The ‘Sex Update’ from Cult of the Lamb Is a Positive Indication for Sexy Video Games

Following the tremendous success of Baldur’s Gate 3, Cult of the Lamb released an update called “Sins of the Flesh,” a welcome step toward allowing sex in video games.

The pitch is straightforward: What if this video game had sex? Fortnite needs sex. Among Us needs sex. Every game deserves a sex update, so the meme goes. In November, Cult of the Lamb, Massive Monster’s adorable, animal-themed roguelike about building and maintaining a cult, got in on the action: “We will add sex to the game if we hit 300k followers by the end of the year,” the game’s official account tweeted, in the style of the meme’s pseudo-horny forefathers. Now they’re making good on that promise.

Following the tremendous success of Baldur’s Gate 3, Cult of the Lamb released an update called “Sins of the Flesh,” a welcome step toward allowing sex in video games.

For a long time, video games have been a playground for lovers. Some, like the Dragon Age and Mass Effect video games from BioWare, integrate romance and sex right into the gameplay. Some provide titillation and exploitation, such as in the Grand Theft Auto series when sex workers are hired. Even more provide commonplace, technically sound techniques: The Sims allows users to “woohoo” (in the seclusion of a rocking bed) by having children. The pleasant notion that games may be harmlessly sexy has given rise to entire communities among players and developers as games and the ways in which people play them continue to evolve. But Massive Monster really shines when it comes to going above and above to create a meme.

The “Sins of the Flesh” update for Cult of the Lamb was released today and includes new rituals, weaponry, sparkly dung, and—most importantly—sex in the game. Don’t misunderstand, though; the developers of the game weren’t motivated solely by lustful posts on X. According to creative director Julian Wilton, Massive Monster had been experimenting with the concept of “mating” for some time and had been developing a sins mechanic for several months prior to utilizing it as a means of recruiting new members.

It is a natural incentive for players and makes a lot of technical sense. However, adding infant followers introduced a new degree of concern, as we wanted the gamers to care even more about their followers, according to Wilton. “But, we never followed the path before because we believed it would be a minefield with age ratings.”

A legitimate worry that the group took care of. As the game is rated T, players 13 years of age and older can enjoy it. A rating of M, or 17 and up, would have turned off some gamers from the game. Although, in Wilton’s words, the “absolute piling on of love and attention” that followed the announcement “definitely made us stop and focus on the potential of what we could get away with if we added in a quick’sex update,'” Massive Monster insisted that the rating would not change when the update was announced.

Therefore, it stands to reason that more games would try to do the same, particularly in light of the fact that Baldur’s Gate 3 rode a wave of lust to become 2023’s game of the year. Does that imply that Link will appear in a Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom DLC that Nintendo will release? No, but “Sins of the Flesh” is encouraging for a day when video games adopt a mature, lowercase-M perspective on sex that feels more in line with the larger, somewhat banal image of people’s lives.

Players will receive that in the most recent Cult of the Lamb update. “Sins of the Flesh” is quite tasteful and adheres to the less juvenile, more harmlessly lustful concept of sex in video games. A couple carrying an egg walks out of a tent after two followers enter and it shakes a little. According to Wilton, “classic birds and bees.” It’s exactly what their devoted following would anticipate. He continues, “[Fans] seem to love that, but we’re not about to start showing the details of the cultists getting it on.”