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April 2026 Update
May 8, 2026 at 09:23 AM
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April 2026 was a stability-focused cycle for inZOI, following the large March 2026 anniversary release (v0.7.0). Director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim signalled at the March 28 anniversary that April would slow the pace of new features and concentrate on the Fundamentals First initiative: bug fixing, refining content added under tight schedules, and graphics and memory optimisation.
Three hotfixes shipped during the month (v0.7.3, v0.7.4, v0.7.5). No major new features arrived in April. The Jobs and Freelancing update originally scheduled for April was deferred. Two community letters from Director Kjun on April 17 and April 24 reset community expectations for the rest of the year, including a confirmed early 2027 window for the full 1.0 release and a realignment of the PlayStation 5 timeline.
As of April 25, 2026 (immediately before v0.8.0 shipped), the live build was v0.7.5.
The first April hotfix addressed a cluster of gameplay issues carried over from the v0.7.0 anniversary release. Changes focused on smoothing edge cases in autonomous behaviour and business handling rather than adding anything new.
Area | Change |
|---|---|
Aging Controls | Manually triggered growth interactions (Grow Up, blowing out birthday candles) no longer ignore the No Aging option or stopAging cheat. With aging disabled, those interactions still age the Zoi by design; the underlying preference is now respected for autonomous aging. |
Fixed an issue where items could not be placed on ground floor walls in buildings that used a foundation. | |
Stability | Crash fixes targeted at autonomous behaviour and business operations carried over from v0.7.0. |
Mod Handling | All mods auto-disabled by the patch as part of standard policy. Players must re-enable mods through the in-game mod manager after each update. |
A stability-focused patch released the day after v0.7.3 to target reported crashes.
Area | Change |
|---|---|
Crash Fixes | Several crash cases reported after the v0.7.0 update were resolved, particularly during long sessions and when switching between households. |
Mod Handling | The patch reiterated the ongoing policy that all mods are automatically disabled whenever an update or patch is applied. Players must re-enable their mods from the in-game mod manager after each patch. |
A targeted graphics optimisation patch aimed at lower-end GPUs.
Setting | Change |
|---|---|
Lumen Reflections | Lumen Reflections are now automatically disabled when Hardware Ray Tracing is set to Low or Medium. The change reduces GPU load on cards that struggle with full Lumen and prevents the frame-time spikes that several players reported after v0.7.0. |
High and Ultra Tiers | Players on higher-tier GPUs using High or Ultra Hardware Ray Tracing are not affected. The change only applies to the Low and Medium tiers, where the cost of Lumen Reflections outweighed the visual benefit on the hardware commonly running those settings. |
Save Compatibility | Resolved lot updates failing on continued saves from March 2025 or saves that had been dormant for more than ten months. |
On April 17, 2026, Director Kjun published a long-form community letter reframing the development trajectory in two important ways.
1.0 Target Window.
The studio is now openly targeting an early 2027 window for the full inZOI 1.0 release. Earlier roadmap drafts had implied a possible late 2026 release; the April 17 letter confirmed that timeline has slipped. The team framed the shift as a deliberate decision to deliver a more complete simulation rather than rush remaining systems into a 1.0 build.
PlayStation 5 Realignment.
The original press release from August 2025 announced PS5 for H1 2026 (January through June). The April 17 letter walked that target back: the PS5 version is now treated as a parallel priority alongside the 1.0 launch rather than a fixed first-half-of-2026 release. With no plans for paid expansions during Early Access, the team is concentrating remaining Early Access resources on the systems still missing for a complete simulation (full career and school progression in particular) and on the PS5 port. See PlayStation 5 Version for the platform-specific timeline.
Other April 17 Topics.
The same letter previewed several features in active development for the next major content drop: the Hair Salon, the Clothing Store, a first-person camera perspective, MetaHuman preset import for character creation, and multi-selection for Build Mode. The studio cautioned that none of these were yet ready to ship and that an internal beta window was still ahead of them.
