10 years later, The Sims 4 is finally getting its long-requested polyamory feature in a free update alongside the new Lovestruck expansion

The Sims 4 Lovestruck trailer screenshot showing a male and female Sim facing forward, leaning against one another while smiling — (Image credit: EA)

Alongside The Sims 4's steamy new expansion pack Lovestruck, EA reveals that it's releasing a free update containing one of the community's most requested romance features - polyamory.

Next month brings truly exciting times for us Simmers - not only is EA's spiciest expansion pack yet dropping, but the life sim's developer is also finally adding polyamory to the game. This marks a monumental first for The Sims series, with no entry prior to the fourth officially supporting open or polyamorous relationships. Longtime fans may recall grappling with Sims and their negative emotions when they feel they're being cheated on. Gone are those days of needing Sims 4 mods just to counter unwanted jealousy, though, according to EA.

"Free for all players is the new Romantic Boundaries system that will allow you to customize your Sim's experience with boundaries and jealousy," writes the dev in a post announcing the Lovestruck expansion. "You can now define how your Sims approach romantic relationships in terms of physical and emotional romantic exclusivity. This allows for Sims to date multiple Sims without impact to other relationships." Unsurprisingly, Simmers largely seem ecstatic to hear EA's news regarding polyamory.

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Polyamory coming into the base game for everyone. from r/Sims4

In a recent Reddit thread, fans are sharing their thoughts on the update: "FINALLY! I am tired of giving all my poly sims the player trait as a workaround!" Another player comments that it's "One less mod I need to use," while many more express how they're "so excited to read this." As someone with thousands of in-game hours myself, I'm looking forward to scrapping some mods in favor of official polyamory support - more importantly, though, I'm happy to hear that console users without any access to mods can play more freely.

Everyone can experience the joys of open relationships and polyamory with their Sims now, whether on PC or on console, once the free update rolls out this summer. The patch should make its way to The Sims 4 at the same time as the Lovestruck expansion launching on July 25, so there's not long to wait anymore - a welcome fact after 24 lengthy years without any word of such inclusive relationship dynamics in The Sims series.

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.