Why Inzoi Failed

[anne O'nymous]

That part about local sourcing to please farmers sounds very French to me,

For long we've be auto-sufficient when it come to food, importing and exporting, but with a national production that was able to nourish everyone in case of need. This leaved traces in the mentality.

and people here wouldn't particularly care about that, but it would likely still be economical for McDonalds to often do that, with the insane production of meat and potatoes here.

At this time, it wasn't necessarily efficient economically speaking. Norms (EU and local) tend to increase the production costs, and therefore prices. Some product are cheaper even counting the importation fees. But nowadays, the main incentive to use local ingredient is the lesser impact on the climate since it limits the transport.
Time to strike in front of your local McDonalds to ask for changes

if that's even possible, there's a thing like an unenforceable law

Oh, but it's totally possible. Laws have to be constitutional (or whatever similar concept apply to the country), but there's no obligation for them to be enforceable. In practice there's probably no Law that are totally unenforceable, but there's many that exist for the sole intent to appease the public and are near to be unenforceable.
It's by example the case of the Belgium law against loot boxes I talked about. It's just impossible to validate all games published. And, in this age of smartphone, near to impossible to prevent them to be available from Belgium. One could force Stores to not present them, but it would also have to goes after Patreon, itch.io, and in fact any one of the, more or less official, websites, or combination of websites, that permit to sell them; "send me US$ 10 through buyMeACoffee, and I send you back the activation code", "transfer US$ 10 via PayPal, and you access the download link".

You rightly contrasted the US and France as regions with different levels of regulation. But that doesn't, like, come from their parliament like a black box: these reflect different political cultures, and these reflect different societies with different institutions and ideals.

The cultural difference aren't just political, and it, as well as the ideals, reflect in the companies themselves.

Here, we have

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, 6th European telecommunication group, based on the fact that telecommunication (internet access and mobile phone) cost too much to the customers. It lead the country to have one of the lowest cost for both, while having high quality services.
They started with a basic concept "Free unlimited internet access". You payed the communication cost to the national operator, and that's all. At this time their competitors were around 3 euros (converted) for a limited service. Then when ADSL started, they entered late, but by hitting hard right from the starts, with a triple play offer (TV/Internet/Telephone) for 29.99 euros, against an average of 40 euros for the sole internet access that their competitors were offering.
They could have aligned with their competitor price. Same price, but with TV and telephone in top of the internet access, it would already be an interesting deal. Yet they decided to be a bit above their cost, instead of chasing profit at all cost. And they did the same with all countries they decided to operate in.
And as I said, 20 years later they are the 6th European telecommunication group, with a 367 millions euros net income for 2024 [

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].

 

[markus T]

The op posted the exacted same shit on loverslab. You're a sims fanboy and you hate inzoi, we get it. Was the post on LL not enough or were you hoping you wouldn't get bashed here like you did there?
I don't think it has failed as its only in early access but I would imagine that once the mod tools are released aswell as some QL updates things will get better.
I also don't see this being the Sims 4 killer. Competition maybe but It won't kill the sims franchise.

 

[tanstaafl]

Would you call Phasmophobia a failure? That's all I'm saying. It's a bit too early to say it "failed" when it could easily bounce back.

now you're getting into a whole kettle of fish that has an entire section of youtube dedicated to it. I don't really want to get into the benefits and drawbacks to players and or companies for interminable early access games. Ostensibly it's so devs can better create the best game possible, the arguments that this is BS are numerous, but it's not a debate I'm willing to have now.

The only thing I will say is that bringing up a game that has been successful and profitable for going on 5 years now, early access or not, is not the best argument you can make to support a game that took a single month to go from a peak 140k viewers to an average of 60.

Edit:
Phasmo 5 years after release: Still in the top 100 (barely)

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

The only thing I will say is that bringing up a game that has been successful and profitable for going on 5 years now, early access or not, is not the best argument you can make to support a game that took a single month to go from a peak 140k viewers to an average of 60.

