- Toddlers
- Pools, no swimming or swimwear
- Create-a-Style
- Open world
- Lots larger than 50x50
- Shopping for clothing or groceries
- Cars (semi-confirmed - there are no cars, garages, or driveways in any of the screenshots), or any need for any kind of transportation system whatsoever (source)
- Build mode: No lots higher than 3 levels/stories, no terrain sculpting/ponds (all lots are flat in all the screenshots, no tools for terrain sculpting in the build mode trailer), no ability to choose which structures on a lot have a foundation and which don't, no basements
- No ability to edit any of the public spaces
- Story progression
- Different heights for teens and adults
- Cutscenes
- Extremely low lot limit (limit of 25 lots per world - 5 lots per neighborhood, 5 neighborhoods per world in TS4. TS3 Sunset Valley had 92 lots, TS2 Pleasantview had 26 with room for more).
- Work and school rabbitholes
- Alpha edges on hair (semi-confirmed - none visible in any of the screenshots), animated hair
- No mac version, fewer translated languages
- Private school