Bethesda Does Denuvo Backwards: Puts The DRM On Game Released A Year Ago
from the it's-baaaack dept
It’s been quite some time since we’ve talked about Denuvo and its once-vaunted anti-piracy DRM for video games. If I’m being totally honest, I had thought that part of the company’s business was simply gone, so poorly did the DRM perform. By the end, cracking groups were getting around Denuvo-protected games in days, sometimes a single day, and even sometimes in a matter of hours. If a DRM can be defeated in hours, what’s the point of it?
Well, the answer from some was that the DRM at least offered some protection in the critical first-release window of a video game. The idea is that with a massive percentage of a game’s sales occurring within the first days and weeks of release, the protection offered within that window was worth the cost of the DRM. I’d argue that’s idiotic for a variety of reasons, but there is at least some logic to it. If you’re Bethesda, though, apparently you layer Denuvo onto a game that was released a year ago.
Bethesda Softworks has just quietly added Denuvo protections to Ghostwire Tokyo, a game that was quickly cracked after its Denuvo-free release just over a year ago. The late addition was confirmed by DSOGaming, which says it triggered the new Denuvo protections in the game’s latest Steam update by simulating frequent changes in the CPU. While fresh Denuvo protection seems unlikely to impact piracy for the long-cracked title, it could serve as a shield for new DLC and expansion content.
It doesn’t appear, however, that buying DLC is what will trigger the addition of Denuvo. Those who play the game are going to be getting it regardless. Which, frankly, is pretty shitty. Customers bought the game without Denuvo and now, after a year, they’re suddenly going to have DRM added to what they already purchased? DRM with a reputation for causing major performance issues.
Piracy issues aside, Denuvo has received widespread criticism for allegedly hurting performance when compared to unprotected versions of the same game. Ars’ testing found those allegations weren’t true for Warner Bros.’ Arkham Knight, but Digital Foundry found Denuvo caused some minor CPU-based slowdown in Devil May Cry 5.
So, will Denuvo help protect all this DLC and expansion content for Ghostwire? I doubt it, given how quickly Denuvo has tended to be defeated since roughly 2020. But, hey, maybe Bethesda can at least get its money worth by pissing off its own customers in doing all this, right?
Filed Under: denuvo, drm, ghostwire tokyo, video games
Companies: bethesda