True. My point is mostly semantics on what "failure" constitutes. If it bounces back, I wouldn't consider it a failure.

 

[tanstaafl]

True. My point is mostly semantics on what "failure" constitutes. If it bounces back, I wouldn't consider it a failure.

But it is a failure, even if it bounces back. It's early access release was a huge success, they sold a ton of copies, their early access first month was fair, having a lot of people playing it, then it just tanked. That's a business failure. It doesn't stop being a failure if they come back in a year and become popular again.

Do people suddenly call No Man's Sky a huge success now that they're earning people back or do they call it a come back story?

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

But it is a failure, even if it bounces back. It's early access release was a huge success, they sold a ton of copies, their early access first month was fair, having a lot of people playing it, then it just tanked. That's a business failure. It doesn't stop being a failure if they come back in a year and become popular again.

Do people now suddenly call No Man's Sky a huge success now that they're earning people back or do they call it a come back story?

Look man, I'ma be honest. I've been working on my game for around 14-16 hours a day for the past week in order to hit a release. I am not currently equipped for this discussion.

 

[tanstaafl]

Look man, I'ma be honest. I've been working on my game for around 14-16 hours a day for the past week in order to hit a release. I am not currently equipped for this discussion.

Bruh, release crunch is brutal. I'll let you go then, I know those feelings.

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

Bruh, release crunch is brutal. I'll let you go then, I know those feelings.

You are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

[DuniX]

It's early access release was a huge success, they sold a ton of copies, their early access first month was fair, having a lot of people playing it, then it just tanked. That's a business failure. It doesn't stop being a failure if they come back in a year and become popular again.

It's only a failure once the money runs out and development stops, and I see no evidence yet that this will be the case. Development is chugging along just fine and you will see more buzz once some updates drop.

More fundamentally you do not understand one simple thing, the game has Sexy Ladies, and when the Sex Mods drop you will have Nude Sexy Ladies that you can Fuck.

 

[tanstaafl]

It's only a failure once the money runs out and development stops, and I see no evidence yet that this will be the case. Development is chugging along just fine and you will see more buzz once some updates drop.

More fundamentally you do not understand one simple thing, the game has Sexy Ladies, and when the Sex Mods drop you will have Nude Sexy Ladies that you can Fuck.

You're arguing semantics now. I don't care what your definition is.

 

[Dark Lord Nova]

Look, I honestly don't get how anyone in this thread can call inZOI a failure. It makes no bloody sense whatsoever. I've said it before—it's in early access. That literally means it's a paid open beta. You pay $40, hop in on Steam, play it early, give feedback, report bugs, and the devs actively patch and update it—daily, by the way. They're working their asses off, and a big update with the Mod Kit is on the way (yeah, it's delayed, but welcome to game development).

Saying "no one is playing it" is just plain wrong. There's an active Discord, a bunch of modders on Nexus Mods (while I don't know about CurseForge where the official mods are supposedly going), and a whole community on Steam plus inZOI Canvas where players can shared and upload their own creations, custom content which is like The Sims 4 Gallery. It's not some ghost town like people make it out to be.

And again no, I don't care what some random YouTubers are saying. Most of them are just chasing clicks—overhyping, nitpicking, or flat-out spreading misinformation because negativity gets views. I'm not buying into that noise.

Same goes for whatever charts or statistics people are throwing around. Numbers don't always tell the full story, especially when a game's still being built. inZOI isn't finished. It's not supposed to be. That's the whole point of early access. Why is that so hard to grasp?

 

[tanstaafl]

Look, I honestly don't get how anyone in this thread can call inZOI a failure.

Then you don't understand how game production companies (or any software producers) look at numbers.

I've said it before—it's in early access. That literally means it's a paid open beta.

So is Phasmophobia that we just talked about a few posts ago. It's been in early access for 5 years and is still in the top 100 streamed games on twitch. It didn't drop to 60 average viewers in a single month. Edit: Just checked again, it's down to 52 avg viewers.

