Krafton’s upcoming life sim game Inzoi (or “inZOI”) has a demo of sorts available, for a limited time, with an inconvenient way of unlocking it.
The Inzoi Creative Studio is available now until March 28, 8 AM Malaysia Time (+8 GMT). This gives you access to Inzoi’s customisation options where you can create your own Zoi as well as customise a lot.
The Inzoi Creative Studio isn’t available directly through Steam, as Krafton wants you to engage in an Inzoi livestream on your platform of choice. Here’s how to get a key to access the Inzoi Creative Studio:
- Twitch & Chzzk
- First, link your KRAFTON ID with your streaming platform account. You can conveniently link your accounts on the following microsite.
- After adding inZOI to your Steam wishlist and watching a broadcast with the inZOI category for at least 15 minutes, a key will be granted.
- Steam
If you watch inZOI streaming on the Steam store page for 30 minutes or more, inZOI: Creative Studio will be added to your Steam library. - SOOP
If you accumulate 30 minutes of viewing on a broadcast with the inZOI category set, a key will be granted.
Keys are limited, and drops will end by March 23, 7.59 AM Malaysia Time, so if you want to mess around with this The Sims’ competitor’s equivalent of a Create-A-Sim and Build Mode, better hustle.
Inzoi will launch in Early Access on March 28. The game will have flat price of $39.99 USD (regional pricing isn’t available yet at the time of writing), with all updates and DLCs free until the game’s full release.
This is to say, you won’t be spending any more money for more content throughout Inzoi’s Early Access period.
Expect more content to come throughout Inzoi’s Early Access, including the addition of freelance jobs, “ghost play”, swimming pools and the ability to swim, family tree, new professions and a “Southeast Asian-inspired cat island ‘Kucingku'”.
“Kucingku” is Malay and Indonesian for “My cat”. Inzoi sure loves cats based on its promo images. But did anyone expected some Southeast Asian love?
Inzoi is among the current crop of life sim games coming to compete and challenge The Sims 4 after being the incumbent life sim game for way too long.
One competitor crash and burned last year. There’s an indie-scale attempt of the genre with Paralives. The creator of XCOM: Enemy Unknown (the 2012 game, not the original) and Marvel’s Midnight Suns is making a life sim with a new studio. And Inzoi’s going for that high-budget, high-fidelity look for a life sim.
But not without controversy. The game proudly uses generative AI for some its tools, including the ability to generate custom textures via prompts to an AI model, or turn a 2D image into a 3D model. These features sound cool, but in the midst of the gen-AI boom there are questions if the training data for these models are ethically acquired and its environmental impact as data centers requiring massive water supply are used to generate uncanny picture of cats when cheaper solutions (i.e. paying artists to make art) are available.
Inzoi releases in Early Access on March 28 on PC (Steam).