The Sims 4

The Sims Team promises to improve Skin Tones in The Sims 4

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The Sims Community has been very vocal regarding the lack of skin tones options and blotchy and bugged variants that there are in the game ever since…well…the release of The Sims 4. In the recent weeks the community have pointed out numerous issues and problems that players are experiencing with the lack of proper skin tone representation in the game.

Today, Lyndsay Pearson, General Manager for The Sims Franchise has released an official statement regarding their plans to improve Skin Tones by fixing the existing ones and adding new ones. There aren’t too many details shared except for the fact that it’s currently among their top priority and that they’ll deliver these improvements to The Sims 4 this Fall.

Check out the full statement (and video) down below:

Hi Simmers,

First of all, I hope you are healthy and I hope you are safe.

I want to address a topic that is very near and dear to The Sims. Inclusivity is at the core of The Sims franchise. From the beginning, we set out to let you build Sims that look like you, or people you know. And we understand it doesn’t feel like we’re truly living up to that promise.

We hear you and recognize that we have not done enough to address the variety of skin tones and hair styles that you expect to find in The Sims 4. While we have made additions and improvements and fixes in the past, there is much more for us to do. We are making it a priority to release more options this year, as well as to address the visual issues with current skin tones- specifically, to improve the blotchy artifacts and ashy tones. We’ve iterated on these before, but we are doing a deep dive into our full pipeline to trace our assets through every step and compare the before and afters to assess any loss in quality.

As we have demonstrated, The Sims is committed not only to inclusion, but to authentic and respectful inclusion, which means we don’t do this work alone. We take feedback from a number of places that inform the work and hold us accountable in our execution. And part of that accountability is communicating to you; we will strive to keep you as up to date and informed as possible. So, as a start, we’re promising to fix the visual artifacts with existing skin tones and increase the number of tones available in The Sims 4 this Fall.

Our community is bigger and stronger than it has ever been, and we will continue to make sure our players are heard, feel represented and are able to create without boundaries. We are blown away by the incredible craftsmanship our mod community and what they bring to the game, and the ways in which they have expanded on the Sims 4 experience. There is no question that their contributions make the world of The Sims better. However, we know that this does not absolve us from continuing to grow and improve as well.

We realize there isn’t one single fix for representation. We are dedicating people to ongoing commitments to continue improvement over the long term. Thank you for caring so much about each other and caring about your experiences in The Sims 4 and thank you for being part of our continued evolution.

Sul Sul!

About the author

Jovan

Reticulating splines as a webmaster for Sims Community over the last 11 years. You can find me here writing articles and doing reports on your favorite life sim games, among other things!

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Sul Sul Sims
Sul Sul Sims
4 years ago

Happy to hear this is set for the Fall (I’m sure a lot of folks are still working remotely due to COVID) and are aware of representation issues! I’m personally curious if we’ll get an August patch update (my fingers are crossed) because ever since the Eco Living patch, my game’s been horribly buggy (and super laggy). I know it’s not mods either, because they’re all updated + perfectly fine before that patch update…

imogen
imogen
4 years ago
Reply to  Sul Sul Sims

Do you know if this happens for every player? because I’m hoping to get eco as a gift for my gcse results in a week but I don’t want to buy it if it makes my game lag.

Jayden
Jayden
4 years ago
Reply to  Sul Sul Sims

I hope they bring back the color wheel for skin tones and hair colors!

Vanessa
Vanessa
4 years ago

Oh okay. In my opinion there are enough skin tones, because I mostly only use like three of them! 😀 But I hope a lot of people will enjoy this. ♥

Shawna
Shawna
4 years ago
Reply to  Vanessa

That’s great for you personally, but there are so many people who can’t make themselves because they can’t find a skin tone that works

Lin
Lin
4 years ago
Reply to  Shawna

Im pretty sure that this is what that article is about. The Soms Team has acknowledged that factor.

May
May
4 years ago
Reply to  Vanessa

There’s nowhere near enough, and darker skin tones aren’t diverse enough.

