Reason for ridiculous price: Denuvo

[hypercybermegatron]

Let's cut to the chase.

Using Denuvo is expensive.

Sega has passed this cost onto the customer.

How expensive exactly?
https://www.techpowerup.com/275158/denuvo-drm-pricing-structure-specific-to-crysis-remastered-leaked-over-usd-100k-for-a-year

[Nighty]

Denuvo is just very anti consumer in general, so this doesn't surprise me. It's been stated so many times with various points as to why but it still baffles me that Sega Insists using it for 4 remastered games from the 90's.

[Rings]

Remuvo Denuvo.

[Sifer2]

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost. You guys might as well accept it or commit to never buying games until a year later when it's removed. The reason they use it is simple, and it's because the first few weeks of games sales are the bulk of them, and if piracy can be delayed for even one day it's actually worth it to their bottom line.

[Rings]

Originally posted by Sifer2:

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost. You guys might as well accept it or commit to never buying games until a year later when it's removed. The reason they use it is simple, and it's because the first few weeks of games sales are the bulk of them, and if piracy can be delayed for even one day it's actually worth it to their bottom line.

If that were the reason, they'd remove denuvo after the first few weeks. Yet sonic forces and team sonic racing still have it.

[hypercybermegatron]

Originally posted by Sifer2:

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost. You guys might as well accept it or commit to never buying games until a year later when it's removed. The reason they use it is simple, and it's because the first few weeks of games sales are the bulk of them, and if piracy can be delayed for even one day it's actually worth it to their bottom line.

You make a valid point regarding initial sales.

However, it would be interesting to know how many potential sales were lost due to the inclusion of Denuvo and how this compares to sales including Denuvo offset by the cost to the publisher to include it.

It would be a good research project.

The problem here is the winner isn't the publisher, it's Denuvo. Steam's excellent ecosystem hit the right formula for providing a service to gamers and making its platform lucrative to publishers without the need to inconvenience customers with additional DRM measures.

Furthermore, Steam success meant that piracy had measurable declined over the years.

The effect Denuvo has on PC gaming is actually an increase in hacking games and piracy because Denuvo have energized hackers with a cause. This creates a snowball effect, especially if scenes grow and groups try and outdo each other to be the first to claim success in beating the DRM.

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by Sifer2:

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost.

Elden Ring says otherwise.

[hypercybermegatron]

Originally posted by NBOX21:

Originally posted by Sifer2:

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost.

Elden Ring says otherwise.

+1

I can only speculate, but if ER did have Denuvo it wouldn't have sold as well as it has on PC.

[Grand Captain Speedy Dash]

Originally posted by Sifer2:

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost. You guys might as well accept it or commit to never buying games until a year later when it's removed. The reason they use it is simple, and it's because the first few weeks of games sales are the bulk of them, and if piracy can be delayed for even one day it's actually worth it to their bottom line.

Actually I believe were past the top of the mountain and Denuvo inclusion overall is on the decline, it's just the slower or stupid companies that shove it in everything.

[lukaself]

Originally posted by Sifer2:

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost.

Numbers tell a different story. Most game makers do care or its adoption rate would not keep on dwindling year after year. Despite explosive growth of the video-game market, Denuvo users are actually the shrinking minority in this industry. For perspective, Steam releases about ten thousand games a year, with around 200 of them being AAA.

Denuvo's adoption rate:
2017: 47 games
2018: 44 games
2019: 33 games
2020: 26 games
2021: 23 games
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Denuvo#List_of_games_using_Denuvo_Anti-Tamper

[hypercybermegatron]

Originally posted by lukaself:

Originally posted by Sifer2:

The battle to stop Denuvo from being standard issue in all new games releases that come from big publishers on PC has been lost.

Numbers tell a different story. Most game makers do care or its adoption rate would not keep on dwindling year after year. Despite explosive growth of the video-game market, Denuvo users are actually the shrinking minority in this industry.
For reminder:
2017: 47 games
2018: 44 games
2019: 33 games
2020: 26 games
2021: 23 games
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Denuvo#List_of_games_using_Denuvo_Anti-Tamper

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that. Proof that confidence in Denuvo is at an all time low with publishers.

So at the very least for 2021 if Denuvo is are charging publishers ~125k euros for at least 6 months this would translate to at least $3,4M USD profit for 23 games, and not taking into account long tail revenue beyond that.

According to this info, DENUVO GmbH has 29 employees and generates $5.57 million in sales (USD) annually.

https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.denuvo_gmbh.7138a774cfe72b083fdf241fb0bb3806.html

This is a much smaller company than I expected.

How many of those people are actually working on writing secure code to try and prevent hackers? From a sheer numbers point of view, it's total lunacy to expect Denuvo to be a miracle cure to prevent hackers cracking games. I'm glad publishers are starting to wake up to themselves, but who knows, maybe something even worse will come along and rile us up with DRM madness?

The years vs number of Denuvo games list shows quite clearly that Denuvo is on the downward trend.

In the eyes of Denuvo, they have a vested interest to fuel piracy; it's their bread and butter. By fuelling piracy, I mean issuing a challenge to hackers. Saying "our software is hack proof" is essentially painting a giant bullseye on their arse. They desperately want the gaming industry to be paranoid about pirates to justify their own existence but Valve successfully beat PC piracy a while a go. There are just way too many advantages of Steam and I dare say competitor store fronts that just can't be fulfilled by pirating games.

There is no question that Denuvo is on the nose with PC gamers, but I expect that it doesn't have long to go and will probably re-brand or something because of the visceral, nonetheless justifiable hatred people have towards it.

[Sidon Cryerd]

eu queria muito a remoção do denuvo pra comprar o jogo.

[GamerXT]

Piracy is still an obvious issue on PC, with sales for many games generally being higher on consoles, simple as that. And if it wasnt Denuvo, then would probably be something else, and if not something else, then many games would either take longer to be ported or not at all.

Although Iam sure many wouldnt give a damn if that where true, as long as they can still play TF2 or CSGO, right ? lol...

[Mumrah]

I use Denuvo to deter me from buying games. By the time it is removed, the game is on sale.

[hypercybermegatron]

Originally posted by Mumrah:

I use Denuvo to deter me from buying games. By the time it is removed, the game is on sale.

Yeah Denuvo has actually save me money in thist vast ocean of games to choose from, so not completely useless.

[hypercybermegatron]

Originally posted by gamerXT3:

Piracy is still an obvious issue on PC, with sales for many games generally being higher on consoles, simple as that. And if it wasnt Denuvo, then would probably be something else, and if not something else, then many games would either take longer to be ported or not at all.

Although Iam sure many wouldnt give a damn if that where true, as long as they can still play TF2 or CSGO, right ? lol...

Elden Ring on PC outsold the game on PS4 and PS5 combined. No Denuvo, which probably helped massively boost sales.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/elden-ring/sales-worldwide