Nearly one week after annoucing the next The Sims 4 expansion pack, Businesses and Hobbies, the official The Sims account on Twitter did a small recap of its new features. One of the tweets draws our attention to what could be seen as a small detail on the trailer and on one of the official screenshots.
wait … what actually was that? 😳 pic.twitter.com/8frNOQA4HY
— The Sims (@TheSims) February 12, 2025
This new “Shady” NPC appears on the trailer, always as a details in the background, going through a trash bin in one of the scenes, and is also seen more clearly on the official screenshot that is supposed to show the difference between the Dreamer and the Schemer ways of running a small business. You can see the image below – notice how the sim has a raccoon in its thought bubble – and read more about it on the official announcement blog post.
Ever since the trailer came out, people have been speculating that this NPC is actually three raccoons in a trenchcoat. This theory gained more track after yesterday’s GIF, which shows the character has a raccoon tail.
Leaked info that appeared last week following a breach on Steam shows that raccoons are somewhat of a theme on Businesses & Hobbies, appearing from wall art to new tattoos. So it’s fitting that a new character would follow this theme.
However, it has also been heavily speculated that the next game patch on February 25th will bring back burglars to The Sims 4, an NPC that has always been present in The Sims franchise and has never made its way to its most recent game. And it’s still unclear if this NPC is a pack feature, or part of the base game update.
There is a chance simmers will get some answers next week, during the gameplay deep dive for The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies expansion pack, which premieres on February 18th. Until then, all we have – as usual – are the various speculations.