Vanessa
Vanessa
4 years ago
Reply to  May

Yeah, I don’t know. It was enough for me but if you say it’s not, then I accept this. I can’t really judge it^^

Jenn
Jenn
4 years ago
Reply to  Vanessa

Maybe there are enough for you, but there will never be enough because there are infinite skintones to the human rainbow.

They just need to get xmiramira to sit them down with her melanin pack and say, “here is a start to what you we should have”.

Seth W
Seth W
4 years ago

About fucking time! I can wait on babies and other things, but this is soooo long overdue and should have been in the game from day 1.

Jake
Jake
4 years ago
Reply to  Seth W

It’s sad we probably have to wait until the Sims 5 for the Color Wheel, Open World, and Cars.

L
L
4 years ago
Reply to  Jake

But they had all those things in Sims 3 and the game was incredibly buggy and laggy because of it. I honestly can’t see them bringing them back. Sims 3 was a much better game content-wise, but Sims 4 runs so much better. Tbh I like that I can play without my game crashing constantly.

Andrene Swaby
Andrene Swaby
4 years ago

Speaking of blotchy does anyone have that issue with some of the clothes particular darker clothes? I’m curious if it’s because I’m using ultra and Reshade that it’s more noticeable or a side effect of using a lighting mod. Or if it’s in the vanilla game. It also effects some cc clothing swatches too. It’s not an issue when the texture is actually black and not the off black that some clothes use.

Anonymous Simmer
Anonymous Simmer
4 years ago
Reply to  Andrene Swaby

This is extremely specific but with the luxury party dress that has the cut out holes in the sides I have this strange glitch that makes the head look detachable from the body via a black line. But I do have that issue as well, some clothes being strange af looking.

Theresa
Theresa
4 years ago

Along the lines of skin, can we have vitiligo, psoriasis, scars, birth marks, and other skin conditions? Perhaps similar to how tattos are done in CAS?

Genean Lane
Genean Lane
4 years ago

Is sims 4 ever going to get another vacation spot?

Myranda
Myranda
4 years ago

I can’t wait tiill we’re able to add CC to the sims 4 om the PS4!!

Gina
Gina
4 years ago
Reply to  Myranda

ME 2 but….if they can’t I will take them to hire!!! Modders for free in game updates because name brand clothes! Baby hair hairstyle, eyelashes,nails&toenail polish is way too cute and they game expansion is fire big ups !!! TO ALL MODDERS &SIMS COMMUNITY together they can make this game amazing!!!!

Meesh
Meesh
4 years ago

This is fantastic news… But I think they should leave *some* of the ashy tones. A lot of what the sims community is asking for is perfected, beautiful skin tones, and that’s great, but there’s also beauty in realistic skin tones of all types. I think they should keep a few ashy ones, add more options for blemishes, and add the option for vitiligo type skins. Add scaring/stretch marks on the body and face (a very common thing for women especially). Having sims have perfect skin normalizes that that’s what beauty is defined by! Give us the beautiful imperfections!

Name
Name
4 years ago

I just have light skinned sims make babies with the darker ones and the kids usually turn out looking African American like people want. It produces more results then complaining to the sims team for years and getting nothing

Futurist
Futurist
4 years ago

And then you can work on fleshing out Island Living…?

Simaddic
Simaddic
4 years ago

I’m excited for a solution finally. Looking forward to it in the fall

Shibawhite21
Shibawhite21
4 years ago

I wish they would bring sims2 cornrows back

Gina
Gina
4 years ago
Reply to  Shibawhite21

ME 2 what happened to the braids DIFFRENT styles good one especially for men

Raven
Raven
4 years ago

Hope this includes proper colouring of palms, soles, and lips on brown and black Sims!

