TL;DR: The dev behind ambitious life sim InZOI sat down and said the quiet part loud—making a life sim is genuinely hard, The Sims earned its throne, and chasing player counts might be the wrong game altogether.
Let’s be real: when InZOI dropped in March 2025, the discourse was electric. Gorgeous Unreal Engine 5 Zois, open-world neighbourhoods, actual facial expressions. It felt like someone had finally handed The Sims its long-overdue competition. 87,000 concurrent players on launch day. A million copies in a week. The life sim stans were ready to crown a new monarch.
Then… the players drifted. Peak concurrent counts fell from 87K to a quiet 4,196. And the internet, being the internet, immediately called it a corpse. (Yes, I’m one of the players that fell off.) And Kjun Kim, Head of inZOI Studio, took note.
What is inZOI?
InZOI is an early access life simulation game developed by Krafton’s inZOI Studio, released on Steam in March 2025. Players take on the role of creators, customizing characters called “Zois” across an open world powered by Unreal Engine 5, with over 250 customization options covering everything from hair and skin to outfits and nail art.
This cozy game on Steam leans into creativity and community, offering an in-game sharing platform called Canvas where players can showcase their characters, homes, and stories alongside generative AI tools for designing custom patterns, props, and even 3D objects.
What do players like about inZOI?
- Stunning visuals and realistic graphics powered by Unreal Engine 5
- Deep, expansive character and Zoi customization
- No microtransactions in the base game, unlike The Sims 4
- Developers actively listen to feedback and push consistent updates
- Strong sense of potential and creative freedom
- In-game AI tools for generating textures, poses, and 3D objects
Criticisms of inZOI
- Gameplay loop feels shallow and repetitive once past the character creator
- Krafton admits to using genAI in their development process, which is controversial
- NPCs behave inconsistently and the world feels lifeless or “soulless”
- Key systems (marriage, relationships, university progression) are buggy or broken
- Performance issues and crashes, especially on mid-range or laptop hardware
- Modding is currently difficult and not well supported
It’s Hard to Make a Life Sim…
Here’s where this story gets genuinely interesting, and where Kjun Kim, Head of inZOI Studio, earns some serious respect from this particular map-wanderer.
Kjun Kim’s honesty in his Q&A with IGN is refreshing in the best possible way. In an industry where PR speak is practically a second language, this dev looked the camera in the eye and said: “If you asked me if I would turn back time and make it again, I think I would hesitate.” He admitted the early access release wasn’t a strategy. It was a necessity. The game didn’t fit the specs. The users were testing it on the studio’s behalf, and he feels bad about that.
That’s not a corporate non-apology. That’s a human being talking.
He even questioned whether chasing big sales numbers is the right goal at all. Wild words from someone operating under a publisher whose other IP (PUBG) essentially prints money. There’s something genuinely moving about a studio head asking “do I really have to make a lot of money?” and meaning it sincerely.
1.5 million sales is great, even though a 95% drop in concurrent players is a signal worth sitting with. InZOI isn’t a dead game, but it is a game that hasn’t yet solved the core loop problem that keeps players coming back daily the way The Sims 4, for all its DLC-bloated flaws, still manages to do. Kim himself cracked the code on why EA’s juggernaut has ruled for thirty years: the move from open-world (Sims 3) to loading-screen districts (Sims 4) wasn’t a downgrade. It was a survival decision. Open-world life sims are, in his words, “too much.” Almost nobody attempts it. InZOI did anyway, and the seams are showing.
As someone who absolutely will spend four hours walking every corner of a game map just to feel like I know the place, I want InZOI’s open world to work. But wanting it and it being there aren’t the same thing yet.
What saves this story from being just another “live service stumbles” headline is the soul underneath it. Kim talks about playing The Sims when he was young. He talks about his son, who he lovingly and hilariously admits seems untalented, falling in love with games and now modding InZOI. There’s a generational thread here: a dad who made games, whose kid wants to make games, who is now building mods for his dad’s game. That’s not a PR talking point. That’s a family story stitched into early access patch notes.
The games industry can feel ruthlessly corporate, especially when a title’s player count becomes a referendum on its worth. Kjun Kim is actively pushing back on that framing, not defensively, but philosophically. He’s asking what games are for. Whether a smaller, passionate community isn’t just as valid as a massive, indifferent one.
That’s the kind of thinking the industry needs more of, not less.
Stay cozy, gamers!
Read Next: 10 Cozy Games to Get to Know Me [no, inZOI didn’t make the cut]