New life sim InZOI is about to launch into early access, and comparisons to The Sims are inevitable. The EA behemoth remains by far the dominant presence in the genre, and InZOI game director Hyungjun ‘Kjun’ Kim regularly cites the series as a central inspiration. As its release date finally rounds the corner, I spoke to Kjun about how he feels being positioned alongside the games that he’s loved for so long, how InZOI hopes to stand out, and whether the absence of a Sims 5 feels like an advantage or a challenge.
The InZOI release date is just days away, but Kjun is quick to downplay the new life game’s status, at least for now. “The Sims is an incredible game, and I don’t think InZOI is anywhere near comparable – at least not yet,” he tells me in an exclusive interview. “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.”
There might have been a world where InZOI’s launch was in contention with The Sims 5. That’s not the reality we live in, however; EA has stated it plans to continue supporting The Sims 4 for the foreseeable future, and is currently building the “next evolution” of the series, Project Rene, which we don’t expect to see until at least 2026. Does that create the opportunity for InZOI to be the new kid on the block, I ask Kjun, or is it scarier to go up against a game that’s been established for more than a decade?
“To be honest, it’s a lot of pressure for us,” he responds. “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,” he says with a laugh. “But, as a player, I genuinely support The Sims and look forward to what it has for us in the future.”
Kjun says InZOI’s AI-powered creative tool was the feature he most wanted to bring to life sim players. “Modding is an exciting part of games like The Sims, but it takes a lot of time and can be difficult to fix when bugs happen,” he explains. “I once pulled an all-nighter with my son trying to create a mod, but we kept running into bugs, making it feel as challenging as actual game development.
“That experience inspired me to add features that let players easily and safely create what they want within the game, which led me to add city editing, city status adjustment, and AI-powered creative tools,” Kjun continues. He notes that the team has worked hard to create “a secure and reliable creative environment” for InZOI that ensures players should never lose their hard work.
The initial generative AI tools will be used primarily to generate custom textures or upload pictures of real-life objects to use in game, and the developer has assured players that it uses a proprietary model that is “trained using solely company-owned and copyright issue-free assets and data.” I ask Kjun whether these features have impacted the number of handmade designs that InZOI Studio is creating.
While he says the ease of use of generative AI allows for “a significant advantage in creative freedom,” Kjun notes that “AI-generated assets have yet to surpass the quality of assets handcrafted by our development team.” Because of this, he expects the development team to continue to create and provide its own high-quality, official assets “for the foreseeable future” alongside the AI functionality.
InZOI’s AI features operate solely on-device, and Kjun explains that “we don’t have direct insight into how our players use it.” The team does plan to gather community feedback on the feature and what styles of objects, patterns, and designs are preferred as development continues post-launch. “Based on this input, we may enhance certain AI functionalities or introduce additional official content to complement player creativity,” he concludes.
InZOI launches into early access Friday March 28, 2025, priced at $39.99. In a recent livestream, Kjun confirmed that the studio will be providing all DLC and updates for free through the end of the early access period.
Get ready for launch by studying the InZOI system requirements to make sure your rig is ready to hold your new virtual home, and make sure you know how InZOI cheats for unlimited money work (even if you’d definitely never use them).
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