The ambitious life-simulation game InZoi was once heralded as a potential "Sims-killer"--a promising new title that fans of the genre could turn to following EA's relentless pursuit to monetize every aspect of The Sims 4. However, a lackluster early-access period and concerns over the game's liberal use of AI made for a rocky start. Over the past year and a half, developer Krafton has addressed some of the complaints leveled at the game, but now, it finds itself in hot water for a different reason.
Earlier today, the official InZoi X account shared a post depicting a balding man in a leather coat watching children play on a playground alongside the caption, "Just a peaceful day at the playground. Nothing unusual here... just ignore the bald guy" alongside an eyes emoji. Though the post is still up on the game's official Discord server, it was removed on X a few hours after it was initially posted due to users calling the post disturbing and pointing out that it seemed to allude to pedophilia. After removing the post, the account issued the following statement:
The account initially shared the post to showcase improvements being made to InZoi's playgrounds as well as promote the game's upcoming Celebrity DLC, which is slated to arrive this December. However, its easy to understand why fans had a negative reaction to the post--especially in light of recent events.
InZoi isn't the only life simulation game in the news for less-than-ideal reasons. After a brutal round of layoffs and announcing the closure of Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio BioWare, EA revealed that one of Maxis' ongoing Sims projects is being paused.