@EA_Leeuw 

I appreciate you looking further into this for me, I hope this is something EA will amend.

Is there a list of what regions have what language options? I cannot find any official information on this, other than unofficial sources claiming that the UK version is language-locked, and this one EA chat agent's word (when other EA chat agents said different things, assuming it is a technical issue, even though I said I bought the game in the UK to them). I had no idea at the time of purchase that I was purchasing an English-only copy (otherwise, I would have bought from another country's store).

If I were to buy the Sims 4 again from the Steam store (rather than Origin), and purchase it with my location set to Germany, would that work, since it's another copy? Would my DLC work, since it would be from another region? It's on sale right now for 75% off. As much as I would hate to give EA even more of my money, I would like to play the game in German.

For the original point, if the UK version is in fact restricted to one language, and EA doesn't consider amending this despite the UK having one of the world's largest foreign-born populations, I would also suggest editing this misleading page in the EN-GB localisation and changing it to reflect the truth so more people do not get misled:

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/faq-base-game-changing-languages

@EA_Leeuw 

I appreciate you looking further into this for me, I hope this is something EA will amend.

Is there a list of what regions have what language options? I cannot find any official information on this, other than unofficial sources claiming that the UK version is language-locked, and this one EA chat agent's word (when other EA chat agents said different things, assuming it is a technical issue, even though I said I bought the game in the UK to them). I had no idea at the time of purchase that I was purchasing an English-only copy (otherwise, I would have bought from another country's store).

If I were to buy the Sims 4 again from the Steam store (rather than Origin), and purchase it with my location set to Germany, would that work, since it's another copy? Would my DLC work, since it would be from another region? It's on sale right now for 75% off. As much as I would hate to give EA even more of my money, I would like to play the game in German.

For the original point, if the UK version is in fact restricted to one language, and EA doesn't consider amending this despite the UK having one of the world's largest foreign-born populations, I would also suggest editing this misleading page in the EN-GB localisation and changing it to reflect the truth so more people do not get misled:

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/faq-base-game-changing-languages

@EA_Leeuw 

That is very frustrating to hear. I do not understand this conscious decision that EA has made to treat UK customers like this, is it possible that this will ever be reconsidered? If the US, Germany, and other countries have the full 18 languages available to them, why are customers in the UK being restricted to English?

>But it is sadly not possible to access/purchase items from other Origin Store fronts if you are not located in that specific country.

I can assure you that it is possible, which is why in some cases language-locking makes sense. I can very easily purchase the Sims 4 content from the German store on both Origin and Steam, and would have done this had I had known I was getting a restricted copy by deciding to buy the UK version. 

So, as much as I think this is a ridiculous situation to even be in right now, and as much as I don't think EA should get another penny from me right now, if I were to buy the German base game from Steam, and then login to my Origin account, would I have access to the DLC I purchased from UK Origin on the German Steam copy, in the German language? Is it possible to mix and match like this?

@EA_Leeuw 

Many thanks for passing this feedback on, I hope that the teams are as reasonable as you.

@JustBee4  Steam allows returns if the player has purchased within the last 14 days and has played for less than 2 hours.  So you could buy a Steam copy of Sims 4, uninstall your Origin copy and install the Steam one, and test it out.  Once the Steam version is installed, you'll be able to download your packs from Origin.  If it doesn't work how you want, just get a refund.

Packs normally follow the language of the base game, as in, they're not language-locked on their own.  But I've never heard what happens when someone has a language-locked version in Origin but not in Steam.

As far as language restrictions go, the U.K. receives an English-only version, and a number of countries in Eastern Europe get a version that only includes Russian, Polish, and Czech.  Everyone else gets the global version.  This is common for EA games, but the specific distribution and options of language-locked versions can vary from one game to the next.

I am not sure why this thread was marked as solved. I have amended it to reflect that this remains ongoing.

>@JustBee4  Steam allows returns if the player has purchased within the last 14 days and has played for less than 2 hours.  So you could buy a Steam copy of Sims 4, uninstall your Origin copy and install the Steam one, and test it out.  Once the Steam version is installed, you'll be able to download your packs from Origin.  If it doesn't work how you want, just get a refund.

