EA and The Sims developer Maxis have announced that they will not be releasing the upcoming Sims 4 expansion pack, Wedding Adventure, in Russia.
In a recent blog post by the Sims team, Maxis said that releasing the expansion pack in Russia would mean "compromising the values we follow" and that Russian federation laws would force them to change the development and marketing of the extension pack.
Wedding Adventure is a wedding-themed expansion pack where players can plan and host weddings at the new location in Tartosa. It expands on existing wedding features, including the proposal and ceremony itself, adding detailed planning, decorations, costumes, cakes, events, and more.
Although any adult sim character can get married in The Sims 4 and Wedding Adventure, the DLC's marketing and storytelling explicitly features two women: Dominique and Camille, who are planning their own weddings.
The law of the Russian Federation, introduced in 2013, prohibits the marketing of homosexuality as a social norm to children (people under the age of 18) and marks it as "propaganda". The law comes at a time when violence against LGBTQ people in Russia is on the rise and has been condemned by numerous human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The Sims 4 received a mature rating of 18+ when it was released in Russia in 2014, apparently because of its inclusion of same-sex content. At the time, EA said it had no idea of adjusting the game rating by changing the game's content — they seemed to stick to that view in "Wedding Adventure."