While game director and sim genre maniac Director Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim seems to have delivered on the game at this stage in development, Krafton needs to step up to deliver on the title’s business promise. Krafton needs to flex its newly formed publishing arm quickly, or a franchise could slip away.
InZoi’s initial arrival has been good but not great so far. Initial estimates point to Steam revenue in the range of $35+ million, with Krafton stating it sold than one million units. However, retention is slipping, and active users are converging on The Sims’ Steam figures. So far, there’s been zero Sims PSU impact, unlike something like the meator Marvel Rivals left on Overwatch 2’s numbers.
However, InZoi successfully introduces long-requested Sims features like drivable cars and third-person character control. While players give it credit for this, the game remains plagued with bugs. It’s an “Early Access” title, but that’s an increasingly meaningless term. Early Access is eligible for nearly every Steam benefit, and subsequent public rollouts rarely exceed Early Access launch figures. It’s another challenge for publishers to properly calibrate, as the Early Access launch “sucks the air out of the room.” Who, for instance, seriously thinks Palworld’s global launch will exceed its Early Access sales figures?
The game’s distinctly Korean localization is strange, considering South Korea comprises 3% of the player base. For instance, one playable city is modeled after Seoul, yet merely 3% of players originate from Korea. Accounting for regional differences is part of player empathy, just as understanding their technical and platform choices. The Sims is a unique audience, and EA has built special marketing pipelines and relationships with these players. Overwhelmingly female, the entire franchise rakes in an obscene amount of revenue, over $3-400m+ per year on a DLC model. However, InZoi misses the fact that these players have lower-end machines, making the recommended system specifications (a GTX 3070 graphics card) inaccessible. Similarly, the lack of a Mac version doesn’t help.
Still, outlook remains cautiously optimistic. A detailed roadmap through 2025 includes a “Cat-city” update, and coop remains strangely missing in the genre. With Paradox cancelling its earlier life sim, Life by You, the runway is clear for InZoi to take a bigger bite of a genre previously comprised of one title.