Cyberpunk 2077 has had the messiest and broken launch of any title this generation. The game barely manages to run on consoles, and even on high-end PCs, it suffers from severe performance issues and numerous game-breaking glitches.
So when a program was released a few days ago that claimed to boost the FPS of the game to 60 even on older computers without sacrificing any of its stunning graphics, it honestly seemed too good to be true.
And now it turns out that it probably is.
Cyberpunk 2077 EZ Optimizer Controversy Explained
The tool EZ Optimizer does in fact boost the performance of Cyberpunk 2077 on PCs, but there’s something else that the fine folks over on Reddit seem to have uncovered.
None of the changes that this program makes to the game’s settings is anything that could not be laid out in a simple step-by-step guide for users to do by themselves. But EZ Optimizer just makes these changes automatically, which honestly seems fair enough at first glance, except for the fact that this program also does a few other unnecessary things.
Apparently, the program writes data to a remote process, reads the active computer’s name and even the cryptographic machine’s GUID (Globally Unique Identifier). It even contacts 9 different domains and 10 different hosts.
Hybrid Analysis, a website that detects malware and analyzes unknown threats from programs, has also deemed EZ Optimizer as problematic.
When asked by a user on Twitter as to why this program couldn’t have been made open-source, to begin with, the creator of EZ Optimizer, CodeZ1LLa, gave a very unreasonable response. CodeZ1LLa said that someone could just repack the code with a virus of their own, and then that would spread through the internet under the name of EZ Optimizer.
Basically, their reasoning is that they don’t want their brand to get tainted.
As I explained before, the only reason why it's not open-source, is because someone will repuck it with a virus and the tool with my name will travel across the web, and then people will come to me to ask questions. No thank you.
— Codez1LLa❤️🖤 (@CodeZ1LLa) December 27, 2020
So what’s the consensus here?
Well, the program actually does what it’s supposed to do, but its other functions are a bit suspicious. So if you’re going to use EZ Optimizer for Cyberpunk 2077, do so at your own risk.
