Earlier this month, Maxis announced that it was introducing paid mods to The Sims 4 via the new marketplace, and that 'Creators' would only keep 30 percent of the earnings — suffice to say, the news wasn't met with much enthusiasm.
Players complained that stuffing the game full of microtransactions, in-game currencies, and ads felt overtly cynical and corporate, even moreso than the hundreds of dollars worth of packs and expansions. So, in response, YouTuber and modder Just Joe completely removed not only the marketplace, but every other MTX element, in a bid to bring the game back to basics.
You load into the game, and it just looks like The Sims again. No store staring at you, no reminders, no pressure to click anything whatsoever.
"What if we just removed it? Not complained about it, not argued about it, just got rid of it completely," he explained. "So, I tried my hand at making a mod that strips out all of the marketplace UI entirely. The marketplace tab on the main menu — totally gone. The little coin wallet thing in the top right — gone. The promo cards on the side — gone. And even the in-game marketplace...
