InZoi, the upcoming Sims-like from developer Krafton, absolutely is Delicious – to the point, many life sim fans are very enthusiastic indeed. So the good news is that it now has a release date; the bad news is that it has been postponed to next year to give it a “stronger foundation”.
InZoi, which promises a “complete community simulation” where “every character [acts] at their free will,” was initially announced last year, when it was expected to release for PC sometime in “Q4” of this year. Now, however, Krafton has revised that release, confirming that Inzoi will launch early access to Steam on March 28. next year.
In a post announcing the news, InZoi director Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim explained that the decision to delay the game was made after reviewing feedback and “analyzing a wealth of data from our various play tests.” He added that the revised release will give the studio time to “improve areas that need attention” and “create a game that truly captures the essence of life simulation.”
“It is said that among primates, raising a human child to adulthood takes the longest time because humans must be willing to persevere and adapt to their ever-changing environment,” Kim continued. “The extra love and care it takes to properly nurture a child is how I see our journey with inZoi – a game we will cherish together from the birth of Early Access. This change in our release date represents our commitment to giving inZoi a stronger foundation so that we can embark on this journey together in the best way possible.”
Players, of course, got a look at InZoi back in August, when Krafton briefly released its impressively flexible character creator on Steam. During the five days it was available, the demo peaked at over 18,000 players, including Eurogamer’s Jessica Orr, who shared a bit of her character and created adventures here.
“Visual, [the demo is] stunning,” she wrote. “It’s kind of unbelievable how good it actually looks, even on lower graphics settings. The customization also goes deep. It’s got all the usual bells and whistles, and even a few bells to boot, as we’re treated to entire categories for things like fake nails… Personality customization doesn’t go all that deep, as far as I can tell from the demo, but it’s Nice to see inclusive gender and sexuality options there already.”
InZoi is just one of many Sims-like ones that have popped up in recent years. Paradox Interactive’s Life by You has now been canceled, but that leaves the highly anticipated Paralives, which will also be released in early access sometime next year, and if you fancy something a little more lo-fi, you can also play the cute retro game – but still surprisingly robust – Tiny Life on Steam.