For years, The Sims has cornered the market in the life-sim genre. Yes, things like Stardew Valley and even games like the Persona series have life-sim elements, but if you want to play a game that's just people in a house living a (somewhat) normal life, The Sims has been the go-to option for a while. That's why I was initially excited when I saw promotions for InZOI, a game that seems like posed to challenge The Sims' supremacy in this style of game. However, some recent developments have made me question if InZOI can live up to expectations.

A recent lackluster Online Showcase started to make me a bit nervous about the quality of InZOI. When the low price point of the game was announced, I should have been thrilled, but this also seemed to be a bit of a warning sign about the game's quality. Now I can't decide if my issues with The Sims has lowered my expectations for the genre, or if InZOI really isn't as good as it first seemed.

InZOI Will Only Cost $40 At Launch

InZOI Costs The Same As The Sims 4's Latest Expansion

InZOI revealed its price recently, announcing that it will only cost $40 for its Early Access launch on March 27, 2025. As a bonus, InZOI's developers promised that any content added to the game between now and the game's full release will be included in that initial cost. While this seems like a great deal, it also has me a bit skeptical.

Seeing how nice InZOI looks, and assuming it would feature a full gameplay experience to rival The Sims, I would have expected the game to cost at least the $59.99 or even $69.99 that is typical for recent games. Instead, the game only costs the same as The Sims 4's latest expansion. Sure, the game is only entering Early Access, but I still can't help but question why it's so cheap. To me, the most obvious answer would be that it doesn't have nearly as much content as I was expecting from a Sims clone.

See Related: InZoi Wiki

InZOI Seems Too Good To Be True

I'm Skeptical InZOI Can Deliver An Experience To Rival The Sims

Despite showing off some impressive features, I can't help but feel like InZOI is a little reluctant to show off its gameplay. From what I've seen, it looks like the character builder has a lot of depth, and I can buy the Build Mode features (or whatever InZOI will call it). However, I still don't feel like I have a good sense of what playing InZOI is like when you're actually controlling your Zois.

In the preview footage I've seen, it mostly shows off Zois while they're already mid-interaction, and not the actual input players will have when it comes to controlling these moments. I was hoping to get more insight into this during InZoi's hour-long Online Showcase on YouTube, but there was shockingly little gameplay footage during the presentation. This reluctance to actually show someone sitting down and playing InZOI certainly has me worried about the final product.

I started to get worried that InZOI might simply be a pretty coat of paint over a gameplay experience that was far more hollow than The Sims. And according to Nicole Carpenter of Polygon, who has actually gotten a chance to play InZOI, I'm right to have these concerns. Carpenter said there wasn't much to actually do in the game, and that interactions between Zois felt shallow. While I'm holding out hope that InZOI can prove to be more than it appears, I can't say I'm overly optimistic.

The Sims Has Lowered My Expectation For The Life-Sim Genre

The Sims' Pricing Model Has Warped My Expectations For What Games Like It Should Cost

Part of the reason I have low expectations for InZOI is because of The Sims 4. I see people fretting over the idea of paying $100 for GTA 6 and I feel like laughing (or perhaps crying) when I consider the cumulative cost of my add-ons for The Sims 4 is at least three times as much, and I would trade them for GTA 6 in a heartbeat. It's not that I hate The Sims, but its content is rarely worth what it costs, and I still feel like mods are almost required to improve the experience.

After having this experience with The Sims 4 for years, I can't help but be cautious about InZOI. How could a game that looks so much better, and has such better character- and house-building features really afford to be anything more than a glorified tech demo at such a low price point? I'm trying not to let The Sims' monetization practices turn me off the entire life-sim genre, but it's still hard not to be cautious about the quality of a new competitor that looks too good to be true.

Of course, it isn't just The Sims that raises some red flags about InZOI. The game's use of AI-generated content for one thing speaks to me of a lack of effort (not to mention the questionable ethics of monetizing AI content trained on the work of non-consenting parties). I will have to reserve my final judgment for when I get a chance to play InZOI, but I can't help but feel its not going to be the Sims replacement I hoped it would.

Source: Polygon, InZOI/YouTube