Weird Game Version txt file

I want to know what the latest game version I have is, but since the latest update, the GameVersion Text Document just says what amounts to gibberish for me:  ⸱〱⸸㐳⸹〱〲 . I thought it could be Japanese or a Chinese language, but when I searched various translation websites, they all came up with nothing. I checked with and without mods installed, nothing has made a difference. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks!

Thank you! Is there a way to make wordpad my default for this .txt file specifically? I only have this problem with this specific file, in The Sims 4. I used to be able to open it with notepad just fine, until relatively recently. Sorry if this is a dumb question..

@Sunem1 

Yeah, there is, but I play my game in my language so my translation could be a little different from the original English one.

1. Click on the .txt. file with the right button, and then choose Open with>Choose another app

2. On the pop up window click Wordpad and then the check box Use always this app to open .txt files

3. Click OK

Sorry I read your post wrongly, you cannot isolate that file specifically, but you can open all your .txt files with Wordpad. The method is valid, but all your .txt files will be open with Wordpad.

Thank You! 🙂

Thank you so much opening with word pad worked! Thanks again!

I opened this file a while back only to see what looks like a bunch of odd characters, rather than it showing me the actual patch number my game is on.  A search of this forum led me to this two year old thread Weird Game Version txt file | EA Forums - 11842837 that I didn't want to necro, so I thought I would start this one as this issue has cropped up again.  

I probably won't be the only one who has this issue.  It doesn't interfere with the game running but it is a nuisance not to be able to actually read the patch number.  It has always been a way for me to quickly check to be sure a patch installed and have the information available, if needed, for use in the bug forum.  I believe this occurred on the patch released on or about 7/1/25.  I had trouble getting the patch to install and when it was successful, the file changed from the patch number to the characters.  I thought it might correct with future patches but that hasn't been the case.

Since I can't be sure EA is aware of this change, at least for me, I hope this draws attention to it and it can be corrected.

In the thread you mentioned, there's the solution. It's not an EA/The Sims 4 issue, but a Notepad issue. Windows changed something in that app, so to read the .txt file you need to open it with Wordpad (an already installed windows program) or another program you can find online.

Thank you for your reply.  I did read the thread completely through.  There must have been something done on the EA side since the thread I referenced, because my Notepad read the patch number just fine until I had difficulty installing the July 1 patch.  I think it was the July 1, 2025 patch.  It was the one that temporarily displayed SDK between the patch number and DX 11.

Word Pad has been removed from Windows 11 and I would prefer not to install another program, Notepad++, if possible.  Since that thread did state the issue had been reported to EA, I hope the same can be done again.