Highlights
- Denuvo DRM was added to Lies of P just before its release, which may affect the game's modding capabilities and performance.
- Denuvo DRM has been controversial in the gaming industry due to optimization and performance issues in previous AAA titles.
- It is uncertain how the addition of Denuvo DRM will impact Lies of P's reception and sales, but the game's demo received over a million downloads, suggesting potential resilience.
Lies of P has just come out at the time of writing, but it didn't stop Neowiz Games and Round8 from adding the controversial Denuvo DRM to it right before it dropped. Lies of P has mods that would likely be affected by this.
A loose adaptation of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, Lies of P is an action RPG that has often been described as "Souls-like." It sees an already-human Pinocchio (codenamed P) traversing the mechanoid-infested city of Krat, fighting off various mechanical puppets, and navigating the open-ended story towards one of three endings thanks to its lying system. Like many big-name titles, Lies of P was released in two separate editions with one dropping earlier, and through early access, the game has garnered a mostly positive reception.
As reported by Exputer, Denuvo DRM was added to Lies of P just days before its launch in an attempt to crack down on any players' attempts to pirate the game. The software was added on September 15 to coincide with the release of the Lies of P Deluxe Edition, and the developers had not made any mention of adding it before, which took many excited players by surprise. Likewise, neither Neowiz nor Round8 have released any official statements on the matter.
Denuvo DRM is a very popular brand of anti-piracy software, having shown up in multiple big-name titles and even whole game brands. It is also quite controversial and for good reason. Multiple AAA games have been negatively impacted by its implementation, suffering from optimization and performance issues as a result of it. In the case of PC games, many players have reported difficulty in downloading mods in games that include this program. Considering that modding is a very popular feature in PC gaming, and is often the reason why some players might prefer that version of a multi-platform release, that is a huge detriment.
It is currently unclear what effect this surprise addition might have on Lies of P's reception or sales going forward. The DRM was added almost immediately after the review embargo was lifted, and with some reviews still coming out, it's likely some might be swayed by this. Then again, it's not unusual for players and critics to have vastly differing opinions on a game, and the Lies of P demo did garner over a million downloads, so perhaps sales might not be affected as much as some might think.
Lies of P's standard edition is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Exputer