Despite the game skyrocketing in fame, inZOI director does not see the game as comparable to The Sims 4 yet. Read on to learn more about the game’s surge of popularity and its game director’s insights on being compared to The Sims.
inZOI Heading Towards A Successful Early Access Launch
inZOI Director Doesn’t Think inZOI is Comparable to The Sims Yet
As inZOI enters the life simulation genre, comparisons to the biggest life sim game are inevitable. The Sims has been the gold standard in this type of game, and as inZOI inches closer to its early access launch, many fans believe that it could topple EA’s life sim.
PCGamesN had an exclusive interview with InZOI Game Director Hyungjun ‘Kjun’ Kim on March 26 who spoke on inZOI’s comparisons to The Sims. Kjun stated, "The Sims is an incredible game, and I don’t think InZOI is anywhere near comparable – at least not yet,". He added, "We’re just taking our first steps along the path The Sims has paved. Every time I play The Sims, I learn something new, and I often find myself resonating with the decisions made by its development team." Kjun restates his belief that the two games will coexist rather than compete: "Just as every person leads a unique life, The Sims and InZOI each have their own meaning and value."
Meanwhile, in EA’s case, Variety reported in September 2024 that the company will not pursue The Sims 5 and instead will continue to support The Sims 4 in the foreseeable future. However, they will focus on creating the next evolution of The Sims, Project Rene, which is still in its early development phase. Despite being virtually alone in the genre right now, Kjun still feels the pressure of delivering a high-quality life sim.
He said, "The Sims has spent decades perfecting its life simulation, and its gameplay is incredibly rich. More depth added to such a game poses a greater challenge for InZOI. If The Sims 5 were in development, we could have started fresh alongside it." Kjun continued, "But, as a player, I genuinely support The Sims and look forward to what it has for us in the future."
Creating A Secure and Creative Environment With the Use of AI Tools
inZOI’s AI-powered creative tool is one of the features that Kjun wanted to highlight and bring to the players, and that the team has worked hard to create "a secure and reliable creative environment." This tool will be used for generating custom textures or upload real-life photos of objects to the game, and Kjun assured that the game will utilize proprietary models developed by Krafton trained to use solely company-owned and copyright issue-free assets and data.
Although the ease of use of these AI tools has significantly impacted their development process, Kjun pointed out that " AI-generated assets have yet to surpass the quality of assets handcrafted by our development team." inZOI’s AI features will only be available on-device, which he explained that the company has no control over how the players will use them in-game.
inZOI is Steam’s Most Wishlisted Game
inZOI has become Steam’s most anticipated game just days from its early access launch. inZOI’s official Twitter (X) posted on March 24 that the game has topped Steam’s most wishlisted games, unseating Hollow Knight: Silksong. Based on the figures presented by SteamDB, inZOI currently has 244,205 followers. Although Silksong has over 300,000 followers, inZOI has gained over 50,000 new followers within the past week.
This surge of popularity can be attributed to Krafton’s recently conducted online showcase for the game on March 19, which showcased inZOI’s features and mechanics. Most notably, the developers announced that inZOI’s early access comes with free DLCs and updates every three months, providing a clear roadmap until the end of 2025.
For more information about what the developers shared during the inZOI Online Showcase, check out our article below!
inZOI is gearing towards its Early Access launch on March 28, and with its popularity and quality of features, the developers have presented, it may soon redefine the life simulation genre that has long been dominated by The Sims. inZOI will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC for its full launch. As of writing, the release date for its full release is still unknown.
To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, check out our article below!
Source:
inZOI Twitter (X) post on inZOI Being The Most Wishlisted Game on Steam
SteamDB Most Wishlisted Upcoming Steam Games
inZOI Director PCGamesN Interview
No ‘The Sims 5’ Coming as EA Sets Multiplayer Expansion to Franchise, ‘Creator Kits’ to Sell User Generated Content
