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Denuvo, the infamous company on which game developers rely on to implement DRM to almost every new release nowadays, to varying degrees of performance issues and even worse user experiences, has announced today that their protection technologies are now available and accessible as an authorized Nintendo Switch "middleware" in the Nintendo Developer Portal (NDP).

This means that now developers working on Nintendo Switch titles or ports now have the accessibility and option to add Denuvo's anti-piracy protection, which they titled "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection". Their goal is to disallow any new game release from running in Nintendo Switch emulators, although this remains yet to be seen and properly tested from the end-user perspective. It is currently unknown how they would check between an emulator and real-hardware, but we can be sure that the current emulator developers (be it Yuzu or Ryujinx) will catch unto it and go into details about it when they find a game that uses it.

Denuvo released a following statement regarding Nintendo Switch games that are released as multi-platform and their emulation on day one in comparison with other consoles/PC:

Even if a game is protected against piracy on its PC version, the version released on Nintendo Switch can be emulated from day one and played on PC, therefore bypassing the strong protections offered on the PC version. This can happen with any of the numerous games available on Nintendo Switch.

By blocking unauthorized emulations on PC, studios are able to increase their revenue during the game launch window, which is the most important period for monetization. The Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection will ensure that anyone wishing to play the game has to buy a legitimate copy.

Alongside this statement, Denuvo claims that "the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the gaming experience", but given almost every release that uses it and comparisons in performance between before and after the removal of Denuvo's DRM from known games, it's doubtful that this will be the case. To close it up, the CEO of Irdeto, Doug Lowther, said the following:

As gamers, we know first-hand how piracy negatively affects the gaming industry. We’re thrilled to be part of the Nintendo Developers Portal, so that we can provide the latest technologies to help fight this issue for Nintendo Switch players and developers.

We witness an increasing need to protect against emulation on PC from game launch, our solution is a must have for publishers to monetize the games fairly on this platform and also not impact PC game sales.

Additionally, it remains to be seen just how this would affect gamer that don't connect their Nintendo Switch to the internet, or only use it for handheld gaming with no internet connection, given how the DRM is known to do its checks with a connection to the internet, as having a hybrid console this means that the system wouldn't always have an internet connection available.

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[64bitmodels]

Denuvo more like DenuNO.

 

[Bladexdsl]

expect all switch games using it to run 20% slower now as if they weren't slow enough!

 

[Ducolamia]

Switch games about to run at 15 fps! Let's GOOOOOOOOO!!!

In all seriousness, considering how first-party games already run, this would be such a terrible idea. LMAO.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Damn did they use AI for the Twitter post?

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It looks fucking awful. Just look at the left arm of the character on the bottom right, holy hell.
Also, who in their goddamn logical mind would even dare to implement a performance-impacting DRM into a device that's already known to have performance issues for games released on it? Hell even Nintendo's own AAA IP's suffer from drops to the 20 fps, ffs.

 

[EthanB]

I dont see this being implemented on many games if any at all. I guess one silver lining with it is that more people will start cracking denuvo so that we don't have to rely on Empress considering she's a bit mental.

 

[ShadowOne333]

I dont see this being implemented on many games if any at all. I guess one silver lining with it is that more people will start cracking denuvo so that we don't have to rely on Empress considering she's a bit mental.

Amen to that, though I wouldn't diminish it by saying "a bit".

 

[dragonblood9999]

I hope they aren't adding it to pikemon scarlet and violet.

 

[SkittleDash]

Wow. Can't believe we've reached a point where console games will need to be cracked too.

 

[PabloMK7]

This is pointless. An emulator gives all the tools for a dedicated hacker to find what's not being properly emulated and easily replicate how real hardware would work, making the DRM unable to distinguish between a real console and an emulator.

 

[gohan123]

I doubt this will be used to counter cfw switches. propably only to detect if it's running on an emulator.

edit: I should have first read the article ...

 

[Newwaverap]

Amazing! Super fast timing too, since the switch just released and has at least 5 years before a successor.

 

[James_]

Imagine being such a dogshit company that you decide to generate and use AI artwork made from stolen assets to promote your terrible product that '''prevents''' '''stealing'''. The irony.

 

[JeepX87]

I don't think that Nintendo will use this in first party games but some third party companies will use this.

If hackers are able to break and destroy the Denuvo to make DRM worthless, so it is no good to use.

 

[ciaomao]

Wow. Can't believe we've reached a point where console games will need to be cracked too.

Remember Rare. some N64 games took years to get a 100% crack

 

[Dax_Fame]

What an absolute waste of time. This won't stop anyone.

Crazy idea, maybe focus on making games people will want to buy.

Those looking to pirate will still pirate and the exact same goes for those wanting to buy it. Maybe they'll have to wait a few days but no one who pirates says "aw shucks, guess I'll go buy it!" Because they can't play it day one. The number of minds that will be changed is a fraction of a fraction......... Of zero

Once again, something that will only negatively impact the customers.

 

[Ryab]

expect all switch games using it to run 20% slower now as if they weren't slow enough!

I already don't like DRM. But I especially hate Denuvo for this specific reason.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

denuvo.xci when? Or is it better to wait for the denuvo.nsp?

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

Amazing! Super fast timing too, since the switch just released and has at least 5 years before a successor.

Since the successor will use the same base os and sdk, this is probably a test run for that.

 

[The Catboy]

Time for Switch games to run even worse than before!