Something to look forward to: The Sims 4 is almost a decade old, and no competitor has challenged the franchise as seriously as Cities: Skylines has. Meanwhile, the company behind the immensely popular PUBG, is drawing much attention upon the unveiling of InZoi, a new life simulation game with a distinct visual style that could help it shake up the genre.

Krafton revealed its latest project at the G-Star 2023 summit in Busan, South Korea. Called InZoi, the life simulator features gameplay similar to The Sims but uses Unreal Engine 5 to present far more realistic graphics.

InZoi has players manage the lives of avatars called InZois, similar to the eponymous characters in The Sims. They can form relationships with other avatars, have jobs, and engage in other activities. The official trailer shows actions like convenience store work, firefighting, karaoke, and more.

Players can also control the environment by customizing buildings, changing the urban landscape, and altering the weather. Furthermore, the character creator contains an enormous selection of physical and clothing options. Although InZoi remains deep in development, Krafton hosted playable demos at G-Star and allowed influencers to post gameplay videos (above).

The game caught notice largely due to its impressively realistic graphics, with highly detailed characters and heavy use of real-time reflections. The number of UE5 games on the market remains small, but InZoi could be one of the engine’s most ambitious showcases. However, while the visuals could help differentiate Krafton’s project from The Sims, it will likely result in astronomically high PC system requirements in comparison.

In an internal interview (above), Krafton said InZoi has been in development for around a year. The company welcomes comparisons to The Sims but hopes the new project can stand out from EA’s best-selling franchise.

InZoi is scheduled for release sometime next year, but Krafton has yet to disclose on which platforms and whether the game will be free-to-play like The Sims 4.

Nine years have passed since The Sims 4 launched, but EA has said very little about the next major installment in the series. Earlier this year, the company confirmed that an upcoming Sims project would be free-to-play but wouldn’t be named The Sims 5. EA wants that next game to offer an alternate way of playing The Sims, coexisting with The Sims 4 instead of replacing it. InZoi could appeal to players searching for the next technological leap in the life sim genre.