It sure sounds like Inzoi will be multiplayer—eventually, in some capacity—according to comments by its developers

The early access launch for Inzoi is nearly here and there’s one really big burning question still unanswered: Will Inzoi be multiplayer? All signs so far point to a strong “maybe” with an emphasis on “eventually,” from what I can tell poring over Inzoi details for the last several months.

As it gets closer, life sim fans are doing a lot of speculative comparisons between Inzoi and The Sims and of course EA’s life sim series has never been multiplayer. Not in the mainline games, at least—or not until the eventual Project Rene. If Inzoi does add some kind of multiplayer, and if it works the way players hope, it will be a real coup.

Will there be multiplayer in Inzoi?

Based on comments made by Inzoi staff, there are probably plans for multiplayer in Inzoi. They’ve been pretty hush about it though, so we’ve got no idea just how big the studio is thinking with multiplayer or when online features could make it to the game.

Here’s what’s been said by official Inzoi sources so far:

• From the Inzoi FAQ in its Discord server: “We are currently considering various multiplayer features, such as the ability to meet up with other online players or invite them over to your home. But specific details have not been decided.”
• From director assistant Joel Lee during the live Ask Me Anything session in Discord: “We’ll have a separate event in the near future where you’ll get to hear all the burning questions […] All the things you really want to know about the game, that will all be revealed in this much larger event. […] Multiplayer is something we cannot mention right now. That’s another topic of discussion that we’ll talk about in our later event.”

The event referenced there is likely the Inzoi Global Showcase scheduled for March 18. So it sure seems like the studio will have something to reveal about multiplayer on that day. It would be really weird if the announcement is “we’re not doing it,” after going to all this trouble to be circumspect.

Remember: Inzoi is being developed by a studio at Krafton, the company that also develops the battle royale game PUBG. From the outside, it seems there’s been no shortage of knowledge and tech sharing between Krafton’s existing games and Inzoi—like with its announcements about using Nvidia’s AI tech for Smart Zois and for AI PUBG teammates.

Even given that, we all know there’s not a big red “add multiplayer” button that developers press to make your games magically be online. These things take time, even for one of Krafton’s studios.

So when will multiplayer come to Inzoi?

If Inzoi does commit to multiplayer features, they likely won’t be ready on March 28 for its early access launch. I’ve been wrong before, but that would be quite a surprise to drop on players so close to launch.

More likely is that the studio will announce its intention to add multiplayer—with some loose details—during the Inzoi Global Showcase and then work on developing those features while it remains in early access.

What kind of multiplayer features might Inzoi have?

As mentioned in its FAQ, the most likely possible multiplayer features for Inzoi are things like visiting another player’s world or house with your own Zoi. It’s also possible that you could join a player’s world by controlling a Zoi in one of their families to play together.

What we shouldn’t expect from Inzoi multiplayer is any kind of PvP or competitive element even though I just said all that stuff about how it’s a Krafton studio. Inzoi’s game director Hyungjun Kim has stressed multiple times that despite its realistic graphics, this is not going to be like a GTA game with super realistic driving, guns, or crime simulation. So we probably shouldn’t expect gritty competitive elements from any potential multiplayer either.