Cost of Denuvo

[Spirit Macardi]

So we all know this game has everyone's favorite WEF affiliated DRM, but what exactly is the price of it to Atlus themselves?

As has been revealed, Denuvo has a flat fee for the first year, and then a per month cost after that. The per month cost is 2,000 British pounds, which when converted to USD is about $2,489.30. As Persona 4 Golden is well beyond the firs year of Denuvo's use, this can be assumed to be the per month cost to them.

Now, the game itself varies in price according to region and according to sales, but let's be charitable and say every new copy is selling for the default US price of $19.99. Steam then takes a cut of each sale, which ranges between 30% to 20% depending on total volume, but let's again be charitable and assume P4G is getting the 20% rate. This would equal about $4 taken from each sale, equaling $15.99 in net profit... Again being charitable and not factoring in taxes paid on the profits and things like continued costs from maintaining and patching the game.

Next is where things get tricky, because there's no way to get sales figures per month. However, using Steam Charts, we can see the number of players each month. Currently the monthly peak is about 2,000 players. Again, being EXTREMELY charitable, let's assume each of those 2,000 is a brand new purchaser, which is ridiculous considering this is a very long RPG which could easily take several months of casual play to complete. However, going by the above numbers that would mean $31,980 in monthly profit before Denuvo's fees, which will take away 7.78% of that using the above figures. Pretty good, right? Nothing they can't afford. Well, let's look at the alternative:

Now, finding details on how much profit is lost to piracy is tricky, especially since there's not even proof people who pirate would have ever purchased legit copies. The best estimate I can find for lost sales though is 4.1%... Over a product's LIFETIME!

See what this means? Atlus is losing more money month-to-month on Denuvo's continued license fees than they would to piracy... Or they would, if they also weren't losing to piracy because this game has long been cracked! Even using all my insanely charitable assumptions about their sales and profits, Atlus is still losing more to Denuvo's snake-oil than they would if they axed DRM entirely.

Even if you're okay with Denuvo, do you really want Atlus spending all that money on a glorified placebo that they could be spending on things like development and localization? I sure as hell don't!

[ZiffyHead]

My uncle used to say, "Locks are just there to keep the "honest people", honest.".

DRM is the digital equivalent.

The pirates will pirate no matter what you do, but honest people that might otherwise be tempted to, won't.

[Spirit Macardi]

Difference is that you don't have to pay repeatedly for a lock, and the cost isn't going to one day be greater than the value of what it's protecting.

A lock also can't revoke the ownership rights of someone else that you do business with.

[Artur]

I don't mind if they use Denuvo to protect initial sales but leaving it in the game for 3 years straight is just ridiculous and doesn't make much sense to me.

[Arifufu]

Tbh i don't care, i don't pay Denuvo subs, i will refuse buy any future game if player pays the denuvo, but as long as i as player don't pay additional subs i will keep playing this game and buy games that interest me even it has denuvo, also i was bought this game on sale, so i have no complain about Denuvo, my internet also fine.