EA will keep expanding The Sims 4 instead of moving on to The Sims 5

EA vice president Joseph Traverso says The Sims 4 will keep getting new features, extending the life of the 12-year-old game and reinforcing EA's commitment to its current marketplace. That means the publisher is still backing the existing platform rather than putting its focus on The Sims 5.

The marketplace is the official place where approved creators can sell their own item sets under EA's creator program. Players pay with Moola, and creators receive about 30% of the money spent on their content. The setup has made the store one of the most controversial parts of the game's current business model.

EA also recently launched a web version of the marketplace, letting players browse and buy content outside the game. The browser version is meant to make purchases easier across EA App, Steam, and Epic Games Store, while still tying the content back to the game itself.

The Sims 4 has also drawn criticism because many fans see the marketplace as another layer of microtransactions on top of already expensive paid content. In 2026, the full official content for the game is said to cost more than $1,000, which has only sharpened the backlash around the new storefront.

That context helps explain why talk about The Sims 5 has gone quiet. EA is still putting resources into The Sims 4, and the company's direction suggests there is no rush to replace it with a numbered sequel.

The series has done something similar before: The Sims 3 had its own store with SimPoints. The difference now is that EA's storefront is built around community content and is integrated directly into the client, which leaves players with one big question: how far can The Sims 4 go as a live business model before a new sequel finally becomes unavoidable?