@JustBee4 I haven't seen any official explanation for the various language-locked versions, and it doesn't seem useful to speculate. And yes, obviously a couple of Central European countries receive language-locked versions, but what I was getting at is that many countries in Eastern Europe receive that version too. I haven't checked with every country but believe that most in Central Europe receive the global version, aside from Poland and the Czech Republic.
I understand that you'd rather see how this plays out, but it will likely take a very long time for anything to change, if it does at all. People have been requesting that the language locks be lifted pretty much since the game was released in 2014, and EA employees have promised to pass that feedback on for almost as long. If player feedback were enough to convince anyone, that would have happened a long time ago.
I'm not trying to be dismissive here, just suggesting that when you decide how to proceed, it's worth considering that your wait might be years long, or that perhaps nothing will ever change.
For all the previous discussions I found relating to the UK language lock specifically (see my second reply to my post), an EA employee never replied. Please may you link the posts that you have found? I have missed them and would be interested in seeing them and what the EA employees had to say in those threads.
I also find it interesting that this UK language-lock seemingly only applies to the Origin version and not the Steam version? Otherwise, the Steam version is being falsely advertised here. I have all 18 languages listed as being supported when I visit the UK Steam store (see my previous reply for a screenshot). Now that I have seen that, I would like an answer on that as well as it will influence my decision if I do decide to buy the Steam version.
I am aware that EA_Leeuw is an EA employee and I appreciate the decision to provide feedback to the other EA teams involved in these choices. This has been what I was hoping to hear when posting to this forum. I can only hope the other teams are this responsive and reasonable.
I believe it would be helpful for you to re-read what I said in the context it was in. @puzzlezaddict made a statement that this has been requested before, that EA employees have said they have provided feedback, but no resolution ever occurred. I have found numerous other discussions of this language-lock in these forums in the past, however an EA employee has not replied once to any of those threads that I have found. You can find the threads in question linked on the first place, it is the second reply I made to my post.
Of course, I am new to these forums, so there may have been discussions that I have missed. I would like to read any previous threads (so not my own) where an EA employee has responded since I am very interested in what they had to say.
I now have an update to the situation.
I mentioned earlier in the thread that all languages are listed as supported on the UK Steam version of the Sims 4. I decided to take advantage of the sale that's currently on and purchase the Sims 4 base game on Steam for £4.19.
I then installed it on Steam, changed the game language to German in game properties on Steam, and everything is working as intended. All my DLC (including the recognising that I own the Deluxe edition on Origin, despite owning the normal version on Steam) are correctly recognised, and I can play the game in German (or any other language) now.
I still believe that EA should do better and add all languages to the Origin UK version of the Sims 4. I see absolutely no reason for this difference between languages options on Origin and Steam here in the UK.
