If you’ve spent any amount of time in Sims 4 community spaces and forums over the past few years, you’re definitely going to have seen these five words whenever new DLC is announced: “When are we getting fairies?”
Well, the answer to that question might be around the corner. If a listing on Instant Gaming is to be trusted, that is.
Instant Gaming is a digital sales platform that offers video game codes at a discounted price. They have loads of content on offer, from the newest kits for The Sims 4 down to older titles like SimCity. Recently, the platform caught our attention for two curious listings. A new Expansion Pack for The Sims 4 called Enchanted By Nature, and, um, The Sims 5 for some reason?
Is The Sims 4: Enchanted By Nature actually real?
The Enchanted By Nature product page on Instant Gaming teased a new Expansion Pack coming on July 10th featuring fairies, foraging, apothecary, and more. The page now redirects to the Instant Gaming homepage instead.
When it was still up, the listing didn’t exactly spark confidence. In fact, it was full of suspicious content. The teaser images were most likely AI-generated and didn’t look anything like gameplay stills, for starters. And, the graphics were also odd, using the pre-rebrand Sims 4 logo, and some super off-brand font by EA’s standards.
Besides the dubious visuals, the content provided to sum up the game itself also seems a little strange. Foraging and gardening have already been in The Sims 4 since launch, as you can find and grow harvestables. Making them into supposedly new features seems a little odd.
Another thing that raises some red flags is that occults are generally (although not always) added in Game Packs rather than Expansions, and we already know from other leaks that the next DLC is going to be an Expansion Pack. Vampires and werewolves both had their own Game Packs, and Strangerville also introduced some occult-ish game mechanics.
But, mermaids were introduced in the Island Living Expansion Pack. And, the ghost system was fleshed out, no pun intended, in Life & Death. So, if fairies are just a small part of the new additions, then making them a part of an Expansion isn’t totally out of the question.
All in all, the listing itself doesn’t look very promising. But, you’ve got to wonder how the listing came about. This isn’t the first time Instant Gaming has been involved in a leak surrounding The Sims 4, either. So it’s entirely possible that some news about fairy Sims might just be waiting in the wings.
But what about The Sims 5?
What’s even weirder than the Enchanted By Nature listing is that Instant Gaming has a page for The Sims 5; a game which EA haven’t even announced yet. The page suggests it’s coming out in 2025 and will be free to play on the EA app.
Sporting an edited Sims 4 promotional image for The Sims 4, the page goes on to give a bunch of ‘best guess details about what the game will include as little has been confirmed as yet’. Some of these guesses include suggestions that:
- The Sims 5 will be multiplayer with cross-platform compatibility;
- It’ll have The Sims 3-style open world functionality;
- Babies will be free roaming (A somewhat intimidating concept);
- There’ll be an item crafting system that can be sold to other Simmers.
And more. Just to be absolutely clear, it doesn’t say what the basis of these best guesses is, like citing any leaks or press releases, or even information about Project Rene. Considering how little information is out there about The Sims 5, that’s not much of a surprise. But, it does highlight that we probably shouldn’t trust Instant Gaming too much as a news source.
What we (might) know about the next Sims 4 DLC
Besides marketplaces going rogue, other speculation has been flying around for a few months now about what’s coming next. Anadius tweeted a few weeks ago sharing that Expansion Pack 19 – so, the next one to come – is numbered as DLC number 99. By that logic, the next official release for The Sims 4 will be another Expansion Pack.
Other Simmers have shared images from an official calendar to try and figure out key hints about the next pack. Kimbrasprite shared a full run-down of every future month in the calendar, and unfortunately, there aren’t any fairies. In fact, the image for July, which is when Enchanted By Nature would come out if you trust Instant Gaming, is just depicted with a generic pool party scene.
Admittedly, May – when the leaks came out – is represented by a cheeky cowplant, which is in keeping with the nature theme. But, I think that’s more of a coincidence than anything.
So, we don’t really know occult-lovers can continue to live in hope that Instant Gaming’s predictions are true and that fairies will fly into our games soon, as it’s not totally outside of the realms of possibility. However, I wouldn’t get your hopes up too much until we have more solid information than Instant Gaming’s product listing.
