Trivia / The Sims 4

• Author's Saving Throw:
  • On the day after its announcement, EA confirmed that the My Wedding Stories game pack wasn't going to be released in Russia, citing federal laws regarding the promotion of a same-sex couple. A week later, in response to the feedback, EA had reversed its decision and decided to release the pack globally, including Russia, unaltered and unchanged (apart from the cover art in Russia only), while also pushing the release date to February 23.
  • When the game launched, there was significant outrage about the fact Bella Goth and her children were significantly lighter skin-toned in this game compared to previous outing with open accusations of whitewashing. In 2021, EA openly admitted it was a mistake and that the Goths alongside other sims that had CAS-related issues would be up for a remaster. While many were happy about the announcement, others doubted it would happen. Fast forward to May 2022 and the Goths were indeed the first family to receive a makeover with Bella, Cassandra, and Alex all sporting notably darker skintones, as well Mortimer receiving some custom assets (that are also available in CAS for player-made Sims) and fixing some issues such as missing Season-related clothing and Alexander's mismatched genetics and hair.
• Creator Killer: Indirectly - The Sims Studios' parent company, Maxis, paid the price for allowing them to leave out so many features that were expected in the base game. Pools, ghosts, aliens and toddlers really brought them down. It resulted in extreme backlash and boycott threats from the fandom. While some were put in quickly and for free with the explanation that they simply hadn't been complete, aliens were reintroduced with the first expansion pack, and toddlers took two years to return in January 2017. Between this and the trainwreck that is SimCity (2013), Maxis was closed in March 2015, and The Sims Studios was restructured into a direct subsidiary of EA.
• Meaningful Release Date: The Seasons expansion pack was released on 22 June 2018, with 22 June being the date for the summer solstice.
• No Export for You: Following the announcement of the My Wedding Stories Game Pack, EA confirmed that the pack would not be made available in Russia, and by extension all countries using the Russian version of EA's online store, as the company refused to compromise on their decision to promote the pack using a same-sex couple. A week later, EA had reversed its decision to exclude the pack's release in Russia, with an added bonus that they are not changing anything about the pack, while also pushing back the release date to February 23. This availability was shortlived, as a week and a half later EA Games suspended all business, including sales of all The Sims 4 products, in Russia (and Belarus) as part of the global sanctions against the country over their invasion of Ukraine.
• Promoted Fanboy: One family and their lot in Eco Lifestyle, and all the lots in packs that introduce new worlds since Snowy Escape, were designed by Simmers.
• Rereleased for Free: The base game became free on October 18, 2022, eight years after its commercial release on PC.
• Same Content, Different Rating: Unlike the previous three versions of the game, this one was rated 18+ (=unsuitable for minors) in Russia - presumably because Russia prohibits - though not strictly banning - promotion of LGBT to public, especially places or media easily reachable by public or minors - combined with the fact that the game does nothing to prohibit same-sex relationships (which have always been present as a possibility in the franchise, but it wasn't made obvious until a player try to romantically pair same-sex Sims until the first pre-made same-sex couples cropped up late in the life-cycle of The Sims 3).
• Technology Marches On: Not to the same extent as the previous games, especially the first, but CRT-equipped computers and televisions are low-end electronics, while as of around 2015 and onwards, they're gradually not sold anymore on real-life retail stores.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: Around 2017, rumors were floating around that the Blatant Burglar who's been a staple of the series since the first game wasn't included in 4 to avoid potentially triggering people who've experienced being robbed in real life. It wasn't until the following year that senior Maxis producer Grant Rodiek debunked the rumors over Twitter, claiming burglars aren't in the game yet simply because nobody's really working on them.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Leaked images and files show that The Sims 4 was originally known as "Olympus", a fully online game similar to SimCity (2013), where all sims were controlled by humans, but following the massively negative backlash that game received and its eventual abandonment, the Sims team was forced to scrap almost all their progress only a year and a half from release. This is why many features, including pools and toddlers, were nowhere to be seen in the base game and were only added later through free patches. Other players' Plumbobs were blue, similar to The Sims Mobile.^note This also explains why unlike its predecessor, players are not allowed fluidly switch from one sim household to another: The original game mechanics accommodates the fact that the neighboring sims may be controlled by a different player (similar to how cities in SimCity 2013 works) and allowing fluid changes would most likely affect players on slow and/or low quota internet connections.
  • Dummied Out animations indicate that there were plans to allow for some Puppy Love interactions for romance between Child Sims, with several animations for flirting, going steady and breaking up existing.
  • The Snowy Escape trailers revealed that visiting sims would originally have the option to pay respects to a Shinto shrine, negative outcry from Korean players (who themselves point-out on how Japan forced Koreans to bow to Shinto shrines back when they occupied Korea in WWII) have forced the developers to leave this option to be Dummied Out.
• Working Title: The original multiplayer version of the game was codenamed Project Olympus.