That's a big red flag to me. With the Sims 3, I think someone calculated that it would cost over $75,000 to buy everything for the game because of how they monetized the point store, so they've already shown a willingness to go there with monetization. Plus, gamers are much more accepting of micro-transactions these days (mobile games make tons of money) and EA publishes other games with some of the most egregious monetization in the industry (ex. FIFA). I don't have much hope for Sims 5. I would be so happy to be wrong though. I was really excited about being able to customize furniture and have some kind of co-op play. I guess we will see.

Ironically, I just learned that you can turn off the points store in the Sims 3 game settings. This "free to enter" news inspired me to finally buy the Sims 3 collection in the Steam sale - getting it while the gettin 's good, ya know?