Krafton’s life sim Inzoi released in early access this March, since when it’s had a slightly troubled time of things: initial sales were impressive, and the game receives regular updates and hotfixes, but something about it hasn’t quite landed with the vast audience that still prefers the slightly cosier and odder vibes of The Sims.
Hope springs eternal, however, and now director and producer Hyungjun ‘Kjun’ Kim has announced that multiplayer functionality is in the works for Inzoi: which, given the popularity of a certain Sims multiplayer mod, may well attract some curious life simmers. What’s most surprising, however, is that the suggestion of this functionality came from the very top.
Apparently he wouldn’t let it go, and so Inzoi players can now expect to see a multiplayer element to the title: albeit there aren’t yet any details or a timeframe. “We never officially announced it, but I think because of that day and probably this podcast, the news has started to leak out a bit,” says Kim. “Inzoi is indeed developing a multiplayer aspect to the game.”
We should probably caveat this: Kim says that the president’s suggestion directly led to the decision to add multiplayer, which may well be true and justified by what he said. It may also be the case that multiplayer was always planned, and this is a funny anecdote to hang it on.
Either way reaction among the fanbase is split, with some feeling that Inzoi has much bigger issues to fix first. A recent player survey suggests that Inzoi’s biggest problems right now are overwhelmingly the fact it’s “lacking simulation content” and has painfully awkward social interactions.
Which would seem like important things to fix first. But it’s also the case that Inzoi has one big direct competitor that doesn’t offer a co-op experience without mods, and official multiplayer support would be a pretty good differentiator. Whatever the truth: the president requested it. You don’t have much of a choice after that.