The next Sims 4 expansion pack has been teased with the tagline ‘It’s All Relative!’ leading many Sims 4 players to speculate that the next pack will be The Sims 4: Generations. Amongst the images teased in the social post, The Sims 4 team have announced a date for the next Sims livestream to be January 31, where we can expect more details on the upcoming expansion pack. For now, let’s take a look at what may be included in the pack if it is indeed a Generations one.

THE SIMS 4: GENERATIONS EXPANSION TEASER

Along with a teaser for another expansion pack, the post also mentions an upcoming live stream, two Sims 4 kits, and one big update, presumably the infants update that fans have been eagerly waiting for since The Sims Summit. If it is indeed the infant update, we may have the new baby’s life stage as early as February.

Along with the ‘It’s All Relative!’ tagline, the presence of photo frames in a tree has led many to make the connection between that and a family tree, further emphasising the possibility of a Generations expansion. The bear image in one of the frames is also shaped like a tooth, leading many to believe that we may receive gameplay featuring the tooth fairy or have extended gameplay on children’s dental care.

Generations as a pack would essentially add depth and detail to each life stage of The Sims. This can be in the form of new clubs, social interactions, skills, or age-dependant items. For example, The Sims 3: Generations pack introduced canes for elders. A previous Sims 4 official teaser for the pastel pop kit also showed an image of false teeth, indicating that we may be able to expect more gameplay for elders, a feature that many sims fans have asked for.

As such, the pack will include new family-orientated activities, aspirations, build-mode items and more. Read here for The Sims 4 Growing Together release date, trailers, gameplay and more.

THE SIMS 4 GROWING TOGETHER EXPANSION PACK: RELEASE DATE

You can pre-order now to get your hands on some cosmetic pre-order bonuses. These include:

• Prime of Childhood Swing Set
• Lil’ Whalebert Toddler Slide
• PowerWalk Companion

THE SIMS 4 GROWING TOGETHER EXPANSION PACK: TRAILER

THE SIMS 4 GROWING TOGETHER EXPANSION PACK: GAMEPLAY

With a renewed emphasis on family life, The Sims 4: Growing Together will introduce new ways for different generations of a family to interact with each other. Below are all the key gameplay features of the new expansion pack.

New San Sequoia Map

The new map to be released with The Sims 4: Growing Together is called San Sequoia and will be a bayfront town. This means the neighbourhoods are placed along an ocean bay and will have an emphasis on outdoor activities – perfect for families.

San Sequoia is split into three neighbourhoods like many worlds that have come before it. These neighbourhoods are:

• Anchorpoint Wharf (featuring a refurbished theatre and a public splash pad play area)
• Gilbert Gardens (containing a lake with nature paths)
• Hopewell Hills, which is described by Maxis as ‘a relaxed residential locale with a slower pace that seamlessly mixes elements of modern and traditional craftsman-style homes’.

The Sims also mention that one of the neighbourhoods will have a Recreation Centre which is great news for players who wish to expand on their gameplay with elder sims.

Infant Gameplay

The pack coincides with the release of the Infant life stage. This release will be a free base game update, however, The Sims 4: Growing Together will add extra content including 18 new ‘Infant Quirks’ which play in a similar way to traits for toddlers, however, these will be more tailored to suit the Infant stage. Some released examples of Infant Quirks are:

• Self-soother
• Early Riser
• Messy Eater
• Frequently Hiccups
• Gassy
• Good Appetite
• Snuggly Sleeper
• Happy Spitter
• Free-Air Tinkler

With more to be announced, each infant will get three quirks. Along with new items for infant care, (including a Changing Station and Infant Playmat), the pack will also come with infant milestones.

Family Interactions Across Generations

The main focus of the pack is to add detail to family environments. There are several ways The Sims team are doing this, including the following:

• Elder sims will have more activities like power walks at the park, solving puzzles at the recreation centre, and taking care of the ‘family Keepsake Box’.
• Toddlers are also getting quirks, 18 in total.
• There will be four new aspirations for children: Slumber Party Animal, Mind and Body, Playtime Captain and Creative Genius.
• New activities/build and buy mode items for children: A Treehouse, Splash Pad, Bike, Sleeping Bag, Slumber Parties, Friendship Bracelets, and more)
• A new Childhood Confidence mechanic.
• Children can lose teeth.
• A new social compatibility feature will make family relationships more complex. Some sims will be more socially compatible with others.

Family Dynamics

With the February 23 trailer, we saw a more detailed look at the new family dynamics gameplay coming with The Sims 4 Growing Together.

Players will now be able to customise the tone of their relationships with family members. The current options for this are:

• Distant
• Jokesters
• Close

Players will be able to select these options for each relationship in the same household, so a sim may be ‘close’ with their father but ‘distant’ with their mother.

There also seem to be more likes and dislikes added to the game through the expansion and these may affect the family dynamic if you have opposing likes and dislikes or similar ones.

Milestones

The trailer also shows new milestones which will have a lasting impact on the sim’s memories. It showed an icon for the milestone appearing as the sim completed the task. These tasks vary and include things like:

• Getting fired
• Infant’s first bath
• Getting married
• having a baby
• learning to crawl
• learning to stand
• learning to ride a bike
• losing a tooth

The Sims 4 team are bringing infants to the game in a free base game update for all players. The new Sims 4 infant life stage will take place between the baby and toddler life stages and will add new familial gameplay as your young infants navigate through important milestones like learning to crawl, eat solid food, have their first baths, learn to stand and more.

THE SIMS 4 INFANT UPDATE RELEASE DATE

The new infant life stage will be available to all players in a base game update on March 14. This is just two days before the new Sims 4 Growing Together expansion will launch.

Although the update will implement the infant life stage for all players, to get the expanded quirks, milestones, build mode items and infant clothing you will need to purchase a copy of The Sims 4 Growing Together. Keep reading for a full list of everything included in the free infant update.

THE SIMS 4 INFANT UPDATE TRAILER

THE SIMS 4 INFANT UPDATE GAMEPLAY

Finally, babies will not just simply age from newborns to toddlers but will have an in-between stage where they will sleep in cribs and will navigate through the obstacles of growing up.

From the footage shown in both the Behind the Sims live stream event and Growing Together trailers, infants will be given a host of new interactions with sims and new items. These will include:

• Learning to crawl
• Learning to stand
• Having their first bath
• Being changed on a changing table
• Being burped
• Moving onto solid foods
• The biting fingers animation
• A crib
• Being fed whilst sims are sitting and relaxing
• Infant birthday parties
• New CAS animation and poses for infants
• Infant CAS clothing and birthmark options
• Peekaboo game
• Animations for infants playing on carpets
• Animations of infants hobbling, sitting up and falling down
• Interactions between pets and infants (requires The Sims 4 Cats and Dogs expansion)

This is great news for many Sims fans who feel as though the baby phase is lacklustre.  Currently, babies are technically classed as an ‘object’ in the game which has limited interactions and mostly involves your sims standing around the bassinet performing interactions in the same space.

Now, babies will age into infants and will navigate through the world, learning as they go. The above interactions and animations will come with the free update on March 14.

To get infant quirks and milestones and an expanded catalogue of infant build mode and CAS items, you will need to get a copy of The Sims 4 Growing Together expansion pack.

For a full list of all other news shown at the Behind The Sims event, check out the official blog post here, or read our Behind The Sims guide here for all Sims announcements.