Hello @puzzlezaddict. Thank you for pointing out Steam's refund policy. To be honest though, since @EA_Leeuw has passed on the feedback, I would rather wait for an outcome on that first, before questioning what, if anything, I should do next.

>As far as language restrictions go, the U.K. receives an English-only version, and a number of countries in Eastern Europe get a version that only includes Russian, Polish, and Czech.  Everyone else gets the global version.  This is common for EA games, but the specific distribution and options of language-locked versions can vary from one game to the next.

I assume you mean Central and Eastern Europe, given you have named one Eastern European language and two Central European languages? I can understand language-locking in that case, given that EA justifiably charges less for the base game and DLC for people in these regions. It makes sense to prevent people in other countries taking advantage of the pricing structure. What I do not understand is why the UK does not have the global version. Our version costs more than the US and German counterparts, not less like for CEE countries. Why are we paying more for far less choice and flexibility? I do not understand this decision by EA and have not found any sort of explanation or justification for it.

@JustBee4  I haven't seen any official explanation for the various language-locked versions, and it doesn't seem useful to speculate.  And yes, obviously a couple of Central European countries receive language-locked versions, but what I was getting at is that many countries in Eastern Europe receive that version too.  I haven't checked with every country but believe that most in Central Europe receive the global version, aside from Poland and the Czech Republic.

I understand that you'd rather see how this plays out, but it will likely take a very long time for anything to change, if it does at all.  People have been requesting that the language locks be lifted pretty much since the game was released in 2014, and EA employees have promised to pass that feedback on for almost as long.  If player feedback were enough to convince anyone, that would have happened a long time ago.

I'm not trying to be dismissive here, just suggesting that when you decide how to proceed, it's worth considering that your wait might be years long, or that perhaps nothing will ever change.

@puzzlezaddict 

For all the previous discussions I found relating to the UK language lock specifically (see my second reply to my post), an EA employee never replied. Please may you link the posts that you have found? I have missed them and would be interested in seeing them and what the EA employees had to say in those threads.

I also find it interesting that this UK language-lock seemingly only applies to the Origin version and not the Steam version? Otherwise, the Steam version is being falsely advertised here. I have all 18 languages listed as being supported when I visit the UK Steam store (see my previous reply for a screenshot). Now that I have seen that, I would like an answer on that as well as it will influence my decision if I do decide to buy the Steam version.

@JustBee4 

There are several answers in this thread from an EA employee specifically. EA-Leeuw

@jpkarlsen

I am aware that EA_Leeuw is an EA employee and I appreciate the decision to provide feedback to the other EA teams involved in these choices. This has been what I was hoping to hear when posting to this forum. I can only hope the other teams are this responsive and reasonable. 

I believe it would be helpful for you to re-read what I said in the context it was in. @puzzlezaddict made a statement that this has been requested before, that EA employees have said they have provided feedback, but no resolution ever occurred. I have found numerous other discussions of this language-lock in these forums in the past, however an EA employee has not replied once to any of those threads that I have found. You can find the threads in question linked on the first place, it is the second reply I made to my post.

Of course, I am new to these forums, so there may have been discussions that I have missed. I would like to read any previous threads (so not my own) where an EA employee has responded since I am very interested in what they had to say. 

I now have an update to the situation.

I mentioned earlier in the thread that all languages are listed as supported on the UK Steam version of the Sims 4. I decided to take advantage of the sale that's currently on and purchase the Sims 4 base game on Steam for £4.19.

I then installed it on Steam, changed the game language to German in game properties on Steam, and everything is working as intended. All my DLC (including the recognising that I own the Deluxe edition on Origin, despite owning the normal version on Steam) are correctly recognised, and I can play the game in German (or any other language) now.

I still believe that EA should do better and add all languages to the Origin UK version of the Sims 4. I see absolutely no reason for this difference between languages options on Origin and Steam here in the UK.