Sims 4 "mosaic bug" turns out to be surprise anti-piracy measure

After a lengthy and satisfying sit-down on the SimCan, your Sim stands, hikes up his drawers and turns to flush.

After a lengthy and satisfying sit-down on the SimCan, your Sim stands, hikes up his drawers and turns to flush. But something odd happens: The "nudity blur" protecting your sensitive eyes from the on-screen SimJunk don't disappear, but instead expand to cover the entire screen—and it doesn't go away. What happened? According to the internet, you're playing a pirated version of The Sims 4.

A number of Sims 4 players have reported what they believed to be a bug, but which is apparently a bizarre form of copy protection that makes unauthorized copies of the game very difficult to play. EA hasn't confirmed that this is the case and a few users of sims4forum.cominsist that it's happening to legitimate copies, but a Sims 4 crack torrent warns, in imperfect English, "Villain in the WC or bath, Mosaic will not disappear." One Sims 4 forum user also acknowledged pirating the game before purchasing a key, and said the mosaic bug only appeared in the pirated version.

Image source: Player Attack

I'm all for creative copy protection, but the confusion surrounding this particular example illustrates how it can be problematic. Failing to make it explicitly clear that this is in fact copy protection leads to the assumption that it's a bug, a major disincentive for anyone who might actually be considering a purchase. Croteam did something similar in Serious Sam 3with an immortal pink scorpion, but that was a bit more obvious in its purpose; but less amusingly, copy protection that was widely mistaken for a crash bug (and loudly complained about as such) has often been cited as a major reasonfor the commercial failure of Titan Quest and, ultimately, the closure of developer Iron Lore Studios.

We've reached out to EA to confirm that this mosaic glitch is actually copy protection, and will update if and when we receive a response. In the meantime, why take the chance? If you want it, pay for it.