A Note From Our Team: How We’re Addressing Skin Tone Improvements

The Sims team will be releasing a base game update around existing skin tones on October 6 for Mac/PC and November 10 for console. As we work on expanding skin tone variety, in this first step, we’ll be improving the blotchy artifacts and ashy appearance of darker skin tones on mid and high spec machines*. (Not sure whether this applies to your computer? See the note below!) As mentioned in our initial video, we recognize there is a need to improve the representation of hairstyles in our base game as well, so in October, we will start by updating two of the base game hairstyles.

Bigger changes are coming! In December, we’ll be rolling out at least a hundred new skin tone swatches in cool, neutral, and warm tones with a particular emphasis on darker skin tones. Beyond the new additions, we are introducing a slider on all swatches, both new and existing, that will allow you to modify each selected tone to be lighter or darker. We’ve heard your feedback on makeup as well. To truly complement the expanded library of skin tones launching in December, we’ll also be adding new sliders for makeup in Create-A-Sim mode. The updated customization options will offer an entirely new level of control of your Sim’s appearance so they can look as flawless as possible. Plus, the December update will include another two improved base game hairstyles.

Keep an eye out for more information from our team in late October or early November as we start to implement these changes. We’ll also be sharing more details about how we’re collaborating with external partners, including talented and diverse community members, to make sure we get this right. As always, we thank you for sticking with us as we continue to grow. We’re looking forward to sharing all of this with you in the coming months!

Thank you!

*Please note that the October PC update will, at this point, be visible only to those running the game with the “Uncompressed Sim Textures” graphics settings turned ON. This will not be the default setting on all machines, so follow these steps to check your settings and see the graphic updates. To turn ON “Uncompressed Sim Texture” in the game, go to Options > Game Options > Graphics Tab > Graphics Sections > check “Uncompressed Sim Textures.” If your machine has lower graphics settings and you attempt to run with uncompressed graphics, you may experience a crash; to recover, please re-enable graphic compression. Based on the current specs that default “Uncompressed Sim Textures” to ON, we recommend a graphics card rated medium, high, or ultra and at least 2 GB video RAM.