My utterly correct and well-researched predictions for The Sims 5
no research has actually be done by me at all
EA will make the game a monthly subscription "service" which always needs to be online. There will of course be multiple subscription tiers with the higher tiers receiving some utterly mediocre clothes, hairs, furniture, Sims, you name it, paying lipservice to causes like diversity to make them seem important and un-missable (farm that FOMO). Lower tiers will have ads, a limited number of allowed mods/cc, and reduced graphics or some shit.
And of course there will be expansion packs, a staple of The Sims franchise, but you will need to pay for those too. Unless you subscribe to the platinum+ package, which includes a season pass. Of course there will always be certain cc packs that everybody will have to pay for, such as collaborations with big brands like D*sney, big fashion houses or IK*A. Occasionally there will be a freebie, but it will be a shitty print on a basegame T-shirt nobody cares for.
But that's not all! Not only will there be subscriptions, o no, there will be an ever bigger affiliate system. Basically an inbuilt multi-level management system (pyramid scheme) where people can sell their own mods/cc and recruit other people into their downline and make money of the mods they sell. They will give it a cutesy name, like Mod Families, Creator Visionaries, or Simgineers. There will be so many *shitty* mods, but since EA sits at the very top of the pyramid, there is absolutely no desire for quality control. You will see the same hair, with some added strands/removed strands/shorted/streaked/etc. edits over and over again. Of course there will be major fights and drama when the two biggest teams asset flip/convert create the same thing (some uninspired Second Life high poly blouse or something).
Anyway, I'm having a business meeting with EA next week and I'm very excited to share this plan with them.
P.S. Other features:
Extra in game currency like diamonds that people can use to buy even more junk for the game
Limit mods/cc to the Hub, you can't just put things in folders, it won't work
Sponsored events in the game, like a Simlish concert of K*ty P*rry or a Ad*das pop-up store in the mall
More social media integrations
An additional app for mobile devices where you play with your sims in a very limited way, but most importantly earn in game currency by doing stupid tasks, like playing games or watching ads
No pools in the basegame, that was a A+ decision in The Sims 4, so we're keeping that
A nice dystopian game!
What about it being multi platformed? So everyone gets access to the same store full of amazing simgeneered content? You also need a separate subscription plan for the store itself. If you pay monthly you can get all of it for free. And special discount if it's some exclusive content specially released by Special Simgeneers Team.