The Sims 5 will be free-to-play, quickly-removed job ad suggests
With an in-game marketplace official and user-generated content.
The Sims 5 looks set to be free-to-play, going by a description of the game as "free to enter" by EA spotted on a job listing seen on the publisher's careers website.
EA has since removed the advert from its website - though not before it was spotted by Sims fans. (You can still see it now thanks to the Wayback Machine.)
The listing, first spotted by fans on Sims Community, described a Head of Monetisation and Marketplace for Maxis' "newest entry to The Sims franchise (code named Project Rene)".
The job listing described Project Rene a "free-to-enter" game, and confirmed it would have an "in-game marketplace of content and [user-generated content] (free and paid). Requirements for applicants included experience leading "large-scale monetisation efforts", quantified as over $100m.
EA has released few details on Project Rene as the game remains early in production, but this appears to be a clear signal of how EA is currently planning to monetise its next Sims installment. The Sims 4 went free-to-play in October 2022, eight years after its initial release, with no change in price for the game's countless DLC packs.
Project Rene was officially unveiled in October at EA's inaugural Behind the Sims Summit Stream event. Yesterday, more early development work on the game was shown, including "new lighting technologies" and neighbourhood prototypes.