The Sims team confirmed that they are working on implementing gender neutral pronouns in The Sims 4 base game, but cannot give an estimated time for when this change will be added.
While the game has been ahead of the curve in some ways, gender-neutral pronouns and non-binary language is not part of The Sims 4 yet.
There have been petitions for gender-neutral pronouns to be added to The Sims 4 and constructive dialogue around the subject in recent weeks. On Tuesday, during the latest Inside Maxis live stream, the team shared some insights around this.
There was no ETA or update on when this might become part of the game, but GrimSuruDoi said during the stream that the team is actively looking at ways to make this possible and shared some of the challenges in making sure a feature like this is rolled out successfully.
One of the biggest challenges is that The Sims 4 is available in 18 different languages and everything needs to be translated accordingly. The team said they will share progress on this when they are ‘able to do so’.
Below is the live stream transcript from GrimSuruDoi.
?I think to start off as an entire team, we would say that when it comes to representation, it’s not a destination, it’s a journey that we’re all continuously working towards across the board. And we’ve seen and read your comments regarding nonbinary pronouns and their availability in game. We hear you on this.
We can’t confirm anything in regards to timing. What we can say is that for a long time our team has been evaluating ways to add gender neutral language while considering how complex it would be to do so.
But currently we have been investigating the changes needed, considering not only the size of our game, but the possibilities for all of our 18 supported languages to make sure that we do this work in the best way possible.
This is super important to all of us. Which means that we want to make sure that when we do it, we do it right. We want to thank you for your continued support of a truly representative environment in game. We are hopeful for the future.
We look forward to sharing progress when we are able to, as well as on our future plans for this aspect.”
Over the last few months, The Sims 4 have added some significant changes to the base game – including a significant update to skin tones in December 2020. The fourth instalment of the popular simulation franchise is now in its seventh year and while there’s plenty of speculation about when the fifth iteration might release, the fourth may be with us for a little while yet.