The Sims video games have been the most popular series of life simulation video games of all time, but it seems like a new competitor is entering the industry. InZOI is an upcoming life simulation game developed by InZOI Studio and published by Krafton.
The game’s director, Hyungjun ‘Kjun‘ Kim, has been a part of the industry for roughly two decades now, but this is the first time he attempted to create a game of this genre.
In his recent interviews, Kjun has pointed out that the reason why only a few developers have developed life simulation video games is because it can be one of the most difficult types of games to develop. The challenges that Kjun faced made him realise that the Sims team deserves endless praise for what they have created in the last two decades.
InZOI director talked about the challenges he faced during the development of the game
On the official InZOI Discord server, the director of the game, Hyungjun ‘Kjun‘ Kim talked about his experience of working on the upcoming game. He explained that developing a life simulation game is much more challenging than developing any other game (via PC Gamer)
Looking back at myself two years ago, when I first decided to embark on this project, I can’t help but smirk knowing how recklessly brave I was to even think about creating a game of this scale – Now, I understand why so few companies have attempted to develop a life simulation game. The challenge isn’t just additive the more you try to build – it’s exponential. At a certain point, finding bugs in this vast world we’ve created feels like playing tag with invisible ghosts.
InZOI is scheduled to be released in early access for Windows on 28 March 2025. It is also expected to launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, but a release date has yet to be revealed.
Throughout his career, Kjun has mostly developed Korean MMOs like Elyon and Aion, so InZOI was an entirely new project for him. In an interview with PC Gamer, he highlighted that he loves playing games of this genre with his son. He got motivated to create InZOI after his son asked him why there weren’t more games of this genre.
InZOI is not a competitor to The Sims franchise
On the surface level, InZOI and The Sims belong to the same category, however, Kjun doesn’t see InZOI as a competitor to The Sims franchise as he thinks it only serves as an alternate option for the fans of the genre. He pointed out in an interview with PC Gamer,
We see Inzoi not as a competitor to The Sims, but rather as another option that fans of this genre can enjoy – 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.
Even in his recent Discord message, Kjun said The Sims development team “deserves endless praise” for what they have achieved over the years. Despite Kjun’s clarification, we should expect InZOI to affect the sales of The Sims 4 because, in some ways, InZOI is much better than The Sims 4.
As for The Sims franchise, EA announced the next The Sims installment, a.k.a. Project Rene, in October 2022. Unlike its predecessors, Project Rene will be free to download at launch, which probably means that EA is shifting to a live-service model.
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