Latissa Williams
Latissa Williams
4 years ago

What about eye lashes for the toddlers to adults it really confusing me why that they don’t have them we have eyelash from baby to an adult i want eyelashes on my son with out having to get a mod for that

Gina
Gina
4 years ago

Imagine us console players we don’t have the option at all we all so wish we are trapped with basic game options

Penny
Penny
4 years ago

I’m glad sims are going to improve the skin tones. But they need to fix all the skin tones. Also they need to fix the face structure too. They also need to fix the hair structure too. The long hair style they got now are not long enough. Under long hair style those styles should be under medium length. Long hair in the real world is down the middle of a person back and beyond the back. Some long hair reaches the butt area and beyond that. Also they need to fix the body structure too. In the sims 3 girls could have bigger chest area like size D in a bra cup size. I don’t like the face structure not every American face is Chinese looking. The sims 3 had better face structure also and it was great at making your sims could look so good. But also with how much these updates and buying all these games pack is taking up all the space on ps4 consoles the sims4 would have to be the only game a person could play on the ps4 system. In my house we play other games too. And you can’t have all the games taking up all the space on the ps4 system. When I’m not playing sims we’re buying songs for rockband and rocksmith that takes up space pn the ps4 also. Besides mortal kombat stuff and GTA. The only game that we have that doesn’t take up so space that we play is resident evil and monopoly. But the sims4 game pack and expansion pack cost so much money also. And with everyone being out of work the sims packs shouldn’t be charging everyone the prices like they are. Another thing we should see in the sims is everyday lives. Grocery stores and bakeries. More transportation. And I’m sick and tire of seeing the writing under where you go between live mode and build mode that tells you what your controller buttons are for now. If you play the sims you know this already. And we should see the sims say alot more stuff instead the same thing over and over. And fix the sound of their voices too. I turn my tv down to play cause I can’t stand the voices or the music. Alot of people don’t talk like the sims and alot of people like classic rock and roll music
If you’re improve the skin tones fix the other stuff too. One more things why can’t we own other pets too like birds, horses, and so on. Have better clothing and purses too. I wish I had a job working for the sims.

Imogen
Imogen
4 years ago
Reply to  Penny

Regarding the complaint about the long hair, loads of people have complained about it but its extremely difficult for the sims team to do because they need it to work with all different body shapes and also need it to work with the animations e.g yoga, without the hair looking weird or glitchy.

Anna
Anna
4 years ago
Reply to  Imogen

Hell people are talking about long hair but at least they have hair to represent them and dont have to pay money to get a few extra semi decent hairstyles.

Gina
Gina
4 years ago
Reply to  Penny

I LOVE….everyone of your ideas I hope they HIRE YOU!!!! too us console players NEED HELP !!!!

XIwasanuglyhighschoolerx
XIwasanuglyhighschoolerx
4 years ago

HIRE THE CC CREATORS AND MODDERS! XMiraMira already took care of your skintones years ago. Hire her!

Gina
Gina
4 years ago

I vote on that also HIRE CC creators AKA MODDERS PLEASE…….CONSOLE PLAYERS WOULD BE ESPECIALLY GRATEFUL

Debraacts
Debraacts
4 years ago

Eye color and hair color needs a serious makeover too. There is not nearly enough variety in the eye choices and the hair colors are a joke.

DrXtreme80
DrXtreme80
4 years ago

how’s about have an actual Height adjuster, instead of having mods that do that for you, but often break at random times.

Andrew
Andrew
4 years ago

Well that’s weird bc I’m not watching no video I want to see images!!!

Steven R Ziegler
Steven R Ziegler
4 years ago

i hate the fact that it takes nearly 3 minutes to get to the main page of game,3 more minutes to get to create a sim or load one,then over 4 minutes to actually do anything in the game,this i hope gets fixed

Grateful Llama
Grateful Llama
4 years ago

Many of these comments made me sick. The Sims team is doing what they can to give us what we want, and yet still so many of us are dissatisfied. Always asking for more. I would love to get cars and better babies. But what matters most to the majority of us is inclusion. Giving us better skin tone options is priority. I’m not saying we should bow down and kiss their shoes, but come on people. It’s a video game for Pete’s sake. I’m just happy that they ARE listening. They don’t have to give us anything. Yet even with soooo many people constantly criticizing and demanding more, they still try to give us what we want. No, Sims 4 isn’t perfect. But guess what? YOU DONT HAVE TO PLAY IT.

End rant.

Jake
Jake
4 years ago
Reply to  Grateful Llama

This has been exactly what I have been saying! Thank you.

