EA admits The Sims Summit did not “fairly represent” Black Simmers
Last week EA and the team over at Maxis highlighted new and exciting things coming to The Sims series during The Sims Summit. However, a near complete lack of Black Simmers involved, despite the contribution Black players have had on making The Sims 4 a much more well-rounded and inclusive game, has led EA to admitting they had made a mistake.
The Sims Summit Stream was meant to not only give a behind-the-look of future DLC and games – such as Project Rene – but to celebrate the incredible people that helped the series shoot in popularity in the first place. One such way was to highlight content creators via a reel. However, it only featured a single Black content creator; Stephen Works aka Springsims.
As first noticed by Eurogamer, Black content creator and streamer Ebonix was the first to amplify that the summit hadn’t shown an accurate representation of The Sims 4 community. “The impact Black Simmers have had??” Ebonix tweeted. It was this tweet that led to EA responding.
“Our creator segments during the Behind The Sims Summit did not fairly represent our vast community of players.” EA responded. “Black Simmers deserve to feel seen in all that we do at The Sims, so we’re holding ourselves accountable to this mistake and will do better moving forward.”
EA has not stated how they plan to do better for Black Simmers, however they did directly respond to Ebonix. “You are right in your frustrations, & we let you down. We owe it to you & each of our Black creators & players to make sure you are seen & celebrated for all that you bring to The Sims & The Sims community.”