The Sims 4’s new High School Years expansion launched Thursday, but the base game update from earlier in the week had some unintentional side effects: It’s making some Sims age up way too fast, while other Sims are becoming attracted to family members.
A representative for The Sims 4 acknowledged the auto-aging Sims bugs in a tweet on the official Sims Twitter account. “We are currently investigating instances involving Sims auto-aging up in saves using the Short or Long lifespan,” EA said via The Sims account. “We recommend temporarily playing in or creating new saves with the default/’normal’ lifespan, as we work towards a solution.”
Image: Maxis/Electronic Arts via Polygon
Players logging into The Sims 4 will also receive a pop-up warning on the bug, encouraging players not to play Sims that have been marked with short or long lifespans. (The Sims 4 has three lifespan options: short, normal, and long.) Sims can still die in accidents regardless of their chosen option, but this lets players choose how long their natural life is.
The Sims 4 players across social media and Reddit are reporting that their Sims are aging up way too fast — and old Sims are just outright dying.
A quality designer for The Sims 4 who goes by SimGuruNick on Twitter mentioned the incest bug, noting that the developer is working on a fix. Players reported that their Sims were getting “wants” — a replacement for “whims” added in a recent update — to date their family members. Wants are typically based off a Sim’s personality and traits, and include stuff like calling a friend, dating a specific sim, or being abducted by aliens. There are also “fears” — things like death, failure, and cowplants.
Meeting a Sim’s wants earns points that can be used to buy things, as does overcoming fears.
“I just wanted to acknowledge that the Want to date a family member is something we know about, we’ve reproduced ourselves, we’re working on it,” SimGuruNick wrote. “We’re looking to get it fixed ASAP, thanks for all the bug reports, we appreciate it. We’re of course working on the aging bug too.”
Polygon has reached out to Electronic Arts for more information and will update this story when the company responds.
