Suggestions for if The Sims 4 ever wants to offer a subscription for its DLCs
While the current public stance of the development team seems to be that no subscription service for the DLC is being considered, I'd still like to offer some suggestions should such a system ever be tried to be implemented.
I'd suggest the following:
- Keep the base game free and do not make it require a subscription
- Still keep it so that you can buy DLCs individually from the EA & Steam store front directly
- Make the Marketplace currency Moola also be able to buy DLC at an equivalent exchange rate
- Give subscribers an equivalent amount of Moola monthly/annually to what they pay monthly/annually
With the last two points implemented, the system is more analogous to paying for a mortgage, which should be a lot more popular than a standard subscription system which feels more like renting. Basically being able to pay for DLC over time, while still being to enjoy/demo all of it.
Now, some may ask why a subscription for The Sims 4 should be more like a mortgage: The Sims 4 is not a live service game in the traditional sense. You can perfectly fine play the game offline and without updates, which is also why the illegitimate acquirement of DLC is probably higher than it should be.
As such, you have to offer some permanent value to the subscriber so that they continue to pay, just as mortgage payers continue to pay to finally some day call their home fully their own.
With such a system you would very likely have a much more positive reception from the community and also probably get more users to subscribe and for longer as they feel that get more out of it in the long run.