Will Denuvo finally be removed?

[Creeper of Doom]

Denuvo has caused alot of issues on my end for Hi-Fi Rush, especially on the Steam Deck. it makes the performance drop no matter what my settings are, Trying to play offline is super duper frustrating, and also it makes the battery drain fast. Doom Eternal just had Denuvo removed and Starfield launched without it, They are both Bethesda titles and same goes for Hi-Fi Rush.

3/21/24 Update: Its STILL not removed, all these patches later... The main reason i despise Denuvo and want it gone is because of offline play, more than 90% of my Hi-Fi Rush playtime was on Steam Deck, So many times i tried to play offline and i couldn't because apparently i have to activate my single player game every few weeks. I ended up just uninstalling it because i CANNOT deal with it

8/12/24 Update: It STILL is not removed! Even with Tango being closed down by Microsoft it wasn’t gone posing the risk of it being one day inaccessible and delisted. Tango was recently purchased by a company named KRAFTON assuring they aren’t gone, will Denuvo finally be removed? let us see…

[Leo]

Very dissapointing that so many companies still use this trash. I only have this game now because of the newest humble bundle monthly choice.

[min3r95]

Grifta님이 먼저 게시:

Sonova... I didn't realise it had this snake oil cancer.

Well, I won't blame you, since I don't think no one would ever think a game like this, selling for 30$, would ever have Denuvo.

[Cyber Akuma]

min3r95님이 먼저 게시:

Grifta님이 먼저 게시:

Sonova... I didn't realise it had this snake oil cancer.

Well, I won't blame you, since I don't think no one would ever think a game like this, selling for 30$, would ever have Denuvo.

Don't forget that S-E put Denuvo on Captain Spirit, a FREE GAME.

[Grifta]

Cyber Akuma님이 먼저 게시:

min3r95님이 먼저 게시:

Well, I won't blame you, since I don't think no one would ever think a game like this, selling for 30$, would ever have Denuvo.

Don't forget that S-E put Denuvo on Captain Spirit, a FREE GAME.

Well that screams of contractual obligation.

Also, Steam Deck verified, but you can't play it while travelling because of Denuvo so what's the point?

[Tintler]

Since the developer studio shutdown.
When Denuvo servers shutdown there will be no one to patch this game and remove Denuvo.
I'm glad I didn't buy it and play it on Gamepass.
All Steam users will lose access to this game in future.

[Abbe]

Tintler님이 먼저 게시:

Since the developer studio shutdown.
When Denuvo servers shutdown there will be no one to patch this game and remove Denuvo.
I'm glad I didn't buy it and play it on Gamepass.
All Steam users will lose access to this game in future.

Microsoft has a denuvo free exe stored on their internal servers which they will "update" the game with in the future like all other studios who use denuvo, we've seen it before how the unprotected exe has leaked in the past by "mistake" so while it sucks we have to use denuvo to play now the game will not be lost to time and that is fact.

[Grifta]

Abbe님이 먼저 게시:

Tintler님이 먼저 게시:

Since the developer studio shutdown.
When Denuvo servers shutdown there will be no one to patch this game and remove Denuvo.
I'm glad I didn't buy it and play it on Gamepass.
All Steam users will lose access to this game in future.

Microsoft has a denuvo free exe stored on their internal servers which they will "update" the game with in the future like all other studios who use denuvo, we've seen it before how the unprotected exe has leaked in the past by "mistake" so while it sucks we have to use denuvo to play now the game will not be lost to time and that is fact.

Just so we're clear, is your message:
Don't worry because if Denuvo poops the bed then we can rely on a theoretical employee of a closed studio to distribute a theoretical exe that we can download from ?a torrent site? and then jam into our copies on Steam?

[Cyber Akuma]

While the idea that someone will likely leak it is just silly, of course Bethesda has DRM-free EXEs, do you think they go through the trouble to put it on all of their dev and debug and testing builds that are never meant to leave their internal servers?

As for being removed, it seems likely due to what appears to be Denuvo switching to a licensing system where it would have to be renewed.

I don't have any documentation of how Denuvo licensing works, but going by the behavior of how games have/have not removed it over the years it seems very likely.

It seems like before, Denuvo used to have a license where you had to pay to apply it, but then you could just keep it on there, and you had to pay again for every re-application. Maybe there was some sort of grace period where it's free to handle launch-day patches. There are many games which have had it for several years now and never removed it... unless those old games get a patch for any reason. Final Fantasy 15 and 12 are a good example. Both launched years ago, both with Denuvo. FF15 still has it to this day, it was also more or less abandoned with further planned DLC being cancelled and no more updates. Final Fantasy 12 had it for years too.... then it was announced for the Switch. While releasing it on the Switch they went back and patched a few things and added QoL improvements, these were added to the other console and PC version as well. With this update, came the removal of Denuvo. I have seen other years-old games that for some reason needed to get a patch remove Denuvo with said patch, while many more both never patched the game again and never removed it.

But in the last 2-3 years it's been different. Many if not most games have regularly been removing it within 6-12 months of release, even if they have nothing significant to patch other than just the DRM removal. This makes it very likely that they either changed their licensing model where you can only use it for said 6-12 month period and must remove it unless you license it again, or just introduced a cheaper model which has those restrictions that publishers have been going for instead.

There are still some who stubbornly refuse to remove it even from recent games, Ubisoft is pretty infamous in that regard, which means either the old license also still exists or they are just constantly renewing, but many if not most these days are opting to remove it after a while which leads heavy likelihood to said new licensing model.

