Skip to main content

The Sims 4’s new Cottage Living expansion pack lets players farm

EA and Maxis announced a new Cottage Living expansion pack for The Sims 4. Releasing on July 22 for both PC and consoles, the expansion includes nature- and animal-themed interactions, plus new clothing and house designs for players to choose from. It also rings with it a new town called Henford-on-Bagley.

The Sims 4 Cottage Living: Official Reveal Trailer

The Sims 4 is known for its wide variety of expansion packs that allow players to design their Sims and towns in a variety of unique ways, and the Cottage Living expansion pack seems to be no exception. The design of the expansion’s environments, clothes, and animals very much evokes the “cottagecore” aesthetic trend that has spread like wildfire on social media sites like Instagram and TikTok.

Recommended Videos

The expansion pack includes new activities for players’ Sims to participate in, including growing their own crops, which can be used for cooking, befriending animals, exploring Henford-on-Bagely, and getting to know new non-playable character Sims.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

In a press release, EA and Maxis said that players’ Sims will “find a variety of new ways to connect with nature.” Players can have their Sims pick up cross-stitching, participate in a countryside picnic, or explore the nearby idyllic woods. The expansion’s trailer shows a marketplace for Sims to sell their produce and a festival where enterprising players can enter their prize crops or animals in a contest. It’s a little slice of Harvest Moon right in The Sims 4.

Players who purchase the expansion by September 2 will also receive extra freebies for their Sims, including a rideable bicycle, a gnome statue, and a decorated tree. The DLC pack will be available for $40.

Emily Morrow
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Emily Morrow is a games journalist and narrative designer who has written for a variety of online publications. If she’s…
The Sims 4 devs form new team to address the game’s long list of issues
A woman Sim fixing a boiler next to a male Sim in the Sims 4 For Rent expansion.

The Sims 4 may be hitting its 10th birthday soon, but the developers at Maxis are still working to update and fix the game. This time, it's with the help of a new team that will focus specifically on these core issues.

The developers posted a statement on the Sims X (formerly Twitter) account Thursday announcing the move, which they hope will "be able to increase both the number of fixes and the frequency with which we ship these batched updates."

Read more
The Sims 4: For Rent expansion pack pits landlords against tenants
A shot of a Sims 4 building that shows a Sims home broken up into different rental properties.

The Sims 4: City Living, one of the game's many expansion packs, first introduced livable apartments in 2016. For longtime Sims players, this was a welcome addition to the most recent iteration of the long-running series. But since then, players have asked for far more freedom in both apartment gameplay (i.e., playing a Sims family that lives in an apartment) and building.

The Sims 4: For Rent expansion looks to step up and provide players with some long-requested features that haven’t been available before. In a preview event, lead producer Rebecca Doyle and lead designer Jessica Croft took press members through the expansion pack’s features, and even provided the opportunity to play as a property owner.

Read more
The Sims 4: Horse Ranch expansion is a warm slice of Western charm
A shot of Sims dressed in Western-style clothing, performing a line dance. One Sim in a red shirt is sitting down at a piano, playing music.

Sims players have long been hoping to see horses introduced into The Sims 4, especially after they were initially baked into The Sims 3: Pets expansion pack back in 2011. That long wait is over. The Sims 4’s newest expansion pack, Horse Ranch, brings horses into the current generation of the game with a whole host of new gameplay and storytelling options for horse lovers to dig into.

In a press preview event, several Sims 4 team members, including the production director JoAnna Lio and lead producer George Pigula, walked press members through the expansion pack’s offerings -- from the new world of Chestnut Ridge, building out the perfect ranch, to gameplay mechanics like riding, training, and bonding with horses.

Read more