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EA will release The Sims 4’s wedding expansion in Russia with disastrous sapphic romcom relationship intactThey were overly cautious about an anti-homosexuality law
They were overly cautious about an anti-homosexuality law
EA will now releaseThe Sims 4’s upcoming My Wedding Stories expansion in Russia, reversing a decision supposedly made due to concerns that it would run afoul of an anti-homosexuality law. Many fans were unhappy with this. Now EA say oh, they’ve checked again, and it turns out they don’t need to censor anything. So the expansion will come to Russia too, but EA are delaying the launch one week so they can get their ducks in a line and launch simultaneously worldwide.
My Wedding Stories was scheduled to launch today, expanding the game’s nuptials with new features for bachelor parties, rehearsal dinners, dress shopping, speeches, and all that wedding stuff. But on February 9th, a week before launch, EA announcedthey wouldn’t release it"where our storytelling would be subject to changes because of federal laws".
Honestly, I’d have a “No kissing until you take your goggles off” rule.
With this Sims expansion, EA’s have focused a lot on Dominique and Camille, a sapphic couple in a disastrous romcom scenario. Initially they thought this would be a real problem in Russia; now they think not.
“At the time, we believed that our team could not freely share the storytelling of same-sex couple Cam and Dom in Russia and decided the best way to uphold our commitment to sharing their story was to not release this pack there,” the Sims team explained inannouncing their change of heartyesterday.
So, EA say, “we’ve reassessed our options and realized we can do more than we initially believed and we will now release The Sims 4 ‘My Wedding Stories’ Game Pack to our community in Russia, unaltered and unchanged, featuring Dom and Cam.”
The situation has been a bit weird. The Sims 4 is already rated 18+ in Russia, and in 2014 the game’s local Twitter account explained that wasdue to that ‘anti-propaganda’ law. Seems weird that EA didn’t realise age ratings might help them here too. I don’t know.
The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories will now launch next Wednesday, the 23rd of February. “We want the entire Sims community to be able to celebrate together,” EA say, and presumably they’re scrambling to restart scrapped plans for the Russian release.
I do think My Wedding Stories is harmful propaganda, mind. Watch the trailer:
The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories: Official Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories: Official Reveal Trailer
Even I, a devoted fan of Hallmark Channel romcoms where a small-town baker realises she’s engaged to the wrong person and really should be with the handyman who loves Christmas as much as she does, think this is way too much. This is a story you’d see Camille posting onReddit’s r/AmItheAsshole board, insisting that she did nothing wrong, because love, then dismissively replying to every single critical comment with “Have you ever been in love?” or “You don’t know my story.” It’s too much. Ban this sick filth.
