Denuvo suffered domain issues, resulting in many games being unplayable over the weekend; including Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
For those unfamiliar, Denuvo anti-piracy DRM has been criticized for allegations of its effectiveness. These include the need for a constant and uninterrupted online connection even on single-player games, and allegations of causing severe performance inhibition.
Another complaint of DRM in general is how once the server involving a DRM check is shut down, the game is rendered unplayable. Many got a taste of just that over the prior weekend, as VGC and PC Gamer report Denuvo suffered technical issues, making many games unplayable.
Based on comments from ResetEra and beyond; the games that went down include recent releases like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, along with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Persona 4 Golden, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Wolfenstein Youngblood, Planet Zoo, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, Mortal Kombat 11, Total War Warhammer, Football Manager 2022, and possibly more.
Denuvo issued a statement to PC Gamer, confirming there were domain issues over the weekend, though the exact nature of the issue (such as if the domain had expired) was not elaborated upon.
“A Denuvo domain was unreachable yesterday afternoon CET. The problem was fixed after we got notified from our automatic system control. After the fix, there was no whatsoever restriction or limitation for the gamer. Denuvo is working to implement further improvements to avoid such downtime in the future.”
When it was announced that Doom Eternal would use Denvo anti-cheat software for its multiplayer, id Software soon after had to look into claims of crashes and performance issues. Denuvo was removed just one week after it was introduced. Whether this latest iteration will continue to have issues will remain to be seen.
Titles that have removed Denuvo anti-piracy DRM (albeit some after a year from launch) include Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil 2, Octopath Traveler, and Sonic Mania. Recent titles to add Denuvo anti-piracy DRM have include Evil Genius 2: World Domination, Persona 5 Strikers, and Deathloop.
