Lies of P, the video game adaptation of Pinocchio, is almost here, but that didn’t stop the developers from making a controversial last-minute change.

At the time of writing, Lies of P has only just been released, but that hasn’t stopped Neowiz Games and Round8 from adding the controversial Denuvo DRM just before launch. There are mods in Lies of P that are likely to 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”. In it, we see the now-human Pinocchio (codenamed P) wandering the mechanoid-infested city of Krat, fighting various mechanical puppets and navigating the open-ended story towards one of three endings thanks to the lie system. Like many big-name titles, Lies of P was released in two separate editions, one of which was launched early, and the game received a mostly positive reception through Early Access.

As reported by Exputer, Lies of P was supplemented with Denuvo DRM a few days before release in an attempt to discourage piracy attempts by players. The software was added on September 15 to coincide with the release of the Lies of P Deluxe Edition, and the developers had previously made no mention of the addition, which surprised many excited gamers. Similarly, neither Neowiz nor Round8 have released any official statement on the matter.

Denuvo DRM is a very popular anti-piracy software brand that has appeared in several big-name titles and even entire game brands. It is also quite controversial, and not without reason. Several AAA games have been negatively affected by its introduction, suffering optimization and performance problems because of it. For PC games, many players have reported difficulties downloading mods for games that include it. Given that modding is a very popular feature in PC games, and is often the reason why some players prefer a particular version of the multi-platform edition, this is a huge drawback.

It is currently unclear what impact this surprising addition may have on the reception or sales of Lies of P in the future. The DRM was added almost immediately after the critical embargo was lifted, and with reviews still coming in, it is likely that this may affect some. On the other hand, it is not unusual for players and critics to have very different opinions of a game, and the Lies of P demo has had over a million downloads, so perhaps sales are not as affected as some might think.

The base edition of Lies of P is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

Source: GameRant