Anon
Anon
4 years ago
Reply to  Grateful Llama

I know!!! people are expecting their game to load in 5 seconds when they have countless mods and don’t understand that the sims team has done so much more than other games for inclusiveness. It takes a lot of work to make changes to the game and aren’t going to change the entire concept of their game for one person.

Andrew
Andrew
4 years ago
Reply to  Grateful Llama

Bruh

Andrew
Andrew
4 years ago
Reply to  Andrew

I want to see images!!!

Jace
Jace
4 years ago

Happy to hear for change, however, in the same vein as wanting to be on the forefront on inclusion would you consider including inclusive pronouns? More specifically.. would you consider adding in they/them pronouns. It’s great being able to really edit my character gender related traits.. however THEY are still called “she” in Sims. No, “he” isn’t any better. Why? Because this character best reflects me and my nonbinary identity. Seeing even my Sims going though the same strict “he/she” deal that I do real life isn’t a perfect life simulation where I can truly live life as I perceive. It makes my reality much more apparent than anything.

Steven R Ziegler
Steven R Ziegler
4 years ago

i hate the fact that it takes nearly 3 minutes to get to the main page of game,3 more minutes to get to create a sim or load one,then over 4 minutes to actually do anything in the game,this i hope gets fixed

Grateful Llama
Grateful Llama
4 years ago

Many of these comments made me sick. The Sims team is doing what they can to give us what we want, and yet still so many of us are dissatisfied. Always asking for more. I would love to get cars and better babies. But what matters most to the majority of us is inclusion. Giving us better skin tone options is priority. I’m not saying we should bow down and kiss their shoes, but come on people. It’s a video game for Pete’s sake. I’m just happy that they ARE listening. They don’t have to give us anything. Yet even with soooo many people constantly criticizing and demanding more, they still try to give us what we want. No, Sims 4 isn’t perfect. But guess what? YOU DONT HAVE TO PLAY IT.

End rant.

Andrew
Andrew
4 years ago

Well that’s weird bc I’m not watching no video I want to see images!!!

Debraacts
Debraacts
4 years ago

Eye color and hair color needs a serious makeover too. There is not nearly enough variety in the eye choices and the hair colors are a joke.

Latissa Williams
Latissa Williams
4 years ago

What about eye lashes for the toddlers to adults it really confusing me why that they don’t have them we have eyelash from baby to an adult i want eyelashes on my son with out having to get a mod for that

Penny
Penny
4 years ago

I’m glad sims are going to improve the skin tones. But they need to fix all the skin tones. Also they need to fix the face structure too. They also need to fix the hair structure too. The long hair style they got now are not long enough. Under long hair style those styles should be under medium length. Long hair in the real world is down the middle of a person back and beyond the back. Some long hair reaches the butt area and beyond that. Also they need to fix the body structure too. In the sims 3 girls could have bigger chest area like size D in a bra cup size. I don’t like the face structure not every American face is Chinese looking. The sims 3 had better face structure also and it was great at making your sims could look so good. But also with how much these updates and buying all these games pack is taking up all the space on ps4 consoles the sims4 would have to be the only game a person could play on the ps4 system. In my house we play other games too. And you can’t have all the games taking up all the space on the ps4 system. When I’m not playing sims we’re buying songs for rockband and rocksmith that takes up space pn the ps4 also. Besides mortal kombat stuff and GTA. The only game that we have that doesn’t take up so space that we play is resident evil and monopoly. But the sims4 game pack and expansion pack cost so much money also. And with everyone being out of work the sims packs shouldn’t be charging everyone the prices like they are. Another thing we should see in the sims is everyday lives. Grocery stores and bakeries. More transportation. And I’m sick and tire of seeing the writing under where you go between live mode and build mode that tells you what your controller buttons are for now. If you play the sims you know this already. And we should see the sims say alot more stuff instead the same thing over and over. And fix the sound of their voices too. I turn my tv down to play cause I can’t stand the voices or the music. Alot of people don’t talk like the sims and alot of people like classic rock and roll music
If you’re improve the skin tones fix the other stuff too. One more things why can’t we own other pets too like birds, horses, and so on. Have better clothing and purses too. I wish I had a job working for the sims.