The Sims 4 is staging an in-game music festival headlined by Bebe Rexha

Following in the footsteps of Fortnite, the Sims 4 is staging its own in-game music festival in July. Titled "Sims Sessions", the festival is headlined by two-time Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha, whose hits include "I’m a Mess" and "Meant to Be". Rexha will apparently be debuting a new song at the festival, performed entirely in the Sims' fictional language of Simlish. Which is, uh, interesting.

Rexha will be supported by Glass Animals' Dave Bayley, who will be performing the band's single "Heat Waves", alongside up and coming artist Joy Oladokun. I have no idea who any of these people are, because I stopped listening to new music about ten years ago and still consider Radiohead's "In Rainbows" a new album. That said, it seems like a pretty impressive line-up for a gig inside EA’s virtual people simulator.

According to the event's webpage, alongside listening to the artists perform, players attending Sims Sessions can "camp out" (the game’s own store page suggests "Woohoo"-ing to the music), perform on stage after the main artists have finished their sets, and also shop at festival stalls, either running their own table or buying "artist-themed merchandise". It isn't clear whether you’ll be using in-game currency or actual currency to make such purchases, though I'd put my own money on the latter.

Frankly, the whole thing sounds a bit weird. I find the idea of attending a concert in a video-game odd anyway, and I'm not sure why anyone would want to sit in front of a screen listening to a popstar's avatar sing a song in a nonsense language. The Sims does have history regarding this latter part, apparently having partnered with nearly 500 artists since 2004 to record their songs in Simlish.

Getting people to attend a live event specifically to hear one is a different matter, however. Fortnite has demonstrated there is a market for this sort of thing, but is this because people genuinely like attending concerts in virtual worlds, or simply because they like doing things with their pals in Fortnite? I'm not quite sure the Sims, big as it is, has the same clout to pull it off.

That's not to say it isn't an interesting idea, however. The festival runs from June 29 through July 7. You can visit the Sims Sessions page for more info, although it doesn't explain how you actually attend the festival, only that you need to own the Sims 4 to do it.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.