Disappointed That The Sims 5 Isn’t Happening? InZOI is the Game You’re Looking For

Over ten years after its launch, The Sims 4 is still an EA flagship title. Unfortunately, without The Sims 5 on the horizon, it seems it will remain that way for the foreseeable future. If you feel let down by EA’s reluctance to create a sequel, you might be looking in the wrong direction. InZOI is the new competitor to The Sims, and it seems like it’s going to live up to the hype.

The Sims Hasn’t Evolved Much Since the Last Release

Instead of being a groundbreaking sequel, The Sims 4 feels both like an upgrade and a downgrade of the previous game. Many of the features have been left unchanged or even removed. The base game was released in a disappointing state, and this letdown was made worse by the gradual release of content through various DLC packs instead of significant updates to the base game.

A big point of frustration for players is that important features, which many felt should have been part of the game from the start, were added piece-by-piece later. For example, adding toddlers took years, as did essential building items like basements and pools. This slow addition of basic features created the impression that players had to keep buying expansions to have a complete experience. Other features, like the “wants and fears” system, were eventually added but felt like an afterthought rather than a natural part of the game.

Moreover, the core gameplay has not changed much in the decade since it was released. While expansions introduced new life stages, jobs, and activities, they didn’t significantly alter the main mechanics. Players are still doing the same things—like meeting a Sim’s needs, working, building relationships, and managing money—resulting in a sense of repetition. Each new addition is often just a cosmetic change with a different theme. The continuous flow of DLC can feel exhausting instead of exciting.

The Sims 4 feels like a base product missing a bunch of features, so it could be sold along the way. Now, it’s just surviving through slow growth rather than a big update like a sequel. It’s hard to stay motivated to play a game like that. That kind of thing has been fine for EA, but now there is real competition.

InZOI Goes Beyond the Sandbox

InZOI is a game where you create and take care of characters called Zoi in a big, open world. Unlike The Sims 4, which has smaller, closed-off neighborhoods, InZOI lets your Zoi explore freely and interact with everything around them. This open world makes the game feel more real and exciting.

You’ll see Zoi forming friendships, building careers, and responding to situations on their own, creating stories that unfold naturally rather than following a strict script. Each Zoi has its own personality, thoughts, and feelings based on its traits and goals, leading to unique exchanges that are more believable than those in other simulation games.

The character creator in InZOI gives a lot of options for customizing your Zoi’s appearance. You can fine-tune facial features, body shapes, and even hair down to the individual strands, which is much more detailed than The Sims 4. You can also create unique clothing, hairstyles, and accessories and use real photos for textures and patterns, which goes far beyond the Create-A-Style feature in The Sims 3.

InZOI has a broad job system with many different career paths, from typical office roles to more creative jobs. Progressing in a career isn’t just about leveling up skills; it involves daily tasks, interactions with coworkers, and the possibility of promotions or getting fired, which can make the Zoi’s life more interesting.

When compared to InZOI, EA hasn’t done much to improve on The Sims recently. While The Sims 4 was a big sequel, it is a game that should have been left to time, and now InZOI is bringing plenty of things players have asked for.

Building the Future Takes More Than DLC

EA’s approach to DLC has made the company a lot of money, but The Sims 4 serves as a warning about how too many expansion packs can overwhelm a game. The main issue is the high price of individual packs, often around $40, which many consider too much for content packs that feel more like small updates than significant additions.

It’s easy to feel you are constantly being asked for money, needing to spend to unlock features that should have been part of the base game or earlier packs. With so many DLC options available—like expansions, game packs, stuff packs, and kits—you can’t really play the complete experience without paying a lot of money.

The Gamer calculated that it would take $1,194.23 to buy all the DLC for The Sims 4. This constant push for paid DLC can take away from the main gameplay experience. The Sims once felt complete, but if players wanted more, they could buy expansions. Now, it feels like The Sims 4 was made with expansions in mind.

In contrast, InZOI offers a more promising idea for handling expansion content. Although we don’t know all the details, a YouTube video detailing the roadmap suggests the game won’t follow the traditional DLC model. It might offer better-priced expansion packs or potentially a subscription model.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of DLC, but it should feel worth the high price. If InZOI can offer substantial updates that improve the game without relying on aggressive monetization, it could ask for high prices when DLC comes. This change in approach could shift players from The Sims 4 over to InZOI.

EA Has Already Lost a Major Sim Franchise to an Outsider

Electronic Arts has a history of mismanaging franchises. A clear example of this is the SimCity series. Originally, EA’s purchase of Maxis, the studio that created SimCity, in 1997 seemed like a smart move. However, this decision led to conflicts over creative direction that changed the series for the worse.

The release of SimCity (2013) was a major turning point. The game required players to be always online, which upset many fans. This choice was intended to prevent piracy but ruined the single-player experience players had loved for years. The game suffered from constant server issues, long loading times, and crashes that caused players to lose their progress. I thought it was too simplified compared to previous versions, but it was clear that EA prioritized online features over what made SimCity great.

EA’s push for multiplayer and monetization clashed with the core appeal of SimCity, which was all about letting players build and manage unique cities without restrictions. The 2013 version felt too confining and lacked the depth that fans expected. As a result, it received negative reviews and failed to perform well commercially.

In contrast, Cities: Skylines, released in 2015, successfully captured the spirit of the original SimCity. It offered players a vast, open-ended city-building experience, a strong single-player focus, and a vibrant modding community. It avoided the mistakes EA made, which showed that there is still a strong demand for classic city-building gameplay.

After Cities: Skylines released, we didn’t hear about a sequel to SimCity. A competitor had effectively taken down the series after a huge upset to fans, and now Cities: Skylines is the leader of the city-building genre. It’s not hard to imagine that an outdated game like The Sims 4 could be beaten by a competitor who wants to give players a modern version with all the features at a base price.

A brief glance at InZOI shows that it’s the sequel to The Sims 3 fans always wanted. I would call it a spiritual successor to The Sims 3 and what could have been The Sims 5 had EA not wanted to focus on DLC. So, if you’re looking for something to play that wasn’t made over a decade ago, InZOI is for you.

The game releases in early access for PC on March 27, 2025 with console versions to come later.