The Sims 4: Legacy Edition, the 32-bit version of Electronic Arts' long-lived 2019 life game (opens in new tab), will end for good in December, forcing players with older operating systems to upgrade or find something else to play

"The Legacy Edition" (opens in a new tab) will be permanently discontinued in December.

The Legacy Edition of "The Sims 4" was released three years ago as a kind of bridge for people with older systems: EA had ended support for The Sims 4 for 32-bit operating systems, but offered a free download for those who owned the full version of the game The Legacy Edition was offered as a Compatible with existing saves, players could continue their SimLife without interruption, but EA warned that features such as galleries, game banners, and social interactions would be limited and incompatible with future updates and fixes, future expansions and content packs . This was basically an extended notice that time moves on, technology changes, and those who cannot keep up will eventually be left behind.

That "eventually" is just a few weeks away, as EA announced that "The Sims 4: Legacy Edition" will be discontinued on December 12.

"Previously, you could download "The Sims 4: Legacy Edition" to play on these operating systems with some restrictions," EA's help site states.

"We are now parting ways with the Legacy Edition, so this option is no longer available.

To play The Sims 4 after December 12, you will need to upgrade to a 64-bit version of Windows or get new hardware with a 64-bit OS already installed. if you are using a Mac, Metal on El Capitan or higher The situation is essentially the same, except you need to make sure you are using the macOS version. No, I'm not making this up, Apple says so. The good news is that saves in the Legacy Edition are compatible with the current full version of the game, so you only need to migrate them:

One point not made clear in the announcement is how this change will affect those who have already installed "The Sims 4: Legacy Edition" My guess is that it will remain the same as usual. My guess is that they will continue to play as normal, but the announcement states that players using a 32-bit OS will need to upgrade "in order to continue playing The Sims 4", suggesting quite strongly that existing owners will need to migrate as well. We have contacted EA and will update if we hear back.

In any case, this change will not leave many players out in the cold. According to the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey (opens in new tab) (the most readily accessible source of this kind of information), over 96% of users are running some version of Windows, of which over 96% are 64-bit. The Mac operating system is a small percentage of the overall pie, but 64-bit is used virtually across the board. If you are not currently using a 64-bit operating system, now is the time.

It is not entirely surprising that "The Sims 4" is now ditching 32-bit support altogether; EA announced in October that it was phasing out Origin (which opens in a new tab) and switching to the colorfully named (but not really) EA app.