The Sims 4 will get 100 new skin tones in December

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

The Sims 4 will soon have an abundance of new customisable skin tones, along with improved hairstyles and existing skin tones, as part of the team's attempt to improve the game's representation. 

Criticism over its range of hairstyles and skin tones has followed the game since launch, but while the wait for improvements has been a long one, the updates sound significant, going considerably further than throwing a few more tones into the mix and calling it a day. 

On October 6, a base game update will improve the appearance of darker skin tones when the uncompressed Sim textures setting is turned on, and two hairstyles will be updated. The meatier update is coming in December, when at least 100 new skin tones will be introduced, with an emphasis on darker skin tones. 

All skin tones will become customisable, too, with a slider letting you make the tone lighter or darker. You can never have too many sliders, and more of them are being added to makeup, as well. The December update will also add two more improved hairstyles. 

Tiny houses and Star Wars vacations might be fun diversions, but this seems like a more meaningful update. Everyone ends up making themselves in The Sims, so it's weird that we got wizards, vampires and a trip to Batuu before before this. Unlike those packs, though, the skin tone update is a freebie for the base game, so all players will be able to take advantage of the expanded customisation options. 

Fraser Brown
Online Editor

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog. 

Latest in The Sims
The Sims 4 - stacks of laundry machines in a small laundromat small business next to chairs with laundry
The best part of The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies expansion is just coming up with fun small business ideas
The Sims 4 - A business owner looks at a customer angrily
How to get disruptive customers to leave in The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies
The Sims 3 - A burglar cackles while holding open a bad to steal from a house
The Sims 4 is finally bringing the burglar back to the series after a decade away
The Sims 2 - a sim in sunglasses and a moustache frowns
This Sims 2 mod makes all your sims very horny but that's not actually the best part
The Sims 2 - a sim with white hair and a beard wears stylish sunglasses on the sidewalk
This cheat mod makes The Sims 2 feel like a god game and it turns out I am a cruel, cruel god
The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies - A sim focuses on spinning a pottery wheel while a child watches with excitement
The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies expansion includes a ton of cross-pack play that I'm pretty psyched for
Latest in News
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft backflips, says Assassin's Creed Shadows will support Steam Deck at launch, but I doubt I'll actually want to play it there
Henry from KCD2 wearing nice outfits
'Diversify your fashion endgame' with this Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 mod that gives Henry fly new gambesons, pourpoints, and caftans
Masked Counter-Terrorist in helmet in forefront with sunglasses and beret-wearing CT in background touching headset
There's hope yet for Classic Offensive after its Steam rejection: The team behind the Counter-Strike 1.6 revival mod is in touch with Valve about its 'concerns'
Recently appointed Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
Here comes Intel's new CEO: a semiconductor veteran that won the same prestigious award as Jensen Huang and Lisa Su
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 15: Protestors attend the SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike Picket on August 15, 2024 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Lila Seeley/Getty Images)
8 months into their strike, videogame voice actors say the industry's latest proposal is 'filled with alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable to AI abuse'