As always, DRM continues to be a controversial subject in the realm of PC gaming. We recently saw GOG take a rather vocal stance against competitors that use DRM. Denuvo, the largest source of ire in regards to the situation, had an interview with media site gamesindustry.biz at this year's Gamescom. Elmar Fischer, the sales director at Denuvo made some statements, reflecting on the past issues that the company had in 2017, and admitting that there's really no "uncrackable" PC game in the industry, as there will always be people there to crack the DRM of games.

According to the interview, the main goal of implementing Denuvo is to secure launch sales for a given title. Even if only a small percentage of those who pirate the game would have purchased it if it wasn't cracked, Fischer says it's still worth it, in terms of sale revenue. Lucas Catranis, director of piracy management at Iredeto, Denuvo's parent company, says it's difficult to gauge how many people actually buy the games when there's no other option, as he monitors r/crackwatch to keep updated on the pirate situation.

Our goal, and it's still the goal, is to protect initial sales. Of course we would like to have it uncracked forever, but that just doesn't happen in the games industry.

It's a really tough one for us to answer straight," says Fischer. "For the games we protect, I think we have a huge impact, especially if we secure the initial sales window then we see a dramatic on the game and also the revenue when you compare it to other games that have been cracked immediately, but for the industry as a whole, it's very tough to answer.

Denuvo's effect on the industry has seen AAA games take far longer to crack as opposed to games with little to no anti-piracy protection. This isn't always the case, however, with some games like Resident Evil 7, and Final Fantasy XV being cracked near instantly after release. A positive effect could be argued for more niche games that lasted longer against cracks and managing to sell well, like Nier: Automata and Injustice 2.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

 

[Ericthegreat]

?

It's a joke, a lot of people on there are like "hackers go die" and they celebrate when a new update is out.

 

[Jayro]

Cool and all, but it does not change the fact that Denuvo is 99,9% of time is like a tumor crippling player's experience even for the best of the games. Repair your shit, then claim that it helps with initials sales or whatever.

I have a legit copy of DOOM 2016, which uses Denuvo... And it doesn't hinder my game in the slightest... I don't even know it's there or running.

 

[kevin corms]

I have a legit copy of DOOM 2016, which uses Denuvo... And it doesn't hinder my game in the slightest... I don't even know it's there or running.

Didnt they remove it?

 

[Jayro]

Didnt they remove it?

No idea, but it never hindered me in the slightest.

 

[kingfrost]

It's a joke, a lot of people on there are like "hackers go die" and they celebrate when a new update is out.

Yes they really get upset when you disagree with something Nintendo does too. Like if Nintendo told them to kill their first born we would see it on the news the next day.

Also computers all have different specs so just because you've decided that this DRM didn't hinder your single machine out of the billions of computers doesn't make it false for everyone else "kids".

 

[zeveroth]

He's so good at cracking denuvo it's stupid. Codex and others take a month atleast. He takes major shit down in less than two weeks.

Sometimes crackers will wait a bit longer because they don't mind letting the companies make a few bux before the crack. I agree tho that DRM is the bane of gaming existence right now. I remember that days when you have to wait 2 weeks to download the cracked game on our crappy dial-up .k-lite and such. Once I found no steam, it was over though .lol

 

[Jayro]

Sometimes crackers will wait a bit longer because they don't mind letting the companies make a few bux before the crack. I agree tho that DRM is the bane of gaming existence right now. I remember that days when you have to wait 2 weeks to download the cracked game on our crappy dial-up .k-lite and such. Once I found no steam, it was over though .lol

There are some games that aren't distributed digitally anymore, like Alan Wake and Blur, both for PC. So I have no other option than to pirate the games I can't buy legitimately. (I mean, if anyone has an unused Steam key for Blur that I can redeem, I'll happily buy it from you.)

 

[kevin corms]

There are some games that aren't distributed digitally anymore, like Alan Wake and Blur, both for PC. So I have no other option than to pirate the games I can't buy legitimately. (I mean, if anyone has an unused Steam key for Blur that I can redeem, I'll happily buy it from you.)

I actually have both of those games and I think they are both actually quite fantastic. I wish blur did better, a new version with better graphics would be amazing.

 

[hamohamo]

Sometimes crackers will wait a bit longer because they don't mind letting the companies make a few bux before the crack. I agree tho that DRM is the bane of gaming existence right now. I remember that days when you have to wait 2 weeks to download the cracked game on our crappy dial-up .k-lite and such. Once I found no steam, it was over though .lol

No steam got like 5 games total lmao. Plus it's not trustworthy. Use igggames and their torrent site for your safety.

 

[Pluupy]

Shitty PR tactic.

 

[gamesquest1]

I would be happy for devs to take the middle ground and remove excessive DRM after a specific time period or once the game has already been cracked

 

[Youkai]

Does Denuvo have any performance impact on MH World? I have the game, but my a PC is a few years old now, so I just play woth really low settings.

