The Sims 4 is getting a little more inclusive, thanks to a patch that adds new medical wearables, scars, and shapewear. Released yesterday, the Sims update (opens in new tab) adds trans-affirming top surgery scars and binders, as well as on-body medical devices like hearing aids and glucose monitors to more accurately and comprehensively reflect the wide, wide world of human experience. It also adds light switches. That’s not esoteric slang you don’t recognise, the patch just adds literal light switches.
The new cosmetics and accessories can all be found in the Create a Sim section. You can find the hearing aids in the face accessories section and glucose monitors under the body category. Top surgery scars can be added to teen and older male sims of any frame via the—you guessed it—body scars section. You can find the new binders and other shapewear in the clothing section, naturally.
Both disabled and queer members of the Sims community have responded positively to the new options. One much-upvoted Reddit thread from a deaf player says the new hearing aid “makes [their] heart whole (opens in new tab),” while another from a trans player comments that the “addition to top surgery scars and binders is amazing (opens in new tab)“. A viral Twitter post from queer activist Matt Bernstein (opens in new tab) succinctly captures the bulk of the reaction in a single word: “NICE”. I have to imagine that somewhere, someone is incredibly excited about that light switch, too.
There’s still work to be done, of course. One popular comment from RainApprehensive2566 (opens in new tab) says they love the update, and “hope one day we can have sims in wheelchairs and with prosthetics,” adding that their “tiny epileptic ass hopes for seizures one day too, but honestly that’d be a little dark for a game”.
It’s far from the only Sims update we’ve gotten in the last few days. It was only yesterday that we published a story that babies in the game will soon be unleashed from their cribs and allowed to ramble and gurgle about the house in the upcoming March 14 infants update (opens in new tab), and we also got comment from Maxis bosses that the next Sims game isn’t going to be an MMO (opens in new tab).