Numerous hours, days—even perhaps weeks—of my life have been spent creating Sims characters, constructing them homes, marrying them off, and making infants. Now, there’s a brand new life-simulation sport on the block hoping to develop past the American market.
inZOI debuted on March 28 at $40 and rapidly climbed to the highest of Steam’s most wishlisted and bestseller charts. The sport’s enchantment lies in its hyper-detailed character customization, free expansions, and immersive, realism-focused world. In contrast to The Sims, which embraces cartoonish characters and lightheartedness, inZOI opts for lifelike graphics and a slower-paced gameplay expertise centered on on a regular basis interactions.
Designed with a broader viewers in thoughts, inZOI stands out by means of refined cultural particulars. For instance, gamers’ digital people are prompted to take away their footwear upon coming into a house, and the sport’s cities draw inspiration from Seoul and Santa Monica. The fridge is stocked with tteokbokki, a beloved Korean rice cake snack, and characters typically put on fashionable Korean streetwear.
“I felt a variety of cultural boundaries” taking part in The Sims, Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim, chief government officer of sport writer Krafton’s inZOI Studio, told Bloomberg in a latest interview. Kim spent years creating on-line role-playing video games, solely to return residence and play The Sims together with his son. At some point, his son requested why there aren’t different video games like The Sims. That query caught with Kim and ultimately led to the creation of inZOI.
As soon as the prototype was prepared, Krafton sought enter from The Sims’ giant and devoted fanbase. They despatched PCs to Sims YouTubers, encouraging them to livestream the sport, whereas followers joined a Discord channel to request options they felt The Sims was missing—similar to extra inclusive hairstyles.
The Sims franchise has been a money cow for Digital Arts, producing over $5 billion in income and attracting more than 15 million new players in 2024, regardless of being greater than a decade previous. However with no Sims 5 in sight, EA has relied on growth packs to maintain gamers engaged, opening up a spot available in the market that inZOI is raring to fill.
Nonetheless, if inZOI was banking on its competitor fading into obscurity, it could be dissatisfied. The Sims 4 not too long ago hit its highest-ever common participant depend on Steam in February 2025, according to The Gamer. The anticipation surrounding inZOI maybe sparked a wave of gamers to revisit their previous favourite. Both approach, The Sims franchise has proven it nonetheless has loads of life in it.
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