I don't think it has problems because of denuvo ... biggest problem is bad code.
Seems that the gane allways thinks you have 32 cores and therefore has the worst possible cpu management (many ppl with high end gpu were complaining as the game hardly needs a good gpu to run at all but needs a highend cpu xD)

Some modder who made some fixes said he doesn't know if the bad code checking for modification is from denuvo or crapcom though

 

[kevin corms]

I don't think it has problems because of denuvo ... biggest problem is bad code.
Seems that the gane allways thinks you have 32 cores and therefore has the worst possible cpu management (many ppl with high end gpu were complaining as the game hardly needs a good gpu to run at all but needs a highend cpu xD)

Some modder who made some fixes said he doesn't know if the bad code checking for modification is from denuvo or crapcom though

Its actually more gpu bound, but its designed to feel smooth at even variable frame rates. It runs unlocked on consoles, dips under 30 on ps4 and only runs around 40 fps 1080p even on the xbox one x. My advice is to just turn fraps off for goodness sake. I ran it fine on a i5 4460, most people would have something at least that good or better by now I would imagine.

 

[Burlsol]

DRM is the justice that the piracy community deserves. DRM like Denuvo has so many downsides and we can all sympathize for customers who pay the price in full but at the same time we shouldn't be blind to the cause of it all, people who pirate games.

If there was no need for DRM then it wouldn't exist in the first place.

Not so. Companies who make DRM would still try to convince gaming companies of the need to include their software as a way to 'ensure sales'. Nevermind the fact that even 100% free games still get cracked/pirated.

If companies really wanted to ensure better sales, they would save the money they spend on DRM and focus on customer support and online incentives for genuine users. This would encourage more sales since there would be; fewer people upset about the inclusion of (usually malicious) DRM, more incentive to buy the game instead of pirate it since you wouldn't have access to the same goodies/functions, and generally have a happier customer base.

 

[kevin corms]

Not so. Companies who make DRM would still try to convince gaming companies of the need to include their software as a way to 'ensure sales'. Nevermind the fact that even 100% free games still get cracked/pirated.

If companies really wanted to ensure better sales, they would save the money they spend on DRM and focus on customer support and online incentives for genuine users. This would encourage more sales since there would be; fewer people upset about the inclusion of (usually malicious) DRM, more incentive to buy the game instead of pirate it since you wouldn't have access to the same goodies/functions, and generally have a happier customer base.

Shareholders arent convinced.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

I would have no complaint against DENUVO if it were removed after the initial sales period or after the game was cracked. Whichever comes first.

 

[Argonitious]

I don't get why companies are so desperate to avoid the inevitable. All of the honest people will buy the games. The dishonest ones will not. You can't force them to buy games. It's as simple as that.

Besides, DRM can cause huge issues. Here are some examples.

• Trackmania Sunrise (I doubt anybody here has heard of it) had a DRM system called StarForce. It worked fine on Windows XP, but it rendered the game unplayable on Windows 7 and up. It wasn't until 2010 (years later) that anybody figured out how to deal with the DRM to make it playable on Windows 7 or newer.

• Assassin's Creed Origins, which has BOTH Denuvo and VMProtect DRM. Denuvo has an unnoticeable performance impact in this particular game (in theory). The main problem is VMProtect, which runs the game in a virtual environment and easily drops performance by almost 50%.

• RiME had Denuvo DRM until the developers removed it in July 2017. Guess what? The game performed a lot better when the DRM got removed. Rime still performs badly because it is poorly optimized, but it was at least tolerable after the DRM was removed. I don't know why Denuvo hurt performance so badly in this game, when it isn't much of a problem for other games.

Seriously, DRM is evil.

 

[kevin corms]

I don't get why companies are so desperate to avoid the inevitable. All of the honest people will buy the games. The dishonest ones will not. You can't force them to buy games. It's as simple as that.

Besides, DRM can cause huge issues. Here are some examples.

• Trackmania Sunrise (I doubt anybody here has heard of it) had a DRM system called StarForce. It worked fine on Windows XP, but it rendered the game unplayable on Windows 7 and up. It wasn't until 2010 (years later) that anybody figured out how to deal with the DRM to make it playable on Windows 7 or newer.

• Assassin's Creed Origins, which has BOTH Denuvo and VMProtect DRM. Denuvo has an unnoticeable performance impact in this particular game (in theory). The main problem is VMProtect, which runs the game in a virtual environment and easily drops performance by almost 50%.

• RiME had Denuvo DRM until the developers removed it in July 2017. Guess what? The game performed a lot better when the DRM got removed. Rime still performs badly because it is poorly optimized, but it was at least tolerable after the DRM was removed. I don't know why Denuvo hurt performance so badly in this game, when it isn't much of a problem for other games.

Seriously, DRM is evil.

Almost every version of Denuvo uses VMProtect and I doubt it reduces performance of Ass Creed by 50%, heres where it gets funny though. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...sing-unlicensed-software-antipiracy-drm.shtml

I think the heavy cpu load in ass creed has more to do with the insane amount of draw calls and of course driver overhead. Also keep in mind the game is scalable and most people complaining maxed the settings instead of just playing at high which nearly looks the same.