New Krafton life simulation game scores global success in early access
South Korean video game company Krafton’s new title inZOI has set a record as the fastest Korean game to sell 1 million units.
According to Krafton, inZOI sold 1 million copies within seven days of its early access debut on the global gaming platform Steam in late March. InZOI's record surpassed the previous mark held by Nexon’s Dave the Diver, which reached the milestone of 1 million in 10 days in 2022.
Other popular Korean games took significantly longer to hit the 1 million mark, with Neowiz’s Lies of P taking one month, while Stellar Blade reached the milestone in two months.
Additionally, inZOI topped Steam’s global top-selling games chart, based on paid game sales, just 40 minutes after its release, with strong sales concentrated in North America and Asia.
InZOI is a life simulation game that allows players to create personalized characters and experience life as an alternate version of themselves, similar to EA’s The Sims. In the game, players can pursue careers, explore hobbies, get married and even raise a family.
The game includes over 250 customization options, on-device generative artificial intelligence-based creative tools, an AI-powered co-playable character named Smart Zoi and photorealistic graphics powered by Unreal Engine 5.
The soaring popularity of inZOI may be attributed to the lack of high-quality successors to life simulation games such as The Sims, as well as its use of advanced AI technology. Alongside high-quality graphics, AI technologies integrated into the game include features that enable in-game characters to precisely mirror a user’s movements as well as a text-to-image function that creates visuals from written descriptions.
With inZOI showing strong early signs of commercial success, there is growing interest in whether it could emerge as a new and sustainable revenue stream for Krafton, which has been struggling to replicate the success of its shooter game PUBG: Battlegrounds and PUBG Mobile.
yoonseo.3348@heraldcorp.com
