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Key Takeaways
- Kim Hyung-jun is developing inZOI, a life simulation game intended to challenge The Sims.
- Kim worked on MMOs for 25 years and got sick of creating competitive-focused games.
- inZOI has attracted a large pre-release following.
inZOI director Kim Hyung-jun worked on Korean MMOs like Aion and Elyon for 25 years before resolving to create a competitor to Maxis’ The Sims, an idea given to him by his son.
inZOI is in development at Krafton, a gaming holding company in Korea that was spawned out of the success of PUBG. The life simulation game has already attracted a large following, primarily because of how beautiful its characters, called Zois, look in Unreal Engine 5. inZOI’s character creator was released on Steam a couple of months ago to great popularity, peaking at over 18,000 concurrent players.
Will inZOI Compete With The SIms?
In an interview with Stephen Totilo of Game File, Kim spoke about his gaming career and what he’s trying to achieve with inZOI. “I have 24 years of game development, and I’ve been working on MMORPGs for the longest time,” Kim said. “I got sick of it.” Online multiplayer games are incredibly popular in South Korea, with Lost Ark, Maple Story and Aion being among the most popular MMORPGs played by Koreans. While there’s a lot of fun to be found in competitive games, Kim wanted to move on to something more relaxing.
Then, Kim’s son asked him why there wasn’t another game like The Sims when the series had been around since 2000, and asked if Kim would create one. It’s certainly one of the more wholesome reasons for developing a game and inZOI is off to a good start – gathering a substantial fandom before a game’s release isn’t easy. Kim’s son also made an astute observation, The Sims hasn’t had a significant competitor in the life simulation genre since its inception.
The recent cancelation of Paradox’s Life By You has eliminated another potential competitor, leaving the independent project Paralives, Midsummer Studios’ unannounced project and, of course, inZOI. Our own Rhiannon Bhevan previewed inZOI at Gamescom and found that even though the simulator has a “ridiculous” amount of detail, it feels too sandbox-y and directionless currently. Of course, inZOI is still early in development.
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