It’s even worse than that. The only way to back up save files for games like Animal Crossing, which can represent a ton of playtime, is to pay for their online service. The save games aren’t saved to the cartridge like they were with 3ds and you can’t back up saves locally on the SD card either.

I feel like this was the origin story for the computer in I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.

That’s a big red flag to me. With the Sims 3, I think someone calculated that it would cost over $75,000 to buy everything for the game because of how they monetized the point store, so they’ve already shown a willingness to go there with monetization. Plus, gamers are much more accepting of micro-transactions these days (mobile games make tons of money) and EA publishes other games with some of the most egregious monetization in the industry (ex. FIFA). I don’t have much hope for Sims 5. I would be so happy to be wrong though. I was really excited about being able to customize furniture and have some kind of co-op play. I guess we will see.

Ironically, I just learned that you can turn off the points store in the Sims 3 game settings. This “free to enter” news inspired me to finally buy the Sims 3 collection in the Steam sale - getting it while the gettin 's good, ya know?