I’m experiencing the same issue on Mac. When I click Play, the preparing game message appears, then after 1-2 minutes the EA App reopens and the game never launches. No error message appears.
This started today, even though the game worked fine yesterday. I don’t use mods, only base game and expansions, and I tested with a clean Sims 4 folder. I have tried reinstalling the game and EA App, clearing cache, and granting permissions, but nothing worked.
I’ve been playing for 20 years and really hope this gets fixed soon.