Summary
- New challengers in the life simulation genre are emerging, with promising games like Paralives, Witchbrook, and inZOI.
- These upcoming titles offer unique features like freeform house construction, detailed simulation, and open-world gameplay without loading screens.
- Project Rene, unofficially known as The Sims 5, is adapting to new trends with cross-platform support.
Since the incredible success of The Sims in the early 2000s, this game series has reigned over the entire genre of life simulation. Except for Nintendo's Animal Crossing, few studios have tried to challenge Maxis' best-selling series. In the last few years, small and small-ish studios have created plenty of spins on the genre while making sure not to challenge The Sims directly.
But things are about to change. A handful of projects, including two from major, well-known studios, seem to be challenging EA's life sim series on its own ground. Paralives and inZOI make it plenty clear from their trailers to their feature list. Fans of the genre have played other great life simulation games before, but those two might be the first proper Sims-like titles. It remains to be seen whether they will manage to dethrone The Sims as the king of the genre, but the fact they pose a challenge at all is already a victory.
Updated on August 1, 2024, by Mehrdad Khayyat: While there are more than enough action-packed games on the market, the meaningful gap for peaceful games focusing on the social life of humans has always been felt. Back in the day, there weren't any big life simulations other than The Sims, Harvest Moon, and Animal Crossing, but the future is bright.
Although Paradox Interactive canceled its life simulation project, Life By You, there are still some promising games in the genre that are in active development, offering new, creative gameplay mechanics. Besides, some partially social MMOs are already playable while the development process continues.
Paralives
Releases In 2025
Paralives
- Released
- May 25, 2026
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Life Simulation, Sandbox, Immersive Sim
Paralives is an upcoming indie life sim game developed by quite a small team. Directly comparing this project to the upcoming The Sims 5 or previous titles in the series would likely reveal a lack of content in the former. But this comparison is hardly fair: Paralives isn't trying to compete head-to-head with its inspiration but instead boasts cartoony graphics, freeform house construction, and a bunch of quality-of-life improvements.
What will likely help the studio with the possible lack of content is mod support, which has already been confirmed to use Steam Workshop. Still, the base game of Paralives will come packaged with the genre's usual features: character creation, mechanics to simulate career, friendship, and love, and some ways to automate the Parafolks' lives. And while not much is known about those upcoming titles' minimum requirements, Paralives will likely be one of the more lightweight options.
Witchbrook
No Release Date Yet
Witchbrook
- Developer(s)
- Chucklefish, Robotality
- Platform(s)
- Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
- Genre(s)
- Life Simulation, Farming, Casual
Witchbrook looks a lot less like The Sims and a lot more like the old social MMO Habbo. That said, the game is developed by Chucklefish, a studio known for its charming pixel art and designs, and Witchbrook seems to be shaping up to be just that. In what the studio calls a "social RPG," players take the role of a new magical student in the witchy town of Witchbrook.
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Witchbrook might not look like a traditional life sim, but its influences are clear. Detailed simulation, friendship and love, even a career of sorts: all those things scream "The Sims." If this will be a real challenger to EA's classic life simulator series, time will tell. Still, The Sims fans might want to keep an eye on this small-scale game.
InZOI
Releases In Late 2024
InZOI
inZOI is a life sim from the studio behind PUBG, although the game is barely mentioned on the studio's website. InZOI was announced at G-STAR 2023, a large video game industry even in South Korea, but official information about the upcoming title seems to rarely leave the country. The result is that fans don't know much about this highly anticipated, extremely popular Sims competitor.
What fans know about the game comes from its trailers, which make it look quite promising, and an interview with the game's producer, Jkun. For one, it seems like inZOI will demand next-gen hardware if it is to look as detailed as it does in the trailers. It also seems like the game will have a curious metanarrative about being a god, or perhaps in the employment of a god, which might actually be a cat. It's the players' job, then, to take care of the game's citizens and make their lives interesting.
Project Rene
No Release Date Yet
- Platforms: TBA
- Release Date: TBA
- Developer: Maxis Studios
- Genre: Life Simulation
Project Rene is the working title of the upcoming The Sims iteration. The game is supposed to be a big step for the studio. According to the developers, the name Rene signifies the rebirth of the series, and the game boosts some noticeable differences from the series' past. For one, furniture doesn't seem to snap to predetermined points but can be freely placed wherever there is enough space.
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Project Rene will also have cross-platform support. This could be a significant advantage, especially considering most of its competitors haven't announced if they're going multiplatform yet. The next Sims will be free-to-play on both mobile and PC and will most likely feature optional paid content packs. This is the formula implemented by The Sims 4 since the base game became free in October 2022, but the series has always had plenty of DLCs and expansions ready to buy.
Special Mentions: Games That Should Have Life Sim Elements
While the games listed above are strictly focused on the social life of each character and put more emphasis on the relationships and interactions, there are other games that don't go too far away with this romantic part of life but do suggest activities that make players feel like they are living a life.
Generally, we categorize these games under MMOs, but they do offer jobs, base building, deep character customization, and minimal social interaction with other players. So, it can satisfy one's hunger to live in a virtual world to a certain degree.
Pax Dei
Pax Dei
Introducing itself as a social sandbox MMO, Pax Dei could become a medieval Star Citizen if it lives up to its potential. The game offers a world where the supply chain of items and resources relies on players rather than AI-driven NPCs. And that comes with a wide variety of jobs for each player.
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While the game is still in its early stages and there aren't so many jobs available, players can explore the world, discover lore items, claim a piece of land and build their home, and join clans to grow not only as a single character but also as an in-game community, forming towns populated by real players rather than NPCs.
Star Citizen
Star Citizen
- Developer(s)
- Cloud Imperium Games Corporation
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, Simulation
The world's most expensive game ever is still in active development years after its official announcement, but there is still a lot to achieve. What Star Citizen offers in its long-term premise is incomparable to anything else everyone has played so far.
Players will be able to claim land rights and build their very own base, buy ships and massive space vessels, own hangars and customize them, and opt-in for a wide variety of jobs from engineering to data running. Aside from these, Star Citizen will also offer multiple star systems with distinct policies. Some star systems are organized, prohibiting crime and apprehending criminals, while some others, like Pyro, are lawless nomad lands, where threat lingers at every corner.