Good news, gamers! Electronic Arts has decided to donate The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection to anyone and everyone in need of a game to play. That's right -- the title is completely free, provided you claim your copy by July 31, 2014 at 10AM PDT. After that, the freebie promotion disappears, though it probably won't be the last time EA does something like this.

So, that's the good news. And the bad? As you probably guessed, you have to claim and download the game through your Origin account. For some, that requirement is no big deal, but if you're turned off by EA's Origin service, this could be a deal killer. We suppose some of you might find that to be a string, but it's understandable that EA would want to deliver its game through its own digital distribution service.


If you're still interested, log into your Origin account (or create one) and click on the Games tab in the Origin menu. Once in there, select Redeem Product Code and type I-LOVE-THE-SIMS (including the dashes) in the Product Code field. Just like that, you're all set.

The timing of EA's freebie promotion comes a week after the publisher announced it was dropping support for the title, meaning no more new content, patches, or updates of any kind. It was a good run for the game, however, which was released nearly a decade ago.