Same goes for whatever charts or statistics people are throwing around.

The charts are API connections to the actual services, they're real numbers, they aren't people that are feeding numbers into a web site. I.E. steamcharts connects by API to steam and gets the actual numbers of players hourly. Same for twitch tracker and viewers.

You have a severe lack of understanding of how these things work. I admire your optimism and I hope the game gets numbers back. Like I said earlier, I have no stake in this and I hate seeing games fail. But as it stands, it is displaying fail numbers and what you want or believe means absolutely nothing.

Edit: And I'm not surprised there's a good mod community building. It sold a lot when it first dropped to early access, that was one of the big successes that might buy them time. But, expect the mod community to begin to dry up if it appears that no one will play the game (and thus their mods).

 

[Dark Lord Nova]

Then you don't understand how game production companies (or any software producers) look at numbers.

So is Phasmophobia that we just talked about a few posts ago. It's been in early access for 5 years and is still in the top 100 streamed games on twitch. It didn't drop to 60 average viewers in a single month. Edit: Just checked again, it's down to 52 avg viewers.

The charts are API connections to the actual services, they're real numbers, they aren't people that are feeding numbers into a web site. I.E. steamcharts connects by API to steam and gets the actual numbers of players hourly. Same for twitch charts and viewers.

You have a severe lack of understanding of how these things work. I admire your optimism and I hope the game gets numbers back. Like I said earlier, I have no stake in this and I hate seeing games fail. But as it stands, it is displaying fail numbers and what you want or believe means absolutely nothing.

Edit: And I'm not surprised there's a good mod community building. It sold a lot when it first dropped to early access, that was one of the big successes that might by them time. But, expect the mod community to begin to dry up if it appears that no one will play the game (and thus their mods).

Look, I still don't agree with you on this, but I really don't see inZOI doing badly at all since it hit early access two months ago. Honestly, I'll admit I don't know the ins and outs of game production—I don't work in the gaming industry. But let's get the facts straight: inZOI has not been in early access for five years. Where did that even come from? That's just not true.

The game's only been out in full early access for about two months. It launched on Steam on March 27th, 2025—I was there for it, I bought it the day it came out. Sure, a bunch of YouTubers and streamers got a demo access of it last summer, maybe ten months ago, but that's not the same as a public release. I only even heard about inZOI about a year and a half ago when the first look video dropped.

Honestly, I think you might be mixing up some details, especially about how long it's been available to the public. For regular players like me, it's only been a couple of months, not 5 years. I'm not trying to be rude, but some of the stuff you're saying doesn't quite line up I'll admit, some of the stuff you're saying is just going over my head.

 

[Brine_Basilisk]

This would make for an excellent new copypasta

 

[tanstaafl]

Look, I still don't agree with you on this, but I really don't see inZOI doing badly at all since it hit early access two months ago. Honestly, I'll admit I don't know the ins and outs of game production—I don't work in the gaming industry. But let's get the facts straight: inZOI has not been in early access for five years. Where did that even come from? That's just not true.

The game's only been out in full early access for about two months. It launched on Steam on March 27th, 2025—I was there for it, I bought it the day it came out. Sure, a bunch of YouTubers and streamers got a demo access of it last summer, maybe ten months ago, but that's not the same as a public release. I only even heard about inZOI about a year and a half ago when the first look video dropped.

Honestly, I think you might be mixing up some details, especially about how long it's been available to the public. For regular players like me, it's only been a couple of months, not 5 years. I'm not trying to be rude, but some of the stuff you're saying doesn't quite line up I'll admit, some of the stuff you're saying is just going over my head.

I swear to god it's like you only read what you want to read. I said phasmaphobia has been out 5 years, the name is right there in the sentence, it's not confusing, it's not hidden. I brought it up for two reasons, 1. you claimed that early release is an excuse for Inzoi's performance. 2. someone else brought up phamaphobia earlier so I used it as an example.

