When it comes to life simulator games, EA’s The Sims has largely had the field to itself since its launch 25 years ago. But Krafton’s upcoming title, InZoi, looks like it could be a real contender in terms of scale, and it even has more realistic characters than The Sims’ cartoonish avatars. Regardless, InZoi director Hyungjun Kim says that he has a great deal of respect for The Sims and doesn’t view the two games as being in competition with one another.
“We see InZoi not as a competitor to The Sims, but rather as another option that fans of this genre can enjoy,” said Kim during an interview with PC Gamer. “We have great respect for the legacy The Sims has built over the years, since we know that reaching that much depth in such a short period of time is no easy task. This is due to the nature of life sim games which cover the vast and complex concept of ‘life,’ making it difficult to capture its every aspect.”
Kim went on to note some of the features of InZoi, which set it apart from The Sims. In addition to the realistic style for the characters and the world around them, he said that InZoi has “in-depth customization features, and AI-driven creative tools.” Krafton has previously stated that the AI features can allow the avatars to develop personalities and even let players use a picture of furniture to translate an object into a 3D model that can be used in the game.
InZoi was originally supposed to enter early access in late 2024 before it was pushed back to PC on March 28, with a console release to follow at a later date. During Gamescom, GameSpot was able to play an in-progress build of InZoi that allowed players to do a wide variety of things, including becoming ghosts after reaching an untimely end. Krafton also previewed the InZoi character studio tool for a limited time on Steam.
