Denuvo Anti-Cheat Optional in Sniper Elite: Resistance, DRM Protection Remains Mandatory

[T0@st]

A happy owner of Sniper Elite: Resistance sent out a cheery message via the game's Steam discussion section—Denuvo Anti-Cheat seems to be an optional element when setting up Rebellion's latest tactical shooter. The user's public announcement read as follows: "I almost couldn't believe it when the setup dialog appeared...'Do you want to install Denuvo? YES or NO.' Now the drawback to skipping it is the fact that it's required for multi-player. But as a single campaign player myself, I was glad to have the choice to not install it. I wish more games would give us single players this option! For many a PC gamer, this sense of choice will be celebrated—at least on a surface level—as Irdeto's software is no stranger to controversy. Despite widespread deployment across many popular games and adding of "exciting new features," development teams and publishers have—on occasion—removed Denuvo protection systems from their products, even pre-launch.

Further community discussion—regarding Sniper Elite: Resistance's dropping of anti-tamper technology—focused on the benefits of not having a "kernel infesting, performance nerfing malware/spyware" package interfering with a gamer's solo experience. Unfortunately, Anti-Cheat seems to be an essential aspect for folks who want to indulge in multiplayer—be it co-op, invasion or a traditional PvP mode. Additional feedback points to Irdeto's digital rights management (DRM) system being a compulsory component. One commenter stated: "Denuvo is NOT optional, Resistance has two forms of Denuvo. The first kind it uses is Denuvo Anti-Tamper. This serves to protect the game from piracy, and validation of ownership...you can't get away from Denuvo Anti-Tamper, the game files are wrapped in it. The second kind is the Denuvo anti cheat, which is only needed for multiplayer. Every Sniper Elite game since no. 4 has used Denuvo Anti-Tamper, Resistance is no exception." Late last year, Irdeto staffers attempted to reach out to the gaming community, but responses were largely negative—a Denuvo product manager reckoned that most of this "toxicity" was generated by piracy groups. At the time, Irdeto's representative stated that his team's "solution simply works" and licensees (game developers) should do better in communicating these benefits (of Denuvo) to their audiences.



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[Denver]

This also doesn't use Unreal junk. Great game.

 

[JIWIL]

[edit] Still has Denuvo DRM that we all know and love; now it has another, optional, anti-cheat layer for those who want to play online. I'm awake really.

 

[MacZ]

I find really difficult to want to play multiplayer games on the PC. You cannot know if the guy that just fragged you is good or is just cheating enough to appear good. And the kernel-level anti-cheat drivers are the icing on the cake. Console games should just crossplay between themselves and leave the PC players alone.

 

[Aoyagi]

There is still no solid evidence showing Denuvo has significant (>1% for example) impact on performance, is there?

 

[evernessince]

I find really difficult to want to play multiplayer games on the PC. You cannot know if the guy that just fragged you is good or is just cheating enough to appear good. And the kernel-level anti-cheat drivers are the icing on the cake. Console games should just crossplay between themselves and leave the PC players alone.

The same definitely applies to console as well, it's not as if cheating doesn't exist on them.

Plus ya do realize that on console everyone has aim assist and that people can use a mouse and keyboard adapter to pretty much cheat for free right?

 

[MacZ]

The same definitely applies to console as well, it's not as if cheating doesn't exist on them.

Plus ya do realize that on console everyone has aim assist and that people can use a mouse and keyboard adapter to pretty much cheat for free right?

No I didn't know about the cheating on consoles. I'm not a console gamer and not much left of a PC gamer (notwithstanding by backlog of shame on Steam).

 

[evernessince]

There is still no solid evidence showing Denuvo has significant (>1% for example) impact on performance, is there?

There have been multiple content pieces in the past decade that have demonstrated the impact of denuvo to game loading times and 1% lows. Overlord gaming for example did videos all the way back in 2016-2018 showing with and without denuvo performance.

 

[Aoyagi]

Yes, I remember seeing several of them and they either had mismatched versions of the games and/or drivers or were straight up lying (when others tried to replicate their results). That's why I am very sceptical about this Denuvo bogeyman.

Besides, I had something a bit more recent in mind.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

There have been multiple content pieces in the past decade that have demonstrated the impact of denuvo to game loading times and 1% lows. Overlord gaming for example did videos all the way back in 2016-2018 showing with and without denuvo performance.

Yes, I remember seeing several of them and they either had mismatched versions of the games and/or drivers or were straight up lying (when others tried to replicate their results). That's why I am very sceptical about this Denuvo bogeyman.

Besides, I had something a bit more recent in mind.

The same person is still doing that, now showing versions and the like to make sure it's clear apples are being compared to apples.

Denuvo themselves have admitted to the issue: Denuvo interview from boing boing

They usually follow that up with the boilerplate "it's the developers fault for implementing our systems incorrectly." Which they think makes it OK for any impact to be felt. If 99% of the failure is on your system pig DRM, and 1% is the failure of a developer implementing it badly, then it's still bad DRM.


Of course, you could always just consider Denuvo has not given us proof it isn't impacting performance despite trying to rehabilitate that image for more than a year and a half (Ars Technica, on Denuvo) without appreciable results. It's almost like every time they bring up an example there are a dozen other examples of why what they said is crap....but what do I know? You can keep pretending that there's only one source and it's questionable. I'll give you a one word answer as to why intrusive DRM is hated and absolutely does impact experience. Spore. It may not be Denuvo, but it sucks just as bad.

 

[chrcoluk]

I find really difficult to want to play multiplayer games on the PC. You cannot know if the guy that just fragged you is good or is just cheating enough to appear good. And the kernel-level anti-cheat drivers are the icing on the cake. Console games should just crossplay between themselves and leave the PC players alone.

Yeah a kernel level anti cheat service running on system alone makes it a no go.