The Sims 4 Island Living expansion and Pride content coming soon

Get ready to experience the laid-back lifestyle in The Sims 4’s newest expansion, Island Living. EA also celebrates the LGBTQ+ community with a new partnership.

Closing out EA Play 2019 wasn’t the explosive blockbuster surprise title that many had hoped for, but instead one of EA’s longest-running and most popular franchises – The Sims.

No, a new Sims game wasn’t announced this year, but we did learn about a new expansion. The Sims 4 Island Living will take players to the tropical island of Sulani, where they can relax on the beach or enjoy water activities at their own leisure.

Island Living is all about escaping the bustling city and kicking back in the tropics. A trailer accompanied the announcement, highlighting many of the new features the expansion will bring.

Okay, so let’s unpack some of what was shown. For starters, yes, that was a mermaid. With the new expansion, you can befriend and play as an actual magical mermaid. As EA explained, mermaids have mysterious magical powers that you can discover, and can even communicate with dolphins!

Island Living will also introduce a new career and allow you to become a conservationist. Given the setting of the expansion, this career seems like a perfect fit, as you’ll be tasked with cleaning up and caring for the environment. It’s a thankless job, but performing it will result in a more lush and beautiful island. With all of the talk about global warming impacting tropical environments, including coral reefs, this is a great way to bring attention to some of the issues these islands face. Other activities include becoming a beach lifeguard and fishing.

If you’re looking for more leisure activities, you’ll be able to go canoeing or ziplining. From learning about the local folklore to tasting traditional delicacies, the island of Sulani is yours to explore.

Although it’s not the most exciting announcement of the day, Island Living is a welcomed addition to The Sims 4. But while it’s a new experience for this particular game, longtime Sims players may not be that impressed with it. A similar expansion, Island Paradise, was released for The Sims 3 and featured houseboats, resort management, water transportation and more. And that’s really been the unfortunate trend for The Sims 4 expansions, simply rehashing old expansion ideas from the previous game.