How bad is Denuvo?

[nomdeplume]

Been waiting many months for a new game release that apparently will contain Denuvo. How bad is it really?

 

[Dorek]

I dunno like you dont even notice it existing its just a game pretty much.

 

[Macro Device]

Bad enough.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Depends on what you’re doing. I had it on a game, and I didn’t even know it existed until I was trying to get the game working on different versions of Proton under Linux. Each version of Proton will appear as a new install, and eventually Denuvo will kick in and think you’re trying to play on too many machines. It will put you in time out for a day.

 

[unwind-protect]

Performance wise we don't know.

At some point the vendor did announce that they would release a game with and without it, so that people could see. But they didn't follow through with it. On balance this makes it likely that there is in fact a performance problem.

 

[_roman_]

Without a doubt higher power consumption and higher hardware requirements. It is extra code which does not bring any benefits for the end consumer.

 

[nomdeplume]

To this point I'd been able to avoid it. Not much you can say for online multiplayer that needs some form of something to remain playable. Don't engage in multiplayer and no worries.

Installing something with potential for global and permanent system impact outside of running game exe that requires it is hard to swallow. Especially hard for a single player game that gets cracked before release and runs better than every single retail port.

 

[eidairaman1]

Get on youtube and see what others are dealing with

 

[Shihab]

Difficult to find objective opinion on the matter, since Denuvo is universally hated at this point. But I think the performance penalty is implementation-specific. So just look up benchmarks on whatever game you're looking at and see if you can live with how it runs.

If it's an unreleased game, you should wait regardless of whether it was a GoG-esque maximalist or came out strapped with every DRM known to man. DRM should be the least of your worries if you're going to buy fish whole it's still in the ocean.

 

[Veseleil]

There's a significant performance impact involved, but the exact negative numbers are different for an each game. As someone already said, you can simply browse for something like: "X game vs. denuvo-less X game".