The Sims alternative inZOI faced heavy criticism due to a new feature and decided to remove the feature.
What is inZOI?
- inZOI is a life simulation that will enter Early Access on Steam on March 28, 2025.
- Even before the release, inZOI is viewed as the major alternative to The Sims and is currently the most wished-for game on Valve’s gaming platform.
- While The Sims relies more on a comic look, inZOI presents itself with a more graphically realistic design.
- Additionally, inZOI offers you a large, open world where you can go for walks or even drive your own car and meet friends.
What feature is it about? On March 25, information circulated on Reddit that inZOI uses the widely disliked anti-piracy protection “Denuvo” among gamers.
Denuvo has faced criticism from players for years. Allegations often state that Denuvo worsens performance and shortens the lifespan of SSDs due to excessive writing. And of course, the protection also prevents piracy of games – which not everyone appreciates.
Many players expressed their frustration on social media, especially on Reddit and the official Discord server of the game, suggesting they do not want to purchase the game with Denuvo. One user wrote: “This is extremely concerning and disappointing. I was really looking forward to buying it – but probably not anymore.” The community believed that inZOI with Denuvo might exhibit poor technical performance – especially since the game already had performance issues in the demo without Denuvo.
A day after it became known that inZOI would rely on Denuvo, the developers announced that they had changed their minds due to player criticism and would forego the anti-piracy protection.
Waiving Denuvo gives modders more freedom
What do the developers say about Denuvo? On March 26, the director of inZOI, Hyungjun Kim, spoke out stating that inZOI will forego Denuvo after careful consideration.
On the official Discord server of the game, he wrote:
We have recently witnessed growing concern about the implementation of the Denuvo anti-tampering solution in inZOI. While we wanted to respond as quickly as possible, we also felt it was important to approach the matter with care – and consult with teams from around the world to make a thoughtful and informed decision. We sincerely apologize for the delay in delivering this official response. To address the main point: We have decided to remove Denuvo from the Early Access build of inZOI.
Hyungjun Kim explains that the original thought behind implementing Denuvo was to create fairness for players who purchase the game correctly by protecting against piracy. However, the team has now learned that Denuvo could negatively impact the gaming experience more than they initially thought.
Moreover, according to Hyungjun Kim, the developers have come to the realization that removing Denuvo allows inZOI to be more “freely configurable.” inZOI is meant to become a highly modifiable game, and the removal of Denuvo should create an even more open environment for modders.
Perhaps an active mod community will help achieve the difficult endeavor of dethroning The Sims. Hyungjun Kim now understands why so few developers take on this challenge: “Now I understand why so few have tried” – Head of inZOI explains why it’s difficult to surpass The Sims
