Realistic life sim inZOI without Denuvo, after all. „We quickly realized that this approach did not align with what our players wanted”
The developers of inZOI, Krafton studio, admitted that their upcoming Early Access life simulator was to include Denuvo protection. „Community concern,” however, prompted the developers to drop the controversial software.
If we had to point out the topics causing the most controversy among players, Denuvo's anti-piracy measures would definitely be among the top. According to many people, this software not only negatively affects the performance, but also makes it difficult to create mods.
The bad reputation that Denuvo has gained has led many developers to abandon the software to avoid controversy. Among them are also the devs of the upcoming life simulator inZOI, Krafton studio.
In a statement published on Steam, the game's director and developer, Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim, confirmed that the Early Access version, which is set to be released on March 28, won't include the mentioned technology.
We initially chose to implement Denuvo as a way to protect the game from illegal distribution. At the time, we believed this would help ensure fairness for players who had properly purchased the game. However, after taking a closer look at community feedback, we quickly realized that this approach did not align with what our players wanted - explains the developer.
Kim added that one of the key aspects of inZOI is the creativity of the players, and removing Denuvo may give the community more room for maneuver.
We understand that removing Denuvo increases the risk of the game being cracked and illegally distributed after release. At the same time, we believe it opens up a valuable opportunity: it allows inZOI to become more freely configurable—unlocking new ways for players to shape new experiences for other players. We believe enabling this freedom from the very beginning will lead to innovative and long-lasting enjoyment for the community.
Denuvo included with the demo version
The inZOI: Creative Studio demo available on Steam has Denuvo software. The developer admitted that it was added automatically and apologized to the players for the lack of prior communication on the matter.
We want to sincerely apologize for not aligning more closely with player expectations on this sensitive issue. We regret the concern and confusion this has caused within the community, and we’re committed to rebuilding your trust as we move forward in developing the best possible experience - the director added at the end.
(Not) secret weapon inZOI
Rebuilding trust can be tough, however, Krafton studio has many tools that can help with this. One of them is the AI-based experimental feature called Smart Zoi, which is supposed to make the characters in the game more independent and intelligent.
To use Smart Zoi, you need to:
- enter the game options;
- select the "Gameplay" card;
- in the "Enable Smart Zoi" section, select "on."
The devs emphasize that the feature is still in the development stage, so it may cause some problems. Among them they mention:
- trouble with creating new schedule items if Zoi goes to bed too late;
- temporary blocking of new entries in the journal and editing schedule elements if the game speed is 5x or more;
- Zoi's quickly disappearing thoughts during conversations with other characters;
- possible game delays if we have multiple sleepy characters (up to five) on the screen after 11:00 pm.
Unfortunately, using this function requires a rather powerful rig (we provided information on the game's technical specs a while back). However, the developers assure that they are looking for ways to "lower the minimum system requirements while ensuring stable gameplay."
According to the first reviews, inZOI has incredible potential, which, if properly developed, can make the Korean game threaten the position of the king of life sims - The Sims series.
