The Sims 4’s Expansion Packs are Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

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The necessity of expansion packs for The Sims 4 has never been greater. Since Stuff Packs and Game Packs have been discontinued, The Sims 4 primarily introduces fresh content through Expansion Packs, Kits, regular updates, and special events. Given the likelihood that this game will remain popular for an extended period, these elements play a crucial role in providing Simmers with continuous new experiences.

It appears that the game, The Sims 4, struggles to manage extensive information, particularly in its Legacy Challenges that rely on long-term saves. Moreover, a bug related to save corruption has been exacerbated by The Sims 4: For Rent, causing loss of saves, which is highly problematic for players who have spent years developing their Sims and considerable amounts of money on expansion packs.

Why The Sims 4’s Updates Break the Game

With no plans for The Sims 5, the expansion packs for The Sims 4 are more crucial than ever before. These expansions enrich the game with new elements and activities. However, unlike in previous Sims games where expansions covered a variety of topics, The Sims 4’s expansions concentrate on a specific area, like The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs or The Sims 4: Horse Ranch. In contrast, The Sims 3: Pets had multiple features all rolled into one.

Initially, The Sims 4 was planned as a multiplayer game, and the neighborhood structure is a vestige of this design. To navigate beyond neighborhoods within the same world, you need loading screens, which were implemented to ease the strain on PCs and consoles. However, the worlds and neighborhoods inside them can strain this system, especially when players add more content, leading to a severe bug that can potentially damage saved games.

Casual players typically don’t experience this issue, but dedicated Sims 4 players who maintain lengthy single saves and participate in Legacy challenges often encounter a save corruption glitch. This is because Legacy saves often contain numerous user-created Sims, as well as multiple homes spread across various worlds cluttered with items. The game struggles to process all this information, leading to the corrupted save.

Save corruptions happen when players:

  • Have only one save
  • Have multiple households in one save
  • Build on many lots in different Worlds
  • Have more items populating the Worlds
  • Have multiple households on lots from The Sims 4: For Rent

To prevent save issues for Legacy Challenge players, consider these strategies:

1. Eliminate unnecessary Non-Playable Character (NPC) families from the game.
2. Keep your gameplay confined to just a few properties or lots.
3. Remove any extra Sim characters that are not part of your active play.

The Sims 4 Expansion Packs to Watch Out For

Since there’s no sign of The Sims 5 yet, The Sims 4 needs to maintain its longevity without any end to official updates, but it struggles to handle an abundance of additional content. This issue has been ongoing, but it became more pressing with the arrival of The Sims 4: For Rent. Regrettably, for some players who had never experienced save corruption before, The Sims 4: For Rent unfortunately caused a wave of corrupted saves.

18 months have passed since the corruption bug became a public concern, and unfortunately, there seems to be no resolution yet. In February 2025, the team behind The Sims 4 announced they were investigating the problem, but since then, no further updates on the issue have been shared, as of July 2025.

The Sims 4’s Other Longtime Glitches

As an ardent fan, I can’t help but share my experience with the buggy landscape of “The Sims 4.” It’s not just the save corruption glitch that stands out as the worst, it’s accompanied by a cast of characters – bugs! Each expansion pack unveils its own set of serious issues. Some of these issues take months to resolve or, unfortunately, are left untouched.

For instance, the update for “The Sims 4: Enchanted by Nature” brought forth an unexpected guest – a pregnancy glitch. This glitch turned pregnancy into a rollercoaster ride at every stage, making it anything but ordinary.

As a dedicated gamer of The Sims 4, I’ve been playing for years now, and it’s been seven long ones since Seasons expansion was released. While the game has brought plenty of joy, there’s one issue that’s persisted – gardening glitch in Seasons, which unfortunately still isn’t fixed.

On top of that, each expansion pack seems to have its own set of challenges. For instance, I’ve noticed that the restaurant feature in Dine Out and the weddings in My Wedding Stories are broken. And let’s not forget about Enchanted by Nature, where the ailment system is out of balance, and those pesky gnomes just won’t behave!

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2025-07-28 21:40