Here’s the crux of the article in video form

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on January 31, 2023) follows:

A DRM (Digital rights management) program called Denuvo Anti-Tamper is used by games to stop reverse engineering and altering of executable files. This is done in order to increase the security of games.

In other words, the integration of this software into respective games helps prevents them from being cracked or pirated.

However, it appears that Denuvo’s inclusion in certain game codes appears to be causing issues for a number of buyers of the games.

Denuvo Anti-Tamper affecting performance of the games

It is believed by several people (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) that Denuvo negatively affects the performance of the supported games. Even though the tool’s developers assert that it doesn’t, the game creators say otherwise.

Denuvo-Anti-Tamper-causing-performance-issue
Source (Click/tap to view)

Lol good luck, I had to buy the game because it’s got Denuvo. Too bad that shit also hinders the game’s performance while it’s running in the background.
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Denuvo isn’t harmful because it makes piracy difficult. It’s harmful because it tanks performance and is an invasive DRM
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While Atomic Heart has received a lot of attention in the recent debate about Denuvo’s effects on performance, other titles have also suffered. Some of them are DeadSpace, The Callisto Protocol, Forspoken, and Resident Evil Village.

What’s even more frustrating is the fact that people who legally purchased the game from reliable sources are getting barred from playing due to the intrusive DRM (1,2,3).

This has been a problem for a while now because the tool might be incorrectly triggered. But it seemingly continues to result in permanent or brief bans for some.

Denuvo-performance-issue
Source (Click/tap to view)

If we specifically talk about the developer of Atomic Heart, they have admitted to employing Denuvo. But they also assert that players will have access to Nvidia DLSS to make up for any performance issues.

However, Denuvo Anti-Tamper developers are yet to address this rather widespread issue where the tool is affecting the performance of the games.

And when they do, we’ll reflect the same here so stay tuned to PiunikaWeb for noteworthy insights.

Update 1 (February 27, 2023)

04:50 pm (IST): Empress (a well-known developer who cracks and pirates video games) just published their Hogwarts Legacy crack.

In addition to removing Denuvo from the source code, this cracked version also improved performance and average frame rates. So this should possibly put an end to the debate of whether Denuvo hurts performance or not.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Riya Madaan
868 Posts

Weaving a little bit of life into the articles I write. No, not really! That's not really possible for a trash writer like me but I still try. Apart from it, I skate, meditate and medicate. Also keep myself away from troubles as I age.

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