The Sims 4 Life and Death has been announced as the game's next expansion, and the good news is that we already know its release date. We don't know all its features yet, but as usual I'm betting we can dig into the roadmap video for some hints about what's coming. I, along with so many other players, have lots of theories about what kinds of death-related content could come in this expansion pack. What's less obvious is what the “life” part of the pack will entail.

Here's everything we know about the Life and Death expansion so far, and some of the educated guesses that I'm staking my simoleons on.

When is the Life and Death expansion release date? 

The Sims 4 Life and Death launches on October 31, 2024. It's actually pretty unusual for EA to have already announced the expansion pack release date during the seasonal roadmap, so this time around we have plenty of time to get our affairs in order. We also know that the full reveal for the Life and Death expansion features is coming on October 3. 

What features might the Life and Death expansion have? 

We don't know the details about the Life and Death expansion yet, but based on its teasers, and what a full expansion typically includes, we can make some pretty good guesses. A Sims 4 expansion will definitely include new features, Create-A-Sim items, Build/Buy Mode items, and most likely a new world. 

The “Season of To Be Continued” teaser video is themed after tarot cards, which is likely a hint in and of itself, and the card announcing the expansion includes an image of the Grim Reaper. Unexpectedly, Grim is offering up a flower and appears to have a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis attached to their scythe, and there's a butterfly in the background as well. Admittedly I've got no idea what that hints at. Maybe there's some kind of rebirth theme in this Life and Death pack—or maybe the metamorphosis implies stages of life and ghosts may become their own life stage? 

A new world
Sims expansions pretty much always come with a new world, so we can expect the same here. As for what its theme will be, I'm a bit stumped. My first guess was that it could be themed after Halloween or Día de Muertos. Given how abstract “Life and Death” is, maybe it will be an occult-like world like Moonwood Mill of the Werewolves game pack, which doesn't really have a real-world cultural inspiration.

New deaths for sims
Sims DLCs often also include new ways for sims to die and in a pack all about Life and Death, there almost certainly have to be new deaths. If it really leans into the occult, maybe sims could be cursed to death or even “fated” to die based on a tarot card reading.

New careers and skills
Sims 4 expansions also typically come with some kind of new career and related skill. Lots of players are guessing that the Grim Reaper might actually be a career that our Sims can take on, based on a years-old community vote for upcoming packs in which a death-themed pack lost out to what eventually became the Nifty Knitting pack. As for skills, I'm betting that Tarot Reading might be its own new skill.

Other possible features:

• A new type of lot—maybe graveyards or funeral homes
• New life aspirations—perhaps related to the Grim Reaper