In case you weren’t able to tune in for it, The Sims Team and The Sims Q&A Team hosted an early look Livestream of the upcoming Sims 4 Update coming May 12th, 2026. This livestream was just under an hour long, and primarily focused on some key points of player frustration that are supposed to be fixed with this update, and have been named on the laundry list of 150+ bug fixes released by the team recently.

While the livestream wasn’t a deep dive or heavily detailed, we were able to gather looks at the new assets being added and the long-time requested fixes that players have been hoping to see for months or years, depending on the actual fix.

The Sims 4 Update for May 2026: Early Look Developer Livestream

The livestream is with The Sims team members Carlos, Morgan, and Alex. They had a pre-created test family of the three of them, as well as an alien infant who the livestream chat voted to name Eggward.

It was noted that they will be going through lots of fixes, but not everything. The primary focuses were the updates to Create-A-Sim to add base layers, infant bug fixes, and autonomy changes and tuning. The team did this playtesting with all packs installed.

Create-A-Sim

• Base layers were showcased. In CAS -> Accessories, there is now a Base Layer category. There will be 8 options for adult sims. The adult sim options include one turtleneck, one t-shirt, two tank tops, a binder, a sports bra, and a strapless bra.
  • There are four options for children, two being tank tops and two being long sleeved shirts.
  • Toddlers get two base layers, a long sleeved shirt and a simple t-shirt.
  • Base layers function similarly to tights, but for the upper body. Since jackets are just tops, like other shirts already in the game, base layers will go underneath but tops cannot be combined or layered on top of each other. They also show through transparent clothing items, giving a pop of color underneath.

Build Mode

• Not much is being added in build mode, but a new infant playmat is being added as a free update. It will come with 9 total swatches; The types of swatches include a patched pattern, beveled shapes, and sheep patterns.

Live Mode & Overall Autonomy Fixes

Referencing the laundry list, the developers did describe the five largest community-voted bug fixes that will be implemented in the upcoming update.

• Black Photo Fixes
• Infant Interaction Issues
• No secret witness sentiment for engaged sims witnessing woohoo.
• Can’t place item error for new and old saves.
• Sims stuck with a scandal, fixed in new and old saves.

• Sims will now no longer autonomously get water. This was due to a hidden thirst motive, which has been removed. They are requesting more feedback and would like, in the future, to turn it back on, but they felt it was best to turn it off now to avoid gameplay interruptions.
• If a sim is woken up by a loud noise, like a radio or television, they are supposed to wake up and turn it off if they are tired.
• Sims will autonomously dance much less, even more after the March update lowered it as well. They are limited to autonomous dancing once a day.
• Sims will no longer pass out due to energy failure if they’ve just gotten into bed, per Morgan.

Infant and Caregiver Gameplay Changes

• Fixes to pick up/put down, caregivers freezing, etc. Should overall “play better”.
• Things were fixed to allow adult sims to have lives outside of caregiving.
• Milestones are now easier and take less time to attain.
• Care interactions are now moved to the front of the pie menu, making them easier to find when looking through interactions.
• Changing and infant’s diaper is now a third of the time it used to take.
• Feeding an infant also takes a third of the time it used to take.
• Mess from bottles and diapers will now be autonomously cleaned up by sims after caring for infants.
• It is noted that sims will put them on the ground way less than they used to, now preferring playmats, cribs, etc.
• Future updates to fix issues with autonomy surrounding food, drinking, and dining.

User Interface and Player Settings

• If “Check Infant” is the first interaction in queue, it can now be canceled by the player. They are still working on it being cancelable if it is further back in the queue.
• More clear notifications for noises waking infants up, like from televisions, radios, etc. These notifications are true notifications, but they also come in the form of buffs and a small pop-up over the infants head.
• Pie menus no longer show the actions to bathe infants or change their diapers if they are sleeping.
• A Disable Caregiver Autonomy for Infants setting, meaning that all care interactions must be manually done. There is a warning attached since this means that you must be taking care of infants and forcing sims to do so. Sims will continue to socially interact with the infant, but will not feed, change, bathe, carry, etc.
• Backup saves have now been changed. Next to the delete button, the “Recover Save” button will now have more backups. It originally had five, but would overwrite often whenever players hit “Save”. Save files will now have backups as old as one month.

Viewers of the livestream voted that the biggest changes to their gameplay this will bring is the fixes to autonomy and the infant interaction fixes. What fixes are you excited for? What are you hoping to see fixed next? Let us know, and we at The Sims Community will keep you up to date on everything about and coming from The Sims 4 and other life simulation games!