The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories Will Be Released In Russia After All, ‘unaltered And Unchanged’

Last week, Electronic Arts announced that it would not release the upcoming Sims 4 expansion My Wedding Stories in Russia because it would violate the country’s laws forbidding materials that promote “non-traditional sexual relationships.” Today, however, it reversed that decision, saying that the expansion will be made available, unedited, to Russian gamers.

“We’ve been listening to the outpouring of feelings from our community including both support for our decision and concern for their fellow community members,” the Sims team wrote. “It’s equally important for us to stand by our values, including standing against homophobia, and to share stories like this with those who want and need it most.

“With this in mind, 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.”

Camille and Dominique—Cam and Dom for short—are the couple at the center of My Wedding Stories’ promotional materials. EA said last week that putting a same-sex couple in the marketing spotlight meant that the expansion “would not be something we could freely share around the world,” but insisted that it wasn’t willing to make changes to accommodate countries with anti-LGBTQ laws.

The turnaround presumably means My Wedding Stories will have to be rated Adults Only in Russia, which will keep it out of the hands of minors, but that seems like an academic point: The Sims 4 itself is rated AO there anyway because it already allows players to engage in same-sex relationships in the game. I’ve reached out to EA for clarification on that point and will update if I receive a reply.

Unfortunately, to ensure the entire Sims community is “able to celebrate together,” the launch of My Wedding Stories has been delayed slightly, and is now set to arrive on February 23.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.