Video game piracy, the common and controversial practice of copying and sharing games without paying for them, has its advocates. One of them was Anadius, a popular fixture in the Sims community for his “Sim 4 Updater” tool which allowed users to pirate the game’s many expansions. I say “was,” because the fellow has gone dark, and in his wake, all that’s left is disappointment and disagreement over the state of the work he’s left behind.
All done! Have fun playing the game! 🙂
— anadius (@anadius) November 20, 2025
“I decided to step down,” Anadius said before pulling a Bilbo Baggins (h/t GamesRadar). “Don’t pester my close friends, till the end I acted like an asshole I am and haven’t told them the reason why either.” His departure has sent shockwaves through the r/PiratedGames community and those who relied on his tools to play The Sims 4. But he didn’t take all of his toys with him; he left behind the source code for his work, enabling others to pick up the pieces and continue to sail the seven seas. Someone has already stepped in to do just that. Problem is, she’s locked these pirate tools up behind a paywall via Patreon.
Simmerella has shared the news on Patreon (free) that they’ll be working on a *NEW* updater, and have been given all requireed files to make that happen.
See their announcement below:https://t.co/Zks92KogfZ
— GewoonIraj (@xLOLxLOLxIRAJx) November 21, 2025
Popular Sims 4 modder Simmerella took over Anadius’ work. But while some pirate communities are okay with paying a certain amount of money for access to troves of pirated material, this segment of the Sims community isn’t too thrilled, especially considering the fact that Anadius didn’t charge for his work.
There’s another potential wrinkle in all of this: the fact that Simmerella is using a popular funding platform to more or less sell piracy services. As Sims creator SimMattically put it in an X thread documenting the community reaction to the news, “you have to put your legal name and pay taxes on your Patreon earnings lmfao bless [Simmerella] and good luck.”
