Have you grown attached to the few remaining Sims that you haven't drowned in a pool, you monster? You'll just have to keep playing The Sims 3 to continue watching their lives unfold, because The Sims 4 won't import them.

"We have brand new technology driving the game so unfortunately none of that carries over," producer Ryan Vaughan told Videogamer.com. "Especially with the new tools: It's a whole new way of building your Sims and building your families so it doesn't carry over."

But wait! You can still have a grotesque simulacrum of your former virtual loved ones, by simply recreating them in Sims 4 and never again thinking about their outdated, alternate-dimension doppelgangers.

"With the new tools, they're really tactile and creative," Vaughan said, "and I think people are going to be able to recreate their families really quickly but it's going to be so much more fun."

EA and Maxis announced at Gamescom that the focus of Sims 4 is on more realistic emotions. So you can be assured that if you can't import these characters to Sims 5, they'll at least feel incredibly depressed at being abandoned.