What is Denuvo and why are people crying about it?

[「CharlemagneRex」]

I was looking at PREY because the trailers look interesting. Read a few reviews and one of them said 'Another game ruined by Denuvo DRM.' And something about false advertising???

I googled it and it just looks like an anti-piracy thing. So I'm asking here instead.

I have no shortage of money and buy my games legit so I can use online features and such, while also being able to track hours and achievments by getting games through Steam, or playing on consoles.

So what exactly is Denuvo DRM and why are people giving PREY bad reviews for it?

[Space Coward]

It has a lot of mistrust, and rightfully so; it's made by none other than the team that created a rootkit DRM system called SecuROM. In fact, this really is just SecuROM 2.0.

It basically encrypts the game, does some shady crap to which the full effects are unknown, and most importantly, when the servers are dropped all games using it will be entirely unplayable. This already happened with SecuROM, as many games that were never patched to remove it are now broken forever (without morally dubious action, at least), effectively punishing the buyer while pirates have a better experience.

Steam got it right to begin with, at least when it actually worked. Beat piracy by offering the better service. Just look at GOG, people will willingly take Steam DRM just because Valve mastered its convenience. When I buy a Steam game, that DRM feels like a good thing with the community features, in-home streaming, all sorts of things that actually benefit the legitimate buyer. It's what uPlay and Origin missed at first, and have pushed to fix over time. I'd personally prefer for a short launch of online DRM for a few months, with a set date for patching out the servers... that way, launch week is protected and legitimate customers aren't hurt too badly.

[Forcen]

Did the servers for secuROM ever shut down? What games are broken forever?

Don't forget that they patched doom to remove denuvo without much problems it seems and the servers didn't even shut down, they could easily do this if this happens.

This encryption seems OK as long as the game works which it always has if you got internet.

[Narcoleptic Marshmallow]

The only problem with Denuvo is that it works.

[Start_Running]

Well steam got itr right in that the drm is pretty transparent. but it suffers oestensibly from the same problem you cite with deneuvo. What happens when the servers shutr down?


As is. Deneuvo isn't really that bad. and it's basically better than the 100% privacy proof option that already exists.

[Space Coward]

Messaggio originale di Start_Running:

Well steam got itr right in that the drm is pretty transparent. but it suffers oestensibly from the same problem you cite with deneuvo. What happens when the servers shutr down?


As is. Deneuvo isn't really that bad. and it's basically better than the 100% privacy proof option that already exists.

I've had this year myself, but Gabe actually responded to this on a Reddit thread stating that if Valve ever does go under, you'll have a chance to cram everything onto several 8TB hard drives and patch out Steam CGM.