Now that The Sims 3 has shipped, the internet in general is outraged at how few in game items shipped with the base game.  To some people, EA is simply rubbing salt in the wound by offering stuff packs for sale on the Sims 3 website on launch day. 

The perception is that EA pulled items out of the base game in order to offer them for sale separately.  This perception is grounded in the theory that earlier stuff packs were for items which were developed over the months after the base game was released.  For example, that the only reason the Ikea stuff pack wasn't bundled with the Sims 2 core game is that the items hadn't been developed yet.  Honestly, I'm not sure this is true. 

There are further complaints that the Sims 3 stuff packs are "too expensive."  This seemed perfectly likely to me, so I decided to do some side-by-side comparisons.  Wikipedia lists the number of items in the various Sims 2 stuff packs, and Simmers News has published the number of items in the new Sims 3 stuff packs. 

Sims 2 Stuff Packs: each stuff pack costs $19.95.  Stuff packs are listed in order of price per item.

Glamour Life:  33 items (.60 per item)
Family Fun: 42 items (.47 per item)
Celebration!: 54 items (.36 per item)
Mansion & Garden: 60 items (.33 per item)
H&M Fashion: 61 items (.32 per item)
Happy Holiday: 63 items (.31 per item)
Teen Style: 67 items (.29 per item)
Ikea Home: 76 items (.26 per item)
Kitchen & Bath: 103 items (.19 per item)

Sims 3 Stuff Packs:

Storybook Set, 45 items for $19 (.42 per item)
Hewnsman Set, 47 items for $20 (.42 per item)
Bayside Set, 36 items for $14.50 (.40 per item)
Tiki Set, 15 items for $5.75 (.38 per item)

As you can see, the prices per item are on the high side, but still within the range we were accustomed to paying for Sims 2 stuff packs.  One of the real complaints among players is that the Sims 3 base game ships with far fewer items than the Sims 2 base game.  Is this true?  I'm still waiting to see some hard numbers on this.

(Of course, one disadvantage of the online stuff packs is that I doubt they will ever go on sale.  I can't speak for other Sims 2 players, but I didn't pay full price for any of my stuff or expansion packs.)

My suspicion is that the number of items in Sims 3 compares favorably with those in Sims 2.  It's just that if you have been playing Sims 2 since it was released five years ago, and gradually accumulating expansion packs (which also come with items) and stuff packs, you forget how bare bones the core game was.

The real question for many players is, is it fair for EA to charge us to purchase additional in-game items?  I would argue that, fair or not, it obviously works for them.  We can rail and complain all we like, but when the chips are down, we buy the stuff packs.