The Sims 4 launched in 2014 and now has over 10 years of content. In the past, The Sims games would only be supported for between four and five years before moving on to the next installment of The Sims in the franchise; for instance, The Sims 3 launched in 2009 and support ended in 2013. With The Sims 4 having such a long lifespan, and no planned development for The Sims 5, EA has begun adding live service elements to The Sims 4, the latest of which is its timed events.
The Sims 4's Reward Events are free to participate in, and offer a variety of rewards that enhance gameplay. Problems for Simmers include the limited nature of the events and rewards, making the rewards easy to miss forever. Another big issue are the prompts and popups reminding players to participate, which have become disruptive to gameplay and persist even once the events are completed.
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The Upside to Sims 4's Reward Events
The Sims 4's timed events involve a questline the player has to complete in a single household. Points are earned for each task completed, which can be exchanged for rewards along the way. Because it's a timed event, the questline needs to be completed by logging in a certain number of days across the timed event, typically over four weeks. The Blast from the Past Event, as a special anniversary event, was originally slated to run for six weeks, and was extended to eight weeks.
As of March 2025, there have been four timed Reward Events:
- Happy at Home Login Event (May 30, 2024 – July 3, 2024)
- Reaper's Rewards Event (September 24, 2024 – November 19, 2024)
- Cozy Celebrations Event (December 3, 2024 – January 10, 2025)
- Blast from the Past Event (February 4, 2025 – April 1, 2025)
The Sims 4's Reward Events have brought items to The Sims 4 that include new Sim and lot traits, Build and Buy mode items, and Create-a-Sim items. Some of these new items are simply reskins of existing items, while others are completely new. The Blast from the Past Event included items from The Sims 1 and The Sims 2, including handheld phones, inflatable couches and chairs, and a giant birthday cake as the final reward. The handheld phones were purely decorative and nonfunctional, but nevertheless, the items and traits added to The Sims 4 through the Reward Events have been worth collecting overall.
The Cons of The Sims 4's Reward Events
While earning new and unique items through a storyline is a fun way to obtain new items in theory, the storylines themselves have been criticized for being lackluster and repetitive, although there was an improvement in the Blast from the Past's storyline. Another issue is that if Simmers miss the Reward Events, they will also miss the chance to receive these items forever, as these timed events don't repeat, and the items are a limited, one-time event.
The Blast from the Past Event's time span being eight weeks was an anomaly because it was a special event for the 25th anniversary of The Sims franchise, but having these events run for longer would mitigate some of the problems for The Sims 4 community. Another issue is the Reward Event popup's disruption of gameplay. The pop-up for the event appears even once the event has been completed. If that is removed, the event could become less disruptive to gameplay for those who have completed it, while others will have a larger window to complete the event and collect the limited items.
The Sims 4
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 70 /100 Critics Rec: 26%
- Released
- September 2, 2014
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Crude Humor, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Maxis
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Cross-Platform Play
- Xbox, PlayStation, and computer versions of Sims 4 are all separate games incompatible with each other
- Cross Save
- no
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
