inZOI has been out in early access now since March, when PUBG developer Krafton let the ultra-realistic Sims 4 competitor loose on Steam – and since then, it's had quite the journey, with dwindling players and a bounce back after its Stardew Valley-like DLC.
Devs aren't finished tidying the impressive life sim up just yet, however – in fact, there's still a long way to go for inZOI. Director and producer Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim recently unveiled "realistic tragedy, the darker sides of life, and unpredictable dramatic events" are coming to the game, and then came version 0.4.0 just in time for Halloween, with a focus on death. As for what's next, it seems fans can expect to see multiplayer make its way to inZOI.
The news comes after a new Gamer Galaxy interview on YouTube, in which the director reveals that South Korean president Lee Jae Myung visited the studio and went "straight to the inZOI side" in terms of discussion. "He came in and suddenly sat down, and I had to explain the game to him all of a sudden. He ignored everything, sat down, watched the game, and then offered his opinion. It almost felt like I was getting talked to by the company's CEO."
Kim continues: "The president asked, 'Shouldn't we add multiplayer to the artificial world and then put ads on the billboards to boost sales?'" He reiterates the leader's request for co-op in inZOI later once more, recalling, "It's actually really funny because while I was talking with the president, he suggested I make inZOI a multiplayer game." That's when the big news comes – multiplayer is in the works for the life sim over at Krafton.
"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," admits Kim. "inZOI is indeed developing a multiplayer aspect to the game." Although the director doesn't unveil any sort of launch date or release window for multiplayer, it's massive news, to say the least. Over on Reddit, fans are reacting to the idea of some kind of online functionality in inZOI.
"I would love multiplayer! But for me personally, only if it's optional," comments one player. Another similarly chimes in, "As long as it's optional, I don't care. Stardew Valley has a separate multiplayer mode."
Not everyone is too keen to see multiplayer make its way to inZOI, though. One disappointed fan says, "A real shame. Multiplayer is fine, but it should be the absolute last thing added to the game."
They expand on their opinion: "Most people won't touch multiplayer, only caring for the single player experience. Hopefully, they continue to work on single-player content only and flesh out the game before even starting to work on multiplayer." It makes sense that some folks would be wary of a multiplayer announcement, especially when inZOI still sits in Early Access on Steam with various promised features from devs underway.
I'm personally excited to see how multiplayer might land once it arrives in inZOI, especially as EA said in the past that it has no plans for a Sims 5, and The Sims 4 itself had no co-op or online functionality whatsoever. Fingers crossed it works out well!
