Initially, EA planned not to release the upcoming DLC “My Wedding Stories” for The Sims 4 in Russia due to the homophobic laws there. However, after protests from the community, they seem to have reconsidered the situation, and now the DLC is set to be released in Russia after all. Read all the details here on MeinMMO!
What kind of DLC is this? A new DLC is planned for the popular life simulation game The Sims 4 by EA. It is called “My Wedding Stories” and focuses entirely on weddings. You can plan and execute weddings to your heart’s content, complete with huge cakes, elaborate ceremonies, and magnificent wedding dresses.
Isn’t it actually a lovely thing that should excite Sims players all over the world?
What is so problematic about it in Russia? The DLC allows – as has long been typical in The Sims – for weddings involving same-sex couples. The entire advertising campaign for the DLC even explicitly features the wedding of Cam(eron) and Dom(inique), a lesbian couple. They even adorn the cover of the DLC.
However, in Russia, a controversial law stands in the way of the grand wedding fun in The Sims 4. Since 2013, so-called “homosexual propaganda” has been prohibited there. This means that it is subject to penalty to show homosexuality positively in the presence of minors. The law has since caused much international uproar and protests from human rights movements (via Süddeutsche).
EA explains change of course and postpones release of My Wedding Stories
This was EA’s initial reaction: Due to the difficult legal situation, the publisher EA initially decided not to release the DLC at all in Russia. While homosexual relationships are indeed possible in the base version of The Sims 4, the game had previously avoided classification in Russia because it is rated for adults only.
In the past, there were already problems in Russia with homosexual content in games. For instance, the Pride Month in LoL was not promoted at all in Russia, and the comic for Overwatch, in which Tracer reveals she is homosexual, never made it to Russia.
However, since the entire marketing for the upcoming wedding DLC revolves around the wedding of the two women, this was apparently too sensitive for EA at first, leading them to decide to scrap the DLC for Russia.
As a justification, EA stated back then that they considered the story of the two women so important that they didn’t want to cut it, and therefore preferred not to release the DLC in regions where love between same-sex individuals is problematic:
For “My Wedding Stories,” we were excited to introduce you to Dom and Cam. Their love story reflects the experiences of so many members of our community and our team.
During our development and storytelling process, we realized that the way we wanted to tell Cam and Dom’s story would not be something we could freely share around the world.
The ability to tell stories – whatever they may be – is at the core of our work at The Sims. Keeping Cam and Dom’s story to ourselves would mean compromising the values by which we live. We are committed to the freedom to be who you are, to love whom you love, and to tell the stories you want to tell.
What does this mean for you, our players? We are determined to uphold this commitment by highlighting and celebrating stories like Dom and Cam’s. That is why we have decided to forgo the release of “My Wedding Stories” wherever our narrative would be subject to changes due to laws.
Unfortunately, this means that members of the Sims community in Russia will not be able to purchase this DLC.
How did the community react? EA’s justification was not well received by various content creators. For instance, streamer Kayla stated via Twitter that EA’s decision makes a statement against the interests of homosexuals. According to Kayla, homosexuals in Russia must feel ignored and irrelevant. Therefore, she stated she would not cover the DLC in her streams until EA responds positively.
Other users on Twitter even called for a boycott of the DLC as long as EA maintains its decision and prevents the DLC in Russia.
This is the current situation: Recently, there has actually been a re-evaluation at EA. In a statement from February 16, it was suddenly revealed that they now intend to release the Wedding Stories in Russia after all. And indeed with the full program, including the wedding of Cam and Dom.
Last week, we published the update below regarding the announced My Wedding Stories gameplay pack. At the time, we believed that our team could not freely tell the story of the same-sex couple Cam and Dom in Russia, and since we wanted to stand up for their story, we decided not to release the pack there.
Since then, we have heard from our community about their wishes and feedback, ranging from support for our decision to sympathy for other members of the community. It is just as important for us to stand by our values, which includes a clear stance against homophobia, and to share such stories with those who wish for them the most and need them the most.
Against this backdrop, we have re-evaluated our options and recognized that we can do more than we originally thought, and we will now also be releasing The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories gameplay pack for our community in Russia – unchanged and with Dom and Cam.
It seems that the massive push from fans for the release of the wedding DLC in Russia made a difference. However, the DLC “My Wedding Stories” will not be released as planned on the 17th, but a week later, on the 23rd of February 2022. One can only hope that The Sims 4 and the DLC do not fall victim to the laws in Russia after all.
An interesting alternative to The Sims 4 can be found here: New MMORPG on Steam is a mix of Sims and Stardew Valley – lets you govern your own land
