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The director of Sims competitor Life By You says players can monetize their future mods: 'You don't owe us a dime'

Rod Humble, director of Life By You, announced that players will be allowed to monetize mods without needing permission from the developers. This is in contrast to The Sims 4, which has a more restrictive modding policy. Humble believes that player creativity is beneficial, even if it doesn't directly generate revenue for the company.

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The director of upcoming Sims competitor Life By You has said that players are free to create and monetize their future mods. 

In an interview with PC Gamer, Rod Humble - director of Life By You and manager at Paradox Interactive - has given players the green light to monetize any mods they make once the developer's life sim rolls out in a couple of months. "Player creativity is good for us," Humble told the outlet. "It's good for us [even if] we don't make a dime because it was made using our game."

If you're well-versed in all things life sim, you'll probably remember that EA, alongside software company Overwolf, launched a modding platform for The Sims 4 back in 2022. The idea was that it would be a "a better, safer, easier, and a much more fun way" to use mods with the life sim that complies with the company's modding policy. Humble didn't mention The Sims at all, but his approach to mods does seem more laid back than that of EA and Maxis.

"If you make a YouTube series made using Life By You, I want you to know: You monetize all you want. You don't owe us a dime - go for it," Humble continues. "Likewise, if you make a mod and it's downloaded by millions of people and you're like, 'actually I'm going to take my mod to my website and I'm going to start monetizing it,' perhaps on Patreon like a whole bunch of modders do, I want creators to know: Go for it. You don't need our permission."

In the same interview, Humble said that life sims are "the most complex RPGs ever written," and considering all of the customizable elements of Life By You, he certainly has a point. But can Paradox beat The Sims at its own game with Life By You?

While we're on the topic, here's a list of the best Sims 4 mods.