The next Sims 4 expansion pack will be a Snowy Escape and while the official trailer will only be released on 20 October 2020, some of the early teaser content has given us some idea of what to expect.
Sims 4 Snow Escape expansion pack: The world
There has only been one render so far, but we know from that and a Tweet by Sim Guru Graham that it will be a mountain world called Mt. Komorebi.
From the render, it looks like the pack will take a lot of inspiration from Asia, most likely Japanese-style architecture as seen in one of the inserts from the teaser picture.
We also know what the icon will look like. That’s very, very mountainous.
From the first renders, it looks like mountain climbing, snowboarding and the sleighing that we saw Sims reminisce about in the Nifty Knitting trailer will all be a thing.
The Sims x YouTubers for the new pack
We also know that The Sims 4 (and Maxis) partnered with four YouTubers (that we know of) to “bring the world to life” according to Graham Nardone’s tweet.
While the exact details of this partnership is not yet known (at the time of writing, there was no further information available other than who the YouTubers were), the decision might be viewed as controversial, if the world is indeed Asian-inspired and no Asian players were consulted or partnered with.
The theme of the pack is likely to be well-received overall, but players of colour have repeatedly raised concerns about feeling under-represented in the game.
The Sims 4 have vowed that concerns around the lack of options in terms of skin tones will be addressed in the near future – with ‘hundreds of new skin tones’ and a new skin tone slider to be added before the end of 2020.
However, if Asian community members were entirely excluded from consultation for an Asian-inspired pack, it’s not a great look for the promises of being more inclusive and addressing diversity issues.
The YouTubers mentioned are mostly known for building (very good building, we might add), so it’s likely that the partnership centred around them contributing to builds in the world (although, we don’t know for sure yet).
Even so, many Simmers on Twitter have already been questioning whether this is indeed the case.
I love all of them, but the lack of cultural diversity in this bus is astronomical. It's an ASIAN pack and you're partnering with white people. This is why the community doesn't respect you anymore. You don't listen to anything we ask for.
— Arrest Breonna Taylor's Murderer NOW (@KenyaPo75044549) October 19, 2020
it makes sense to use them for promotion not to "bring the pack to life". if they want feedback on an asian inspired world then they should ask asian people.
— bia; voting for taylor era (@biaxfolklore) October 19, 2020
Although I'm a big fan of each game changer listed, maybe consider some diversity in the future for equal representation. 🥺👉👈
— Robcatdashian (@robcatdashian) October 19, 2020
We say if, of course. We live in hope that a game that has always somewhat ahead of the curve in terms of inclusion won’t overlook something that obvious. Until all the details about the collaboration for the pack is revealed, we’ll reserve full judgment.
