‘inZOI’ challenges ‘The Sims’ with a fresh take on life simulation

Countless hours, days—perhaps even weeks—of my life have been spent creating Sims characters, building them houses, marrying them off, and making babies. Now, there’s a new life-simulation game on the block hoping to expand beyond the American market.

inZOI debuted on March 28 at $40 and quickly climbed to the top of Steam’s most wishlisted and bestseller charts. The game’s appeal lies in its hyper-detailed character customization, free expansions, and immersive, realism-focused world. Unlike The Sims, which embraces cartoonish characters and lightheartedness, inZOI opts for lifelike graphics and a slower-paced gameplay experience centered on everyday interactions.

Designed with a broader audience in mind, inZOI stands out through subtle cultural details. For example, players’ digital humans are prompted to remove their shoes upon entering a home, and the game’s cities draw inspiration from Seoul and Santa Monica. The fridge is stocked with tteokbokki, a beloved Korean rice cake snack, and characters often wear trendy Korean streetwear.

“I felt a lot of cultural barriers” playing The Sims, Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim, chief executive officer of game publisher Krafton’s inZOI Studio, told Bloomberg in a recent interview. Kim spent years developing online role-playing games, only to come home and play The Sims with his son. One day, his son asked why there aren’t other games like The Sims. That question stuck with Kim and eventually led to the creation of inZOI.

Once the prototype was ready, Krafton sought input from The Sims’ large and dedicated fanbase. They sent PCs to Sims YouTubers, encouraging them to livestream the game, while fans joined a Discord channel to request features they felt The Sims was lacking—such as more inclusive hairstyles.

The Sims franchise has been a cash cow for Electronic Arts, generating over $5 billion in revenue and attracting more than 15 million new players in 2024, despite being more than a decade old. But with no Sims 5 in sight, EA has relied on expansion packs to keep players engaged, opening up a gap in the market that inZOI is eager to fill.

Still, if inZOI was banking on its competitor fading into obscurity, it may be disappointed. The Sims 4 recently hit its highest-ever average player count on Steam in February 2025, according to The Gamer. The anticipation surrounding inZOI perhaps sparked a wave of players to revisit their old favorite. Either way, The Sims franchise has shown it still has plenty of life in it.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91309233/inzoi-challenges-the-sims-with-a-fresh-take-on-life-simulation?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss

Établi 1d | 1 avr. 2025, 14:20:11


Connectez-vous pour ajouter un commentaire

Autres messages de ce groupe

An AI watchdog accused OpenAI of using copyrighted books without permission

An artificial intelligence watchdog is accusing OpenAI of training its default ChatGPT model on copyrighted book content without permission.

In a new paper

2 avr. 2025, 20:30:07 | Fast company - tech
Trump signals TikTok sale will done by April 5 deadline. Who will buy it?

As the deadline to strike a deal over TikTok approaches this week, President Donald Trump has signaled that he is confident his administrat

2 avr. 2025, 18:20:04 | Fast company - tech
CERN scientists release blueprint for the Future Circular Collider

Top minds at the world’s largest atom smasher have released a blueprint for 

2 avr. 2025, 18:20:03 | Fast company - tech
‘Titanic 2’? YouTube is cracking down on AI-assisted fake movie trailers that fetch millions of views

A trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in James Cameron’s galactically successful series, starts by delivering on the title’s promise. Rivers of lava cascade through the fores

2 avr. 2025, 15:50:06 | Fast company - tech
Snowflake’s CEO explains the company’s high-stakes AI bet

It’s been a wild few years for Snowflake, from a record-breaking IPO to a plummeting stock price to a data-breach scandal. Sridhar Ramaswamy took over in the heat of the turmoil and helped s

2 avr. 2025, 13:30:08 | Fast company - tech
Another Reddit post is being made into a movie. This time by Sydney Sweeney

Audiences are used to Hollywood mining pre-existing material for movies. For over two decades now, the industry’s go-to source for blockbusters

2 avr. 2025, 13:30:07 | Fast company - tech