Back in August,The SimscompetitorinZOIreleased a demo of the gamesCharacter Studioto the public so that they could make their own ultra realistic Zois ahead of the game’s launch, which was originally planned to be at some point before 2024 was over.
On November 8,inZOIDirector and Producer Kjun took to Discord to issue a statement, giving the disappointing yet understandable announcement that the early access release ofinZOIhas now been delayed until July 10, 2025.
Thanking fans of the game for their support, and their overwhelmingly positive reception at Gamescom (they had a giant fluffy cat overlooking their booth, it was truly something to behold), Kjun went on to reveal the sad news and the reasoning behind the delay.
“After reviewing your feedback frominZOI: Character Studioand analyzing a wealth of data from our various play tests, we have made our decision to releaseinZOIin Early Access on Jul 29, 2025. We apologize that we could not bring you the game sooner, but this decision reflects our commitment to givinginZOIthe best possible start.”
While it is disappointing for life simulation fans who have been desperate for aSimscompetitor for a long time now, it’s at least reassuring to know that the team behindinZOIwill be taking their time to iron out bugs, rather than releasing a game filled with glitches and issues from the very beginning.
Kjun went on to compare the process of developinginZOIto that of a primate raising a human child, which is a weird analogy but I guess it makes sense if you really think about it.
“It is said that among primates, raising a human child to adulthood takes the longest time because humans must be prepared to endure and adapt to their ever-changing surroundings. The extra love and care that is required to properly nurture a child is how I see our journey withinZOI—a game that we will be nurturing together from its Early Access birth.”
In the comments of the Twitter announcement post, fans were supportive and expressed their patience, but some were asking whether the Character Studio demo would be made available for us to carry on messing around with in the meantime. There has been no word from KRAFTON orinZOIs development team on this front.
If you want regular updates about the development ofinZOI, the best thing to do is join the officialDiscord Server. Not only will you get updates and announcements first, but there’s also a solid community of players discussing the game and all of its known features, so you might even make some like-minded friends in the run-up to release day.