Through April, the team continued the weekly developer-update format, posting short videos and forum threads on Fridays. Two of the most-discussed entries were:
Week | Highlights |
|---|---|
Week 3 (mid-April) | First-person camera early version shown for the first time. Additional baby clothing previewed. Modding tool roadmap touched on, including the planned Lua scripting milestone for December 2026. |
Week 4 (late April) | Quality of life and behaviour-tuning previews. Confirmation that May would not be a major content release (see April 24 letter below). Continued discussion of the Hair Salon and Clothing Store features as headline systems for the next content patch. |
On April 24, 2026, Kjun published a follow-up message to clarify the May plan after community speculation that a full content patch was still coming in May. Key points:
May Will Not Be a Major Content Release. The team's priority through April and May is stabilisation and strengthening foundational systems before the next large content drop.
Deferred From April. The Multi-Job System, Freelance career expansion, Hair Salon, Clothing Store, weekly income for player-created content, and expanded retirement and pension systems were all named as features that had been prepared but were not ready to ship.
Deferred Beyond May. The High School Life on-site experience, Schools feature, additional career variety, MetaHuman preset import, and first-person camera mode were called out as systems that would slip past the May window. No firm replacement date was given.
Still Tracking. The full Unreal Engine 5.6 rollout was confirmed as still in the pipeline (originally postponed from March to April). Public beta testing on the engine branch had been live since March 5.
As of April 24, 2026, the realigned Q2 picture is:
Status | Items |
|---|---|
Shipped | April hotfixes v0.7.3, v0.7.4, v0.7.5; the post-anniversary save-file fix v0.7.1 (March 27); the shoulder-view camera restoration v0.7.2 (March 31). |
Deferred From April | Multi-Job System, Freelance career expansion, Hair Salon, Clothing Store, weekly income for player-created content, expanded retirement and pension systems. |
Deferred Beyond May | High School Life on-site experience, Schools feature, additional career variety, MetaHuman preset import, first-person camera mode. |
In Pipeline | Unreal Engine 5.6 full rollout (beta branch live since March 5; full migration awaiting the next major patch). |
At the March 28 anniversary announcement, Kjun outlined April's priorities as full-scale stability improvement and optimisation with expanded graphics options. The April hotfix cycle reflected that plan: no new systems shipped during the month, and the patches were scoped deliberately small so fixes could be validated before the next content patch lands.
The Fundamentals First initiative had 55 items completed by the March anniversary, and April's work continued chipping at the remaining list. KRAFTON has not published a refreshed total since the anniversary letter, but the April 17 and April 24 community letters both reaffirmed the broader priority shift toward foundational quality over feature breadth.
Each of the three April hotfixes auto-disabled all installed mods on patch day. Players had to re-enable them through the in-game mod manager after applying each update. KRAFTON has confirmed this is permanent policy: every patch will continue to auto-disable mods so that incompatibilities surface explicitly rather than as silent crashes. Mod creators received the new ToggleModinsight cheat (added in the v0.7.0 anniversary build) which displays a real-time overlay of a selected mod's properties and exportable parameters.
Item | Value |
|---|---|
Live build | v0.7.5 |
Last hotfix | April 10, 2026 |
Underlying engine | Unreal Engine 5.4 on the main branch; UE 5.6 beta on Steam since March 5 |
Major content patch since | March 26, 2026 (v0.7.0 anniversary) |
1.0 target window | Early 2027 |
PS5 target window | Aligned with 1.0 launch (early 2027), no firm date |
macOS target | Live since August 20, 2025; Apple Silicon M2 or newer |
On April 29, 2026, KRAFTON shipped v0.8.0, the first major content patch since the March 2026 anniversary release. The patch reverses the April 24 communication that signalled May would not be a major content release: the team prepared and shipped a substantial slice of the deferred content earlier than expected. v0.8.0 is the largest single drop of new careers and economic systems since the v0.5.0 business launch.
Six new active careers were added across the cities. All six use a new interview-then-impress acceptance flow rather than instant hiring.
