![Three babies in The Sims play on a blanket outside](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fit,f_auto,g_center,q_60,w_645/8ef79d5079893abefbc641a85fa23914.jpg)
The latest Behind the Sims Summit gave a look at what’s to come for the life sim franchise across The Sims 4, mobile games The Sims Mobile and The Sims FreePlay, and The Sims 5 (we mean Project Rene). And yes, babies that aren’t objects will come soon.
When are babies coming to The Sims 4?
Teased at the October 2022 Behind the Sims Summit, the massive baby update is coming on March 14. Babies have been a major part of The Sims, but since its 2014 release, babies in The Sims 4 have been mere objects. After your Sim delivered the baby, or babies, they sat in their cradles doing…well, not much of anything. Your Sims could interact with the babies in a very limited fashion, feeding them, changing their diapers, and choosing from a spat of social interactions. But they could never be taken out of the cradle, you couldn’t dress them, and you couldn’t even really distinguish any unique facial features on them.
Beginning March 14, Simmers will have a host of new options. Firstly, there will be customization options, allowing each rugrat to exist as their own person. There are new hair options, clothes, and accessories.
Since babies are now free and unchained from their bassinets, other Sims can interact with the tikes in new ways: holding them, nursing them, playing with them, and even handing them off when to other Sims. They can interact with other Sims of all ages, so now your fictional families won’t seem like a group therapy session waiting to happen. Babies will also get traits. Imagine! A baby with more personality than a static object!
Is there going to be a new Sims 4 Expansion Pack?
Yes! Unfortunately, The Sims team didn’t share anything about it. We’ll have to wait just a bit longer until February 2 for more information. That’s also two days before the franchise’s 23rd anniversary.
However, the upcoming Expansion Pack is largely expected to be a “Generations” Pack. There are many somewhat classic Sims Expansion Packs, and Generations, which adds gameplay and items relating to families, is one of them. This speculation is due to its release close to the big babies update. The Behind the SIms Summit also referenced it with the phrase, “Meet the family.” Luckily, we won’t have to wait long to find out for sure.
What do we know about The Sims 5?
The Sims team gave more updates on the next iteration of the iconic series, nicknamed Project Rene, during today’s Sims Summit. Much of it built upon the scant details fans got during the last Sims Summit in October. Grant Rodiek, game director for Project Rene, discussed cross-play between mobile and PC and multiplayer options.
According to Rodiek, PC will offer players the full Sims experience with more powerful design capabilities, while being able to play on the go on mobile. The game director gave an example of playing on PC at home and on mobile while out at a park with his toddler.
For multiplayer, the largely single-player franchise, Rodiek stressed that The Sims 5 is not going to go the MMO route, but will instead allow players to invite friends as they want. This sounds much like Animal Crossing, for example, which is a single-player game that allows players to invite friends over to their islands when they want, and to keep things a solo mission if they don’t.
Since the announcement late last year, the team began rolling out limited playtesting “small snippets of the game,” including apartment customization, multiplayer customization, and uploading furniture and item design.
But the team was still adamant that development is still ongoing. Rodiek specifically said the next generation is “years out.”
Are there any updates to The Sims Mobile and FreePlay mobile games?
Both mobile games, yes there are two, are getting some love.
The Sims Mobile will celebrate the anniversary of The Sims franchise with a plumbob disco (plumbobs are the, usually green, 3D diamonds that appear over Sims heads indicating how they’re doing). The phone game is also getting ready to celebrate its fifth anniversary with new items tied to a treasure hunt. The Sims Mobile will also see regular seasonal updates and another Sims Festival, which is a monthly recurring event in the game.
Meanwhile, The Sims FreePlay will add a new area to its desert map in the Sims Springs town in April that players can customize. There will be fixer-upper opportunities, according to the Summit, and there will be an amusement park grand prize as you make your way through the map. FreePlay apparently hasn’t gotten any additional music since its launch 11 years ago. The mobile game will add tunes from other Sims games which can be heard via the Sim FM station on stereos.