The Sims 4 has been having a rough go of it lately, with a recent game update leading to corrupted saves and a frustrated playerbase. In September, EA unveiled a fix-it roadmap, detailing plans to tackle the biggest issues plaguing the game. Now, the publisher says the first set of fixes is on the way.
After spending a few weeks attempting to reproduce the issues reported by players both with and without mods, EA says it’s identified two “strong leads” with regard to the save file corruption problem. The Sims 4 developer says that scratch files — temporary but vital files the game relies on — seem to be disappearing somehow, which can corrupt the entire save file. The second culprit is an issue with lot-specific data, trapping players in an endless loading screen, which EA says may be “linked to certain build behaviors, such as super-stuffed Lots, with and without mods.”
To address the aforementioned “super-stuffed lots,” EA says the game’s next update will temporarily disable the Residential Rental Unit cheat, bb.increaserentalunitcap, which allows players to add as many Rental Units to Residential lots as they like.
“We’re removing the Residential Rental Unit cheat, bb.increaserentalunitcap, in an upcoming update, as a preventative step while broader fixes are developed,” EA explained. “While we take player agency seriously, out of an abundance of caution, this step is needed to mitigate its potential risk.”
Still, plenty of players are experiencing the endless lot-loading screen issue and corrupted save problem without using the cheat, so EA says it plans to continue analyzing player save data and searching for a fix when it comes to issues related to save bloat and corrupted save files.
In a blog post regarding EA’s findings so far, the publisher also shared that it had developed a “new Python-based tool that helps us extract, analyze, and summarize the data in save files” provided by Sims 4 players.
On Twitter (formally X), EA promised that the search for solutions will continue.
“We’ve committed to transparency, and while we don’t have all the answers yet, progress is being made every day,” reads a recent post. “Thank you for your patience, your feedback, and your passion for The Sims.”
