You can now pre-load The Sims 4 ahead of next week’s release

In just a few days, The Sims 4 will release and you can begin to experience new emotions based on unique personalities — all of which will help craft some pretty weird and entertaining stories.

To give you a head start on all the fun, EA has opened up the game for pre-loading for anyone who has already preordered it. Pre-loading is just now rolling out, so it may not be available in your area just yet. When it is, simply launch Origin and download your copy of The Sims 4.

Pre-loading doesn't mean you'll get to play early though. It simply means that your game will unlock once the game officially launches in your region. For those in the U.S., that means it'll start rolling out at 12:00am EDT on September 2, 9pm PDT on September 1. For those of you in other regions, check out the local release schedule below:

September 2: North America, Central Asia, and Russia
September 4: Australia, Japan, and Europe (excluding the UK)
September 5: New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the UK