Amid the growing role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in gaming, Krafton’s inZOI has established itself as a capable competitor in the Life Simulation genre, gaining traction among players eager for a challenger to the dominant Sims franchise from EA. The title surpassed 1m sales within a week of launch, with daily active users (DAUs) peaking at 0.27m and average game time per user peaking at 3.1 hours on launch day, and has weaved generative AI tools into the gameplay experience: Players can actively interact with some – such as the ‘printer’ that can transform 2D images into 3D objects in-game – while others are more passive – such as NPCs (non-player characters) that use AI to drive decision-making.

3D and texture generation breaks new ground

One of inZOI’s flagship features is its "3D printer": a tool that transforms 2D images/photographs into 3D assets with appropriate textures. This feature primarily targets decorative objects and environmental clutter, as more complex items requiring proper topology or rigging remain challenging for current generative technologies. This represents one of the first commercial implementations of image-to-3D generation in a mainstream game. 

Smart Zoi: AI-driven character behaviour is innovative but constrained

The "Smart Zoi" feature represents inZOI's boldest innovation: NPCs with autonomous "inner thoughts" that guide their decision-making rather than following predetermined behaviour patterns. These characters develop hobbies, form relationships, and undertake tasks based on personality traits and environmental context, integrating with the game's "Thought System" for logical decision consistency.

Players can customise NPC personalities through natural language prompts, but this interface presents a fundamental challenge: Unlike buttons, sliders, or dropdown menus that visually communicate their functions and limitations, a text input field offers no inherent indicators of what's possible or impossible. Players accustomed to conversing with other AI models might type elaborate descriptions expecting the game to manifest any imaginable trait. The actual implementation, however, functions as a constrained AI system with a specific set of tools to influence game mechanics and output thoughts - far more limited than what players might expect from their experiences with the likes of ChatGPT or Claude.

NVIDIA integration minimises performance impact but limits audience

The game has featured prominently in numerous NVIDIA presentations, highlighting the close collaboration between the companies. The bulk of inZOI's AI features are powered through NVIDIA's In-Game Inferencing (NVIGI) SDK, which is designed specifically for integrating AI into games with minimal performance impact. NVIGI intelligently schedules GPU workloads, reducing the technical burden on game developers by handling resource allocation automatically in moments of high graphical demand or scene complexity to maintain stable frame rates.

Currently, the Smart Zoi features cannot be enabled on AMD graphics cards (the current TV console landscape, including Xbox Series and PlayStation 5, is also AMD based), but Krafton is “confident that Smart Zoi will be accessible to a broad audience”. AMD GPU support is on inZOI’s roadmap and console development is underway, though players will need to wait before experiencing inZOI on these platforms, with questions remaining about feature parity. The upcoming Switch 2 however, uses an NVIDIA based T239 processor, perhaps leading to easier development.

inZOI aims to diversify Krafton’s player base and revenue streams

Since the success of Krafton’s flagship title PUBG: Battlegrounds (PUBG), the publisher has gone on to release several other titles, but nothing has had quite the same impact. Of the six Krafton titles tracked by Ampere in February 2025, PUBG accounted for 89% of monthly active users (MAUS) and 91% of consumer spend across Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam. After inZOI’s launch in March 2025, PUBG’s share of MAUs dropped to 81% and share of consumer spend dropped to 45%, suggesting that inZOI could help Krafton to diversify its revenue sources to offset any potential decline in PUBG long-term.

It could also help extend Krafton's audience. Among other AAA publishers, it has previously lagged in making content targeting female gamers, despite Ampere’s Games Consumer survey indicating that women account for 48% of all gamers across the 22 global markets it covers. Developing inZOI was, in part, a strategic play to differentiate Krafton’s player base, as the Life Sim audience is predominantly female: At a GDC presentation in 2023, EA revealed that 64% of The Sims’ player base were cis women.

The ability to monetise inZOI in multiple ways is also key: It was launched as a premium full game but has the potential to generate additional revenue beyond the initial purchase. The game lends itself to a live service model, with seemingly endless potential for DLC and customisation packs, akin to The Sims. But inZOI is also distinctly positioned to monetise technical capabilities, like access to more powerful AI models running on servers. These can also increase the scope of possible features beyond what local hardware can offer. 

inZOI is a direct competitor to The Sims in the undersaturated Life Sim genre

The Life Sim genre is relatively niche: it accounted for less than 1% of total MAUs on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam in March 2025. Yet, key titles regularly break the top 100 by MAUs, with The Sims peaking at around 2.4m during Ampere’s tracking period (June 2022 - March 2025). While Life Sims have the potential to build huge and successful audiences, the genre remains undersaturated, with very few games launching in the space. This comes as no surprise as The Sims has dominated the genre since its inception, and Life Sims are difficult and costly to make. But inZOI has Krafton’s deep pockets to fund the project, and its early access launch will source ongoing financial support for the team. Until now EA had free reign to take The Sims in whichever direction it liked, knowing its loyal fan base had few other comparable options. If inZOI siphons a significant portion of The Sims players in the future, we may see changes to EA’s content strategy in response.

While a competitor to The Sims is welcome, inZOI needs unique selling points to attract and maintain its user base. One of its standout features is its hyper-realistic art style, which is both difficult and costly to develop, but sets it apart from The Sims’ cartoon graphics. The setting draws heavy inspiration from Asia, with cities reflecting South Korea’s Seoul, and tropical scenery mirroring Southeast Asia. This capitalises on the cultural export phenomenon, which has seen content from Asia become increasingly attractive to Western consumers in the games space (Black Myth: WuKong) and beyond (K-pop, K-dramas).

A key factor in The Sims' persistent success has been its community: User-generated content (UGC) is core to the experience on PCs, with players focusing on aesthetic customisation options for their Sims and the environment. The community has historically hosted UGC on fan sites or forums, but EA recently collaborated with Overwolf to create an official destination for custom content. Recognising the importance of UGC, inZOI has sought to simplify creation and distribution with Canvas - its official UGC sharing platform - and the use of AI tools. While UGC can devalue official aesthetic packs, the long-term benefits of creating an engaged community far outweigh the initial loss of revenue.