Heavy DRM seemingly to blame for Marvel Tokon PC performance issues

Over the years, developers have consistently claimed that DRM has no impact on game performance, despite growing evidence to the contrary. Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls is the latest title to fall into this trap, with a cracked version of the game now showing much better performance results, even on lower-end hardware.

PC players began raising alarm bells shortly after launch due to widespread stuttering, inconsistent frame pacing and unusually high CPU usage. Now, early tests of the cracked version of the game appear to confirm that DRM was the culprit. In one example shared by Alpine, the game runs at a locked 60FPS on a laptop powered by a GTX 1650, a GPU that falls below the official minimum PC system requirements.

Another comparison from Nock shows the cracked and uncracked versions running side by side. The DRM-free build delivers higher average frame rates and crucially, a more stable frame rate, while the official release suffers from micro-stutters and erratic CPU spikes.

While Denuvo has long been the centre of DRM debates on PC, Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls does not use Denuvo. Instead, it ships with a DRM solution called Theia, which appears to be developed partly by Sony. Theia forces the CPU to decrypt files during gameplay on a single CPU thread, introducing overhead that can tank performance on mid-range and lower-end systems. This explains the frame pacing issues, stutter and high CPU usage players have been reporting since launch.

Ironically, Theia wasn’t even particularly effective. The DRM was cracked within weeks, whereas some Denuvo-protected games have remained uncracked for months or even years. With the cracked version now circulating and performing significantly better, PC players are once again questioning why publishers continue to rely on heavy-handed DRM that harms legitimate customers more than pirates.

KitGuru Says: DRM-related performance issues have become increasingly common on PC, and Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls is yet another example. If the cracked version runs better across a wide range of hardware, it’s hard to argue that DRM isn’t holding the official release back.

Become a Patron!