Julia "Yuuki" Guzairova
InZOI is a buzz-worthy life simulation game from the creators of the popular game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. It was promised to be a "Sims killer" and its full replacement. At the start of early access, the online player count exceeded 70,000, and the developers thanked players for their purchase, offered in-game bonuses through the "refer a friend" feature, and shared their plans for the future. However, despite these efforts, the number of players gradually started to drop, and interest began to wane. In this article, we’ll try to understand what is happening with the game’s population in inZOI.
Online Players
According to Steamcharts, which displays user data and statistics, inZOI's peak player count reached 77,325 players, which is quite impressive for a game that was just in early access.
Currently, the game struggles to maintain an online player count of 9,000, and at times it doesn’t even reach 4,000. So, what is the reason for the game losing nearly all of its target audience?
Image: ensigame.com
Early Access Dead World
Despite the feature-rich character creation mode and house building, players continue to complain about the lack of content and its monotony. When choosing a city inspired by a real-life megacity, like Seoul, players find that the world their characters live in is not alive but feels almost dead. The characters inhabiting this world are dull and flat. In the world of inZOI, there’s no hustle and bustle; Zoi live in an ideal town where there’s no room for fights, and all criminal activity is limited to minor social missteps in public spaces.
Image: ensigame.com
The developers have allowed modders to add items they’ve created themselves, which is certainly a positive. However, the problem is that these items are non-functional and serve as mere decorations that cannot be interacted with. For example, you can bring them into the world, like a PS5, but you can’t actually play with them — such a feature simply doesn’t exist in the game.
Community Feedback
According to comments on the game's official Reddit page, users complain about the superficiality and emptiness of inZOI. Here’s what a user named Atempestofwords said:
Jobs being mostly rabbit holes, lack of group activities, destinations being pointless. The game needs way more time. Way more.
Some players argue that the game was simply not ready for early access, with its only positive feature at the moment being character creation.
Image: ensigame.com
Others write that the karma system in the game is completely underdeveloped, and there are no consequences for the bad actions of Zoi that should lead to punishment. Here’s what a user named Elx37 wrote:
The game isn’t whimsical or it’s soulless. I agree with that. There are far too many choices for conversation and not all of them have an effect. It’s because it’s unrealistic and there are no magical elements, which highlights the lack of whimsy people are looking for. There’s no charm because the Zoi don’t acknowledge you.
Despite all the negative points, inZOI has only just entered early access, so it is still too early to draw conclusions about the game’s success. We hope that many exciting updates lie ahead, which will help the game regain its lost audience. What do you think about it?
Main image: msn.com
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