Players of The Sims 4 can expect a game-changing Expansion Pack to hit the EA Store on March 6. Not only will the new Businesses and Hobbies Expansion Pack feature the standard new Build and Buy items, Create-a-Sim (CAS) items, and new world that all Expansion Packs include, Businesses and Hobbies will include new features in The Sims 4 that Simmers have been begging EA and Maxis to add for years.
The Businesses and Hobbies Expansion Pack was first leaked in January before being officially announced in the Motherlode Season roadmap. Not only did the Motherlode Season roadmap announce Businesses and Hobbies, it informed players of key dates tied to the Expansion Pack, including the release date of its initial trailer (February 6), the release date for its gameplay trailer (February 18), and the date Businesses and Hobbies would launch. Expansion Packs for The Sims 4 tend to receive both a first look and a gameplay trailer. Fortunately for fans, the gameplay trailer for Businesses and Hobbies was particularly illuminating.
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Businesses Are Revamped in The Sims 4
Businesses and Hobbies clearly has two main aspects of gameplay – new types of businesses and hobbies. Based on the Businesses and Hobbies Expansion Pack’s initial trailer, EA and Maxis have placed more emphasis on businesses than on hobbies. New business gameplay was heavily emphasized in this initial trailer, though the businesses showcased in the trailer reflect the new hobbies added to The Sims 4 through the new Expansion.
How Sims 4 Businesses Can Now Be Run
There are several ways to run a business in The Sims 4. A few of these methods are base game, while more specific business methods, like restaurants, are DLC exclusive. Rather than adding a new type of business to The Sims 4, Businesses and Hobbies essentially allows players to monetize skills with a business rather than simply selling items. For example, instead of Sims being tipped during a comedy set, a player can now open a comedy club and charge admission to monetize the skill.
Businesses and Hobbies also allows players to teach skill-based courses for Simoleons. Classes and lectures can be taught only by Sims who have reached a high skill level. These classes and lectures can also be monetized, though Sims can also mentor other Sims for free. Monetized classes are similar to other active careers in The Sims 4, with certain tasks required to be completed during a time limit. While some Simmers may blow off tasks, maintaining a high performance rating is necessary when teaching these courses as Sims do not get paid until the class is completed. Teach poorly and a Sim won’t get any Simoleons.
Sims 4’s Businesses Can Now Have a Personal Tie
Small businesses can also be sold or transferred to members of a Sim’s household. Additionally, small businesses are owned by individual Sims rather than an entire household. This means that multiple Sims in a household can run their own small businesses at the same time. However, players that want to keep a small business in the family can hire a household member as an employee. Businesses can have up to three employees that can be designated for specific tasks.
Making positive or negative choices will impact the number of Perk Points a small business earns. These points can then be used to buy Perks in a diagram similar to previous skill trees in The Sims 4. However, players should be careful, as choices can not only negatively impact a Sim’s small business, but their personal relationships as well.
New Lot Types Head to The Sims 4
In order to support this expansion of business gameplay, EA and Maxis have created a new Lot type. Small Business Lots can be found in the typical Build-and-Buy Lot menu. However, players will also have to register their small business. This involves naming the small business, choosing a logo, listing activities, determining entrance fees and price modifiers, and targeting customers. Players can choose up to five activities at a small business using skills across The Sims 4’s mountain of DLC. This allows for players to create small businesses like cat cafés if they own the Cats and Dogs Expansion Pack, spas if they own the Spa Day Game Pack, an acting school if they own the Get Famous Expansion Pack, and so on.
Small Business Lots aren’t the only new Lot addition to Build-and-Buy mode. After years of pleading from Simmers, The Sims 4 finally has multipurpose lots. These new multipurpose lots are highly customizable, as players can designate the purpose of each room in a Lot to their will. For example, rather than having one floor be residential and another floor be a small business, players can appoint individual rooms as available to residents, employees, or the public.
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New Hobbies for Sims to Develop
The initial trailer for Businesses and Hobbies highlighted two new major skills, or hobbies. Players can now learn how to tattoo or make their own pottery. Both skills feature new gameplay specific equipment, like kilns and tattoo machines, but tattooing has expanded The Sims 4’s CAS. Similar to paint mode in Cats and Dogs and Horse Ranch, players can free-form designs in CAS for Sims to rock on their body forever, or at least until they get tattoo removal. Tattoo designs can also be uploaded to the Gallery to share with other Simmers.
Pottery enthusiasts can not only throw down clay for pots, vases, and other ceramics, but practice the Japanese art of kintsugi. This pottery mending technique rebuilds a piece of broken pottery using gold, highlighting the cracks where it was broken. The Sims 2: Free Time introduced pottery to the franchise, making this a skill players have anticipated for The Sims 4 for quite some time.
Adding only two new skills in an Expansion Pack titled Businesses and Hobbies has raised the eyebrows of some Simmers, but there are two more aspects of new gameplay that could count as hobbies. The new mentor system also has its own Perks, and as previously mentioned, does not have to be monetized. Both the initial and gameplay trailers showcased new candy-making machines. While no additional information about candy making has been announced by EA or Maxis, there’s a chance that candy making could count as Businesses and Hobbies’ fourth hobby. More information about The Sims 4’s latest Expansion Pack will likely be revealed closer to its release date.
- Released
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September 2, 2014
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Crude Humor, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Publisher(s)
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Electronic Arts
