A few days ago, I came across a piece of news that almost made me impulsively uninstall all the gaming platforms on my computer.
The upgraded anti-piracy Denuvo can now be used on DLCs!
I believe many players have a reaction similar to mine: “What the hell, why is there another Denuvo? Can’t we just enjoy playing games?”
The comment section of this news was filled with complaints…
Those criticizing Denuvo are not the pirates, but rather the legitimate players who have paid for the games, commonly referred to as legitimate victims.
Some friends might wonder why a technology designed to prevent piracy, which theoretically protects the interests of manufacturers and ensures the rights of legitimate players, ends up making legitimate players the victims?
First, let me introduce the widely despised Denuvo.
Denuvo (Denuvo Anti-Tamper) is an anti-tampering technology.
It uses a decompilation software to protect its code, while its own code is hidden in various corners of the game program to protect the DRM (Digital Rights Management) system, forming a triple protection system like a Russian nesting doll.
This explanation might be a bit abstract, so let’s use a simple example.
For instance, if we are staff at “Visual CN”, we often encounter people using our photos without paying licensing fees. To collect these fees without taking down the photos, we might encrypt them to prevent unauthorized use.
There are many encryption methods, such as watermarking the photos or prohibiting downloads.
Similarly, games also have methods like DRM.
Games with DRM technology not only send your device information to the server for verification each time you open the game, but some even require online verification. If the server is down or the verification fails, you cannot play the game.
Moreover, after adding DRM technology, you cannot copy the game to your hard drive to take it with you and play on other hardware anytime, anywhere.
Most game manufacturers feel that DRM alone is not secure enough and need an additional layer of protection to safeguard DRM.
The protection for DRM is Denuvo, which can protect the game’s source files and DRM-related modules from being modified, preventing attackers from bypassing DRM verification and thus preventing cracking.
Denuvo can send your PC’s hardware and operating system information to the server the first time you start the game to obtain a unique authentication key, which is stored locally.
Each time the game starts, Denuvo connects to the internet to check if the parameters generated by your computer match the key. Additionally, the game will perform multiple checks during gameplay. If any check fails, you will be kicked out of the game or the gameplay will change.
In other words, Denuvo sets up many obstacles, asking you “What are you doing?” every so often.
In “The Witcher 2”, when deemed a pirate,
the original witch was turned into an old lady ▼
Since Denuvo appeared in 2014, it has indeed protected game manufacturers’ sales to some extent.
A certain AAA sports game that did not use Denuvo was cracked on the day of release, and within two weeks, over 350,000 pirated downloads occurred, resulting in potential losses of over $20 million.
It is indeed quite effective, but the gaming experience for players is not good.
As players, we don’t care whether there is encryption; we only care about whether the game we paid for is fun and provides a good experience.
Denuvo has confidently claimed that “Denuvo has no impact on the gaming experience“, but reality has proven otherwise.
A typical example is “Resident Evil 8: Village”.
Many players on the PC platform encountered intermittent frame drops and stuttering issues. When you pick up a weapon to fight monsters, the game’s frame rate fluctuates dramatically, while the console version does not have similar issues.
Legitimate (left), cracked (right) ▼
Capcom remained silent for a long time.
Until the cracked version appeared, and seeing the media and players giving negative reviews, Capcom finally updated the Steam version, claiming to have optimized the anti-tampering.
If the cracked version of “Resident Evil 8” is so smooth, it’s because the cracking team optimized the game during the process. Let me show you some solid evidence.
Previously, GameDebate tested “DOOM 4”.
They verified the performance of the game with and without Denuvo at 1080p and 1440p resolutions using the same configuration and game settings.
At 1440p resolution, the frame rate difference was minimal, but at 1080p, there were significant frame drops.
In addition to frame drops, Denuvo also consumes CPU resources, causing your computer to overheat.
Because besides verifying the legitimacy during login, it also continuously probes you while you play, imposing a significant overhead on the CPU.
While Denuvo does not significantly affect GPU-dependent games, a slightly weaker CPU might lead to a blue screen.
Moreover, the frustrating part is that these verifications cannot be done offline; they must be done online, sending data to the Denuvo server.
Here’s a joke: a single-player game still requires real-time internet connection.
This feature has even led to extreme situations. At the end of last year, many games, such as “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”, “Yakuza 7”, “P4G”, “Football Manager 2022”, and “Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy”, could not start normally.
The culprit behind this was a Denuvo server outage, which made it inaccessible.
Seeing that many games were affected by Denuvo, Denuvo quietly changed its statement on its website from “no impact” to “minimal perceived impact”…If the impact is significant, it’s your perception problem.
Game manufacturers are certainly aware of the backlash against Denuvo, and since Denuvo is not free, requiring payment based on sales or annually, most game companies will remove it after a period following the game’s release.
Some manufacturers have directly accepted player feedback and have not included Denuvo from the start.
Before the release of “Humankind”, a true fan expressed on its developer forum that he would not purchase the game at launch, because Denuvo would cause performance issues, security issues, and prevent offline play.
He understood why developers needed to use Denuvo, but at least until the official removal of Denuvo, he did not want to buy the game.
The game director did not play dumb; he believed that while subsequent optimizations could reduce the impact of Denuvo, they could not completely eliminate the negative effects.
To provide players with the best experience, the official decided to permanently remove Denuvo.
Denuvo, which has been disliked by players and gradually abandoned by some manufacturers, should normally be phased out.
However, it has not only not disappeared but has also received an updated version, which is truly incomprehensible…
GameDebate Data:
In 2021, 22 games used Denuvo ▼
Although this time the target is DLC, the logic used is the same as Denuvo, requiring real-time internet connection.
This means that various frustrating situations for legitimate players will still occur.
And although it is said to prevent piracy, it cannot completely stop it; it can only try to preserve initial sales. If the cracking team is “efficient”, they can provide a cracked version on the day of release, making the encryption quite meaningless.
Perhaps Denuvo has not yet affected you, but developers always hold the key, which only prevents the honest and not the dishonest.
Game manufacturers need to make money, and preventing piracy is understandable, but we hope they do not let Denuvo diminish the gaming experience.
Let’s not be forced to look for “learning versions” and end up buying legitimate copies only to play pirated ones.
Written by:Firefly Editor: Mianxian
Image and data sources:
Yunyouji – Legitimate players are finally not victims! The developer of “Humankind” announces the permanent removal of Denuvo
YouTube: Digital Foundry – Resident Evil Village PC DRM: Cracked Code Really Does Run Better – Confirmed
GameDebate: Denuvo PC Performance Impact Tested – DOOM Benchmarks With and Without Denuvo DRM
Irdeto Official Website