Because despite it also being in early release it's still in twitch's top 100 games after five years. This is a direct rebuttal of your excuse that Inzoi being in early access explains it's abysmal numbers. You claiming "people are still playing Inzoi" means nothing. Yeah, about 1000 people are playing it daily. ONE THOUSAND. As compared to a month ago, where it was exponentially higher. In gaming world terms that is a massive crash.

 

[Dark Lord Nova]

I swear to god it's like you only read what you want to read. I said phasmaphobia has been out 5 years, the name is right there in the sentence, it's not confusing, it's not hidden. I brought it up for two reasons, 1. you claimed that early release is an excuse for Inzoi's performance. 2. someone else brought up phamaphobia earlier so I used it as an example.

Because despite it also being in early release it's still in twitch's top 100 games after five years. This is a direct rebuttal of your excuse that Inzoi being in early access explains it's abysmal numbers. You claiming "people are still playing Inzoi" means nothing. Yeah, about 1000 people are playing it daily. ONE THOUSAND. As compared to a month ago, where it was exponentially higher. In gaming world terms that is a massive crash.

I'm sorry—I totally misread that part where you said Phasmophobia has been out for 5 years, not inZOI. That's on me. It's not that I only read what I want to read; sometimes stuff just goes over my head, especially if I don't fully get what you’re saying. It can be a bit tough for me to process, and I honestly don't always know how to respond.

inZOI isn't currently in Twitch's top 100 games. It had a lot of attention at launch, but as of now it's ranked far lower, so that part of your statement just isn't correct. When it comes to player numbers, the average is actually a bit higher than what you mentioned—recent stats show between 1,400 and 2,900 concurrent players, with daily peaks around 2,000. That's definitely a big drop from its launch numbers, but it's not quite as dire as "only 1,000 people" suggests.

It's also important to remember that early access games almost always see a big initial spike followed by a drop as players wait for more content and improvements. This doesn't mean the game is doomed; it's a normal part of the early access cycle. Yes, the decline has been steep, and the devs have a lot of work ahead, but writing off the game at this stage is premature.

So while there's some truth to the idea that inZOI's numbers have dropped sharply, the details in your statement don't really line up with the facts.

 

[tanstaafl]

So while there's some truth to the idea that inZOI's numbers have dropped sharply, the details in your statement don't really line up with the facts.

The problem with this statement is that according to the numbers (which are facts, cross checkable across several places that also have access to the steam and twitch APIs) and you thinking more are playing isn't lining up with reality.

 

[Dark Lord Nova]

The problem with this statement is that according to the numbers (which are facts, cross checkable across several places that also have access to the steam and twitch APIs) and you thinking more are playing isn't lining up with reality.

I'm not disputing the numbers for inZOI—those are publicly available and clearly show a sharp decline in player count since launch. My point was about making sure the details we use are accurate, like where inZOI stands right now. I believe that the data speaks for itself regarding the drop in activity, but I think it's important we're precise about the specifics when talking about the game's current state and history. I still don't think the game is doomed or a failure at all. It just needs more time and, most importantly, more content. I really believe things will turn around, especially when that first big update with the Mod Kit finally drops—hopefully sometime in mid-June, even if it's running a bit late. I'm seriously excited for WickedZOI, and I get the feeling a lot of modders are just waiting on the Mod Kit so they can release it. I loved what WickedWhims did for The Sims, but I think WickedZOI is going to take things to a whole new level. The characters just look so much more realistic compared to Sims—it's wild! Can't wait to see what the community does with it.

 

[Ungawa]

... I know I'm coming into this real late...

But how I view this is that Inzoi just came out the gate and stumbled a bit at launch while EA has been going for years with a series and franchise and merely maintaining it.

It's going to have its audience and it's going to have to build it. I just don't see why people are going gloom and doom on it now when the population will wax and wane as it goes through growing pains. See this in other games and I'd say, give a year to see how it grows, ebbs, and flows before calling it a failure.