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.

id Software's Marty Stratton clarified the issues introduced in Doom Eternal following its Update 1. Via a Reddit post, the developer informed its audience that Denuvo's introduction into the game with Update 1 (a move that sparked a review-bomb on Steam and a quick backpedaling from the company regarding its inclusion) said that the anti-cheat software actually wasn't responsible for the reported issues.

The developer said that the actual performance issues introduced with Update 1 lie in changes in the graphics memory handling code, as well as some bugs introduced alongside customizable skins. The developer also went on to say that the decision to include Denuvo post-release wasn't one forced by publisher Bethesda, but an entirely in-house one, and that the subsequent decision to remove the protection has nothing to do with Denuvo's software quality. Of course, the addition of an always-on DRM solution to Doom Eternal as a post-release patch still stands, as users that previously acquired the game did so without knowledge of its eventual addition. Look after the break for a complete transcript on the comment.

Doom Eternal has been review-bombed over the weekend, as disgruntled players took to Steam to show their thoughts on the the game's Update 1. The issue isn't in the update itself or it changing core gameplay functions; rather, it's based on the inclusion of Denuvo's Anti-cheat mechanism for the multiplayer component of the game, which is also running in the single-player campaign - considered to be the core of any Doom game.

Players are against the inclusion of Denuvo and its monitoring subroutines due to it having a a kernel-level service that monitors gameplay. Gamers are noting performance decreases, framerate drops, crashes, and deleted Saves after the game's latest update. Others are voicing their discontent at the fact that Denuvo has been added post-purchase of the game; players that might not choose to buy the game over that detail have already bought it, and refunds are apparently not being entertained. Doom Eternal's previous 90% user review score on Steam now stand at a measly 50%, which is absolutely undeserving of the game itself. Doom may be Eternal, but its community feedback sure isn't.

Irdeto, Denuvo's parent company, is now looking to offer another service for publishers: an anti-cheat solution. Named Denuvo Anti-Cheat (because why would they abandon the well-known Denuvo branding), the new system aims to prevent cheaters from extracting or manipulating game code that could give them an advantage over other users.

Like the Denuvo DRM, this Anti-Cheat solution isn't located at the executable level, but is integrated into the game code natively. Developers will have to work it into select triggers, much like they already do with Denuvo, for the solution to be as seamless as possible. Irdeto said "Denuvo Anti-Cheat makes use of the latest hardware security features offered by Intel and AMD, combined with Machine Learning of game-agnostic process metrics, to ensure no false positives and maximum detection of cheating".