Career | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
Lab work, formula tasks, success or failure outcomes | ||
Programming desk, code-writing, debugging tasks | ||
Floor-plan drafting, design submissions | ||
Studio mixing, recording sessions, releases | ||
Interviews, article drafting, publishing | ||
Cahaya only | Vacation package bookings, client service |
Alongside the new careers, v0.8.0 added Hair Salon and Clothing Store as new business types in the player-owned business framework rather than as Career app entries. Hair Salon, available in Dowon, Bliss Bay, and Cahaya, lets players place hair salon chairs that other Zois can interact with to change their hairstyles. Clothing Store, available in Cahaya, introduces mannequins that can display preset or custom outfits which other Zois can interact with to try the outfit on.
v0.8.0 separated school, business, and career into three independent categories. As long as the schedules do not overlap, all three can be assigned to the same Zoi simultaneously. Schedule priority order is school first, career second, business third, with freelance work slotted alongside.
Salaries are now distributed daily rather than on a traditional pay-period cycle.
Paid leave, sick leave, and remote work registration through the home computer.
Team projects: 4-day collaborative projects with contribution graded per Zoi.
Performance tracking: tardiness and absences negatively affect evaluations; sustained low performance can result in termination.
Retirement: meeting tenure requirements triggers a retirement party social event.
Severance: fired, departing, or retiring Zois receive a severance payment.
v0.8.0 added a structured freelance system with four license types. A license must be obtained on the home computer before any freelance work can begin. Higher license grades unlock harder tasks and higher pay.
License | Description |
|---|---|
Delivery | Transport items between clients and recipients |
Creative | Produce writing, music, programs, or media |
Publishing | Earn commissions on published creations |
Sell Online | Lower-payout sales of custom work |
v0.8.0 added a new Optimization category in Settings to give players direct control over performance trade-offs.
Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
Simulation Preset | Adjusts the overall simulation density |
Performance Safeguard | Auto-adjusts settings when overload is detected |
Graphics Preset | Mirrors the existing graphics settings preset |
City Population Density | Slider for the number of NPC Zois in each city |
Animal Density | Slider for the number of stray and wild animals |
Smart Zoi notifications also now warn players on systems with 7 GB of VRAM or less that they may experience performance impacts.
v0.8.0 completed the Unreal Engine 5.6 migration. The migration had been in public beta on a separate Steam branch since March 5 and previously slipped from March, then April. With v0.8.0, the live build runs on UE 5.6. Players are advised to reset graphics settings after applying the patch. ModKit also gained UE 5.6 support, and MetaHuman meshes can now automatically convert into the game.
Two new locales were added: Dutch (Netherlands) and Turkish (Turkey). Both are flagged as in-game-only experimental AI translations rather than fully reviewed localizations.
Romance and pregnancy received tuning, including new intimate animations and a Gender Reveal Party social event with variable guest reactions.
Build Mode upgrades: improved control gizmos, new European countryside building presets, additional photo studio backgrounds.
Situational outfits relocated to the left side of the Create-a-Zoi screen for better accessibility.
As with every patch, all mods were auto-disabled on patch day. Players had to re-enable them through the in-game mod manager after applying the update. The auto-disable policy continues unchanged.
Item | Value |
|---|---|
Live build | v0.8.0 |
Last major patch | April 29, 2026 |
Underlying engine | |
1.0 target window | Early 2027 |
PS5 target window | Aligned with 1.0 launch (early 2027), no firm date |
macOS target | Live since August 20, 2025; Apple Silicon M2 or newer |
March 2026 Update covers the v0.7.0 anniversary release that preceded April's stabilisation cycle. February 2026 Update covers v0.6.0 and v0.6.1. Update History lists every patch since launch. 2026 Roadmap tracks the realigned Q2 plan and the rest of the year. Known Issues and Bugs tracks active workarounds. PlayStation 5 Version details the platform timeline shift confirmed in the April 17 letter.
