state(s). This is the most significant financial risk. A successful action across multiple EU countries could result in fines in the tens or even hundreds of millions of euros for a company the size of EA.

It is not possible to give a precise percentage, but based on recent developments in EU law and enforcement, the chance of EA receiving fines for these types of misleading practices is extremely high.

This is due to three key factors: a powerful new legal framework, a clear regulatory focus on the gaming industry, and the proactive actions of consumer organizations.

The combination of these factors—a modern legal framework with teeth, a clear regulatory target, and a formal complaint from consumer advocacy groups—means that the risk of fines for EA is a very real and present danger. It is not a matter of if it could happen, but rather when and how severely the fines will be.

When I first saw the picture used to inform us about the base game update in the EA app while my game is updating, I really thought that we’re getting new base game playground items, so I immediately played the game after that and checked the build/buy mode, but couldn’t find any, I thought maybe it’s coming during the new event, so I went to read the news and the disappointment that I got when I read that it is actually only a new venue type.

It was my fault to not read the news properly, but then at least they should not make some misleading ads in the first place. Seeing the promo picture gave me hope, only to be disappointed when I found out the truth. Which giving me bad impression about the new pack, which I was actually interested with it when I saw the trailer…