Kim Hyeong-jun, CEO of inZOI Studio under Krafton and executive director of "inZOI" (hereafter inZOI), received the prime minister's commendation in the overseas expansion merit institutional sector at the 2025 Korea Content Awards hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 10th.
The Korea Content Awards, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), are given to organizations and individuals who contributed to the development of Korea's content industry over the year, including producing outstanding content and revitalizing content exports. Among them, the overseas expansion merit institutional sector is awarded to contributors who advanced global outreach through content exports, the spread of the Korean Wave, and international cultural exchanges.
In March this year, CEO Kim Hyeong-jun made a major contribution to the overseas expansion of Korean games by successfully launching inZOI, which presented a new paradigm for the life simulation genre, in the global market. inZOI is a life simulation game in which users become creators of a virtual world and can directly design and direct the lives and society of characters called "Zois." With high freedom, detailed directing tools, a fine-grained emotion expression system, and various artificial intelligence (AI) functions, users can produce a wide range of scenarios from everyday life to fantasy. Based on this innovation, it surpassed 1 million units in global sales within a week of release and proved strong influence in the world market by rising to the top tier of Steam sales, centering on North America, Europe, and Asia.
Kim Hyeong-jun, head of inZOI Studio, said, "This award is thanks to Krafton and inZOI Studio, which have consistently communicated with users around the world and driven new changes in the life simulation genre, and to the users who have loved inZOI," adding, "We will continue to boldly pursue new platforms and various attempts based on active communication with users, and will keep challenging ourselves so that inZOI and other Korean games can expand into competitive IPs on the global stage."