Latest news with #Hyungjun'Kjun'Kim
South China Morning Post
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
New life simulation game inZOI targets Asian players and growing K-pop audience
Most people have fantasised about inhabiting someone else's life. For 25 years, video-game players have lived out those dreams in The Sims from Electronic Arts. Advertisement The problem, according to Hyungjun 'Kjun' Kim, a producer-director for South Korean game maker Krafton, is that those fantasies are often limited – culturally and graphically. He addresses those issues with his own entry in the life-simulation genre, inZOI, which releases on March 28 at US$40. The market for a Sims successor is potentially vast. Electronic Arts has taken in more than US$2.3 billion in lifetime revenue from The Sims 4, according to the analytics company Aldora, and has attracted over 85 million players. But it is a decade old. The company has no plans for a fifth instalment, meaning players will have to be satisfied with updates that sell for US$10 to US$50. In life-simulation video games, players create and control avatars that cook, clean, use the toilet, work, fall in love and watch TV. They meticulously customise homes for their characters – called Sims in The Sims and Zoi in inZOI. Outside, in the cities, avatars interact with automated characters, all with their own personalities and goals. Advertisement
Bloomberg
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
‘The Sims' 25-Year Supremacy Is Challenged by Korea's Krafton
Most people have fantasized about inhabiting someone else's life. For 25 years, video-game players have lived out those dreams in The Sims from Electronic Arts Inc. The problem, according to Hyungjun 'Kjun' Kim, a producer-director for South Korean gamemaker Krafton Inc., is that those fantasies are limited — culturally and graphically. His entry in the life-simulation genre, inZOI, debuts on March 28 at $40.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hyper-realistic The Sims rival inZOI will announce a "roadmap for future updates, and pricing and DLC plans" in this month's showcase
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. InZOI Studio is holding a global showcase later this month to dive into the nuts and bolts of its upcoming life sim competitor. We're only a few weeks away from the early access launch of Krafton's The Sims maybe-rival, and to give everyone an idea of exactly what to expect, the developer is hosting a livestream set to kick off on March 18 at 6pm PST, or March 19 at 1am GMT for all the night owls across the pond, available to watch on YouTube and Twitch. InZoit Studio has been pretty open about the fancy new features in its life sim, including a karma system that might make ghostly Zoi stick around after death, NVIDIA AI tech to power its characters, and the ability to turn real-life photos into in-game items. So game director Hyungjun 'Kjun' Kim will instead go over "new release details such as key features coming to early access, a vision and roadmap for future updates, and pricing and DLC plans" in the showcase. Any information about inZOI's price has been weirdly under wraps thus far, leaving us in the dark about whether we'll be able to pay one upfront fee or whether it'll go the free-to-play route. The mention of DLC plans makes me think inZOI might have more traditionally Sims-shaped expansions and content packs, though that doesn't completely rule out the possibility of an in-game shop or other microtransactions appearing, too. We'll find out soon enough. The showcase is also set to feature various other developer interviews to "reveal behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the game's development process." InZOI is set to launch into early access on March 28. inZOI's "community simulation" approach to the life sim genre could make it The Sims 4's biggest rival yet
