The Sims 4 has revealed a first proper look at infants, including gameplay details and a release date.
Improved babies have been a hugely popular request for years now, and fans were excited back in October when the developers announced that a big update addressing this would launch in early 2023.
During the Behind The Sims stream on Tuesday (January 31), the team finally offered more information on what Simmers can expect.
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First of all, the update – which will be free to all players – is planned for March 14.
Infants will be a brand new life stage in between baby and toddler, and a lot of work has gone into making this life stage feel fleshed out.
"From the very first days of this project, the objective the team rallied around was to surpass player expectations referring the babies," production lead Graham Nardone said. "Our vision to accomplish that was to add infants as an entirely new age, resulting in a much more natural progression for Sims' early stages of life."
Infants are customisable like any other life stage, with players able to choose various clothing, shoes, hair, accessories, glasses, and even implanted teeth and birthmarks.
Furthermore, infants have unique and new interactions for players to explore and enjoy.
"We created a lot of new technologies," software engineer Carl Zhang said.
"So now, in the game, while holding an infant you're able to sit down while still holding them. You can also talk to them, nurse them, and you can even give your infants to another Sim."
Promotional footage of infants also shows breastfeeding.
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"One area that we leaned into was adding more ways to socialise and play between children, toddlers, infants, newborns, and yes, of course, even cats and dogs," Nardone added.
"We want all our Sims to share in the fun when these adorable infants arrive in-game."
Some of the finer details, like how it affects lifespan lengths and the number of days it takes for an infant to age up, have yet to be confirmed.
Elsewhere in the Behind The Sims stream, the next expansion was teased with a 'Meet the Family' tagline. A full announcement is set for Thursday (February 2).
The Sims 4 is available on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
