Developer Techland apparently doesn’t like gamers modifying its latest zombie smash-fest Dying Light, and has issued a patch that prevents them from doing exactly that.

Dying Light’s first PC patch – released on Friday – introduced an anti-cheating mechanism that prevents the game’s files from being modified in any way, but it also stops modders from changing anything they don’t like.

That’s a blow for anyone who didn’t appreciate the film grain filter Techland used to make the game look more cinematic, and who downloaded a mod that removed it.

According to Reddit the studio issued takedown notices to media sites that host modifications for the game. That’s quite a heavy-handed use of copyright law to stop people from changing the game according to their whims, something that has worked well for other games.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, for instance, is still selling even today despite being nearly four years old, thanks to its thriving mod community that has added everything from new weapons and armour to entirely new areas and massive visual overhauls.

Ironically, Techland’s first foray into the open world zombie apocalypse genre, Dead Island, remained on gamers’ radars more because of its moddability than its story or combat, so it’s puzzling as to why Techland would actively undermine Dying Light’s mod-friendliness.

But gamers aren’t stupid, and many are apparently still playing Dying Light v1.2.0 (the new patch is v1.2.1), liklely because it could be modded, much to Techland’s chagrin.

The company put out a statement on their Facebook page saying “We’ve seen some players could be missing out on the full experience by playing the unpatched version despite a patch being available on launch”.

Even though the patch addresses a number of issues – graphics optimisations among them that improve performance – it would appear gamers would rather play the game their own way. We’ve asked Techland for official comment on the matter, and will update when/if we hear anything back.

The only way anyone in SA is playing the game is if they bought it via digital channels, as physical copies on all platforms are, sadly, still only getting here in late February.

[Source – Reddit, Techland FB page]