InZoi Has Already Removed Denuvo And Players Are Delighted

InZoi is just a couple of days from release, but InZoi Studio has already made a decision that could drastically affect the game in the years to come. Prior to the game’s release, the developer released Creative Studio, a version of InZoi that features only the character creator and build mode. Players of this version of InZoi were dismayed to find Denuvo, a digital rights management (DRM) software, included in the download.

Companies use DRM software to make their games more difficult to pirate and distribute illegally. Although this is fine in theory, DRM is unpopular in practice because of performance concerns, the need to maintain an active internet connection while playing and the potential that out-of-date DRM could make games inaccessible in the future – something we’ve seen with old Microsoft games that use Games for Windows Live.

Goodbye Denuvo

For a game like InZoi that looks primed to have an active modding community, DRM software can make modding more difficult because of the anti-tampering tools in place. Needless to say, the InZoi community wasn’t pleased to find Denuvo running alongside Creative Studio.

InZoi Studio was quick in its response to the controversy, announcing the removal of Denuvo following community feedback. Director Hyung-jun Kim made an announcement on the game’s Discord, outling the team’s rationale for the original inclusion and eventual removal of DRM.

“We initially chose to implement Denuvo as a way to protect the game from illegal distribution,” writes Kim. “However, after taking a closer look at community feedback, we quickly realised that this approach did not align with what our players wanted.”

“We understand removing Denuvo increases the risk of the game being cracked and illegall 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,” the post continues.

Kim goes on to acknowledge that the team underestimated how much impact Denuvo could have on InZoi’s modding scene, and fostering a thriving modding community is a top priority for the team. The team apologises for the distress caused by the inclusion of Denuvo, and is committed to “rebuilding trust” with the community.

The response from prospective InZoi players has been incredibly positive. In a Reddit thread regarding the removal of Denuvo, a user named Survival_R writes “Wow, they really want my $40. I’ll be giving them my $40.” The thread is full of other fans expressing their willingness to purchase the game.

Director Kim and InZoi Studio have been transparent about the development of InZoi, releasing a roadmap of upcoming updates to the game. InZoi is set to release on PC in early access on March 28, with an unannounced future release for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.