Everything you need to know about The Sims 4 on Steam
The Sims Team has just expanded their audience onto another new platform – Steam!
For those who don’t know, Steam is a gaming platform for PC / Mac (very similar to Origin) that lets you purchase and keep track of various video games from various developers. From GTA V to new EA titles being transferred over to Steam as well – it’s almost all there! It also serves a purpose of bringing together a community of video game fans with their forums, achievements, trading cards and more.
With the release of The Sims 4 on Steam there have been a few questions floating. I’m going to try to sum up all of the frequently asked questions and answer them below:
What is Steam?
Best described by Wikipedia, Steam is:
…a video game digital distribution service by Valve. It was launched as a standalone software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to include games from third-party publishers. Steam has also expanded into an online web-based and mobile digital storefront. Steam offers digital rights management (DRM), server hosting, video streaming, and social networking services. It also provides the user with installation and automatic updating of games, and community features such as friends lists and groups, cloud storage, and in-game voice and chat functionality.
How does this affect current The Sims 4 players on Origin?
The expansion of The Sims 4’s collection over on Steam doesn’t have a single affect on your current preferred platform.
What benefits are there to The Sims 4 arriving on Steam?
There are many gamers out there who prefer playing video games exclusively through the Steam platform. Some even like showcasing their entire video game collection that they have over there considering the vast majority of titles available on that platform.
Steam has a unique way of bringing their community together with user reviews, achievements, trading cards and forums. All of that is now open for The Sims 4 players as well!
Which Sims games can I get on Steam?
Right now you can get The Sims 4 and all of it’s Expansion Packs, Game Packs and Stuff Packs, as well as The Sims 3 and all of its Packs as well. There’s also a sale that lasts until July 9th, 2020 where you can get The Sims 4 Base Game for 50% off, Expansions and Game Packs for 30% off and Stuff Packs for 20% off!
Click here to be taken to The Sims 4’s collection page on Steam!
Do I still need Origin / EA Account to play The Sims 4?
Yes. One of the main features of The Sims 4 is the Online Gallery where you can download creations made by other players. Considering that the feature has been built on Origin’s infrastructure and servers, you’ll be needing to create an EA Account and have Origin installed on your computer in order to play.
When launching The Sims 4 via Steam the game will run through Origin (if you’ve already signed in) and Origin’s client will run quietly in the background while you play the game.
But I already have The Sims 4 and all / some of the Packs on Origin…
There’s really no need nor benefits of having The Sims 4 and its Packs purchased on both Steam and Origin. This is once again only a benefit for players who prefer to have their games on Steam.
You won’t be able to transfer over your collection from Origin to Steam. However, if you have The Sims 4 Base Game purchased on Steam and already own Packs via Origin, you’ll be able to have those exact Packs when launching The Sims 4 via Steam.
Got more questions regarding The Sims 4 on Steam? Check out EA’s Troubleshooting EA Games on Steam page!