Even games by Tango/Bethesda. Ghostwire: Tokyo recently removed it in a patch that seems to have done nothing other than remove it. (Despite the fact that the game launched WITHOUT it and it was added later, in what is possibly the stupidest possible move they could have pulled, literally the equivalent of closing the barn after the horse has ran away). So there is hope that it will get eventually removed from H-Fi Rush. They are very likely using the licensing model where they have to renew or remove it after a while, and of course the publisher would have access to all the original un-DRMed assets and files.

Although I admit it is worrying that it has taken this long and still nothing. Could mean that they did use the old model (If it's even still an option) or are just repeatedly renewing it (though I can't imagine them putting the most expensive permanent licensing on a $30 barely advertised game while their flagship title got the temporary licensing model, or renewing it when again they stopped for their more expensive and well known game) or perhaps they renewed it from initial plans to add DLC but with the closure of Tango that fell through, and they don't want to "waste" their remaining subscription until it's over. It's not uncommon for a publisher to renew it when DLC is coming out, Ghostwire added it when they added DLC.... free DLC, so still extremely stupid of them to do so, full stop.

[Tintler]

Cyber Akuma님이 먼저 게시:

While the idea that someone will likely leak it is just silly, of course Bethesda has DRM-free EXEs, do you think they go through the trouble to put it on all of their dev and debug and testing builds that are never meant to leave their internal servers?

As for being removed, it seems likely due to what appears to be Denuvo switching to a licensing system where it would have to be renewed.

I don't have any documentation of how Denuvo licensing works, but going by the behavior of how games have/have not removed it over the years it seems very likely.

It seems like before, Denuvo used to have a license where you had to pay to apply it, but then you could just keep it on there, and you had to pay again for every re-application. Maybe there was some sort of grace period where it's free to handle launch-day patches. There are many games which have had it for several years now and never removed it... unless those old games get a patch for any reason. Final Fantasy 15 and 12 are a good example. Both launched years ago, both with Denuvo. FF15 still has it to this day, it was also more or less abandoned with further planned DLC being cancelled and no more updates. Final Fantasy 12 had it for years too.... then it was announced for the Switch. While releasing it on the Switch they went back and patched a few things and added QoL improvements, these were added to the other console and PC version as well. With this update, came the removal of Denuvo. I have seen other years-old games that for some reason needed to get a patch remove Denuvo with said patch, while many more both never patched the game again and never removed it.

But in the last 2-3 years it's been different. Many if not most games have regularly been removing it within 6-12 months of release, even if they have nothing significant to patch other than just the DRM removal. This makes it very likely that they either changed their licensing model where you can only use it for said 6-12 month period and must remove it unless you license it again, or just introduced a cheaper model which has those restrictions that publishers have been going for instead.

There are still some who stubbornly refuse to remove it even from recent games, Ubisoft is pretty infamous in that regard, which means either the old license also still exists or they are just constantly renewing, but many if not most these days are opting to remove it after a while which leads heavy likelihood to said new licensing model.

Even games by Tango/Bethesda. Ghostwire: Tokyo recently removed it in a patch that seems to have done nothing other than remove it. (Despite the fact that the game launched WITHOUT it and it was added later, in what is possibly the stupidest possible move they could have pulled, literally the equivalent of closing the barn after the horse has ran away). So there is hope that it will get eventually removed from H-Fi Rush. They are very likely using the licensing model where they have to renew or remove it after a while, and of course the publisher would have access to all the original un-DRMed assets and files.

Although I admit it is worrying that it has taken this long and still nothing. Could mean that they did use the old model (If it's even still an option) or are just repeatedly renewing it (though I can't imagine them putting the most expensive permanent licensing on a $30 barely advertised game while their flagship title got the temporary licensing model, or renewing it when again they stopped for their more expensive and well known game) or perhaps they renewed it from initial plans to add DLC but with the closure of Tango that fell through, and they don't want to "waste" their remaining subscription until it's over. It's not uncommon for a publisher to renew it when DLC is coming out, Ghostwire added it when they added DLC.... free DLC, so still extremely stupid of them to do so, full stop.

It was a great read

[CarnageInc.]

If it can be removed from Doom and Ghostwire, then this one should have it removed too. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Get your ♥♥♥♥ together, bethesda..

[billyhatcher643]

CarnageInc.님이 먼저 게시:

If it can be removed from Doom and Ghostwire, then this one should have it removed too. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Get your ♥♥♥♥ together, bethesda..

sadly with the company gone itll never get removed now

[Hello My Name Is Inigo Montoya]

billyhatcher643님이 먼저 게시:

CarnageInc.님이 먼저 게시:

If it can be removed from Doom and Ghostwire, then this one should have it removed too. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Get your ♥♥♥♥ together, bethesda..

sadly with the company gone itll never get removed now

it was my understanding that you paid for service denuvo yearly. when games stop making money and they run like ♥♥♥♥ and theres a big outcry to remove it they usually do. i could be wrong tho

[Cyber Akuma]

billyhatcher643님이 먼저 게시:

CarnageInc.님이 먼저 게시:

If it can be removed from Doom and Ghostwire, then this one should have it removed too. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Get your ♥♥♥♥ together, bethesda..

sadly with the company gone itll never get removed now

The publisher is still around, they are the ones who own the IP.

[min3r95]

Still waiting(and hoping) for that exe file size to drop

[fabio.capela]

Cyber Akuma님이 먼저 게시:

billyhatcher643님이 먼저 게시:

sadly with the company gone itll never get removed now

The publisher is still around, they are the ones who own the IP.

The publisher is also, usually, the one who decide about adding or removing DRM.

This game is about to break my rule of never buying a game with Denuvo due to being part of the current Humble Bundle subscription; I'm not going to cancel my subscription just because of it. Nevertheless, just like the very few other games with Denuvo I have, I'm not downloading it until/unless Denuvo is removed, so I hope the game ditches that blasted bloatware so I can finally enjoy it.