Tag Archives: drm

GOG has made a name for itself by offering DRM-free PC games, including some major AAA titles from third-party studios, as well as DRM-free day-one releases from CD Projekt Red, like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Looking ahead to the future, GOG is looking to expand by offering its …

Late last year, GOG announced that Sony Santa Monica’s critically acclaimed God of War would be available to purchase on their store free of any DRM. Finally after a couple month’s wait, God of War is available on GOG with a hefty 50% off launch discount. Making the announcement on …

A few days ago, Lies of P was updated on Steam, with the team at NEOWIZ accidentally uploading a DRM-free version of the game. In the wake of this, the studio has finally opted to remove the infamous DENUVO from Lies of P in an official manner. Despite receiving high …

The word DRM leaves a sour taste in many PC players’ mouths as such anti-piracy software typically impacts a game’s performance in a noticeable manner. For years, Monster Hunter Rise has been plagued with Denuvo’s DRM, and so it came as a welcome surprise when Capcom decided to remove the …

In an unfortunate move which we have seen become more and more common, game publishers have started to include the controversial Denuvo DRM to its games AFTER launch, in order to avoid any negative press during the review period. The latest title to engage in such tactics is Assassin’s Creed …

Lies of P is the latest Souls-like to capture the hearts of fans, letting you play as the famous Pinocchio in a cruel, dark Belle Époque world. With reviews now available for the game, it is clear that Lies of P has resonated with most professional critics. Unfortunately for those …

For years, many PC gamers have believed that Denuvo DRM negatively impacts performance for games. There have been attempts over the years to dispute this but public opinion has remained undeterred. Now, Denuvo parent company, Irdeto, wants to settle the matter by setting up an independent benchmarking program. Some benchmark …

Last week, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launched in pretty rough shape across all platforms but so far, most coverage has focused on the PC version. Even Respawn's public apology only addresses PC performance, completely ignoring the fact that the console version is broken too. 

While it is pretty typical to see new games launching with Denuvo in place, we rarely see games adding the controversial DRM post-release. This week following Ghostwire: Tokyo's Game Pass release and big Spider Thread update, Bethesda has implemented Denuvo.  The new Spider Thread update for Ghostwire: Tokyo does indeed …

DRM is the bane of many PC players, with Denuvo being the most famous (or infamous). While almost all games with DRM eventually get cracked by fans, developers have begun taking it into their own hands, patching the DRM after launch. Capcom is one such company to do so, with …

As part of Sony’s recent State of Play, fans were given an in-depth look at the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League – a co-op action-adventure open-world game. While the title can be fully played solo – with the co-op nature merely being additive to the experience – it has …

Redfall is one of the biggest first-party Xbox games currently set to release in 2023. Launching on the 2nd of May, Microsoft recently gave fans a deep look at the upcoming open-world co-op shooter. Unfortunately it seems as though even if you were to play the game solo, Redfall will …

While Denuvo isn't as popular nowadays as it once was, several major publishers still use the anti-piracy protection for PC games. Gotham Knights launched earlier this month with Denuvo in place, until a patch earlier this week mistakenly removed it from the game. Now, Denuvo has been put back in …

While Steam remains the undisputed king when it comes to PC gaming (at least in terms of monthly active users), there exists many other clients which offer just as many benefits. One such client is GOG – known best for their DRM-free approach to all their games. That being said, …

Xbox systems have suffered from some DRM-related issues in the past, with the company’s consoles requiring an online connection in many instances in order to play even single player titles. Fortunately, a new update to the Xbox family of devices has made the system’s DRM much less intrusive. As discovered …

While Denuvo was once very effective at stopping PC games piracy, the DRM has also faced plenty of controversy for being overly heavy and harming performance. Soon, Denuvo will be used on consoles too, with Irdeto making its DRM available to Nintendo Switch developers.  The Nintendo Switch has been a …

Over the weekend, the Xbox Live network saw repeated outages, leading to outcry from players across all supported platforms over DRM policies. Due to the outage, a lot of players were unable to access their digital games, including offline, single-player titles. Now, we have some clarification over how Xbox DRM …

Pretty quickly after Intel released its 12th Gen core processors, we began hearing a lot of user reports claiming the inability to play certain games using DRM services. Intel and motherboard vendors, including Gigabyte, quickly launched fixes and workarounds to solve these issues, but Intel has now finally confirmed that the games exhibiting these errors have been fixed...

Over the years, Denuvo has become a very prominent DRM provider, with many major Triple A releases using it each year. Usually, Denuvo makes headlines when games launch with performance troubles, but this time around, the DRM provider seemed to knock a bunch of games offline.  On Sunday, a Denuvo …

A couple of weeks ago, Hitman found itself garnering poor reviews after its ‘DRM-free’ release on GOG. The game launched with minimal content available in offline mode, which is not what we have come to expect from games releasing on GOG. Now, the game has been pulled from the store.  …

Back in 2016, IO Interactive rebooted the Hitman franchise with a focus on live service elements. As a result, many in-game features, like Elusive Targets, Contracts, Escalation missions and more require an online connection. With the game's recent release on GOG, some customers have learned this the hard way, leading …

DRM is the bane of many PC players, with Denuvo being the most famous (or infamous). While almost all games with DRM eventually get cracked by fans, developers have begun taking it into their own hands, patching the DRM after launch. In what is perhaps the quickest turnaround yet however, …

Following on from the launch of Marvel's Avengers' first expansion, War for Wakanda, Square Enix has made a significant change to the PC version, removing Denuvo DRM from the game a full year after launch.  This week, Patch 2.02 began rolling out for the game across all platforms. For the …

Last week, it was confirmed that Resident Evil Village's dual-DRM system on PC was causing performance issues, including frame spikes and stuttering. Now, Capcom has begun pushing out an update to fix this, while also adding in AMD's newly launched FidelityFX Super Resolution technology.  The update comes in at just …

For years now, there has been more scrutiny over DRM in PC games and the performance impact that these protections can have. Resident Evil Village is the latest game to enter this conversation, as it has now been proven that the cracked, pirated version of the game runs better than …

Back in 2015, Personalised Media Communications (PMC) accused Apple of infringing on seven of its patents. After years of back and forth legal filings, a judge has finally ruled on the case, ordering Apple to pay $308.5 million in damages.  Out of the seven patents, a jury found that Apple …

Bringing 4K Netflix streaming to PC has been quite the ordeal, with Windows systems only just getting wide support in the last couple of years thanks to new CPUs and GPUs. On the Mac side of things, gaining access to Netflix's highest streaming quality is even more of a chore, …

At this point in time, Metro Exodus is essentially complete, with the base game now available across consoles and PC, in addition to two DLC expansions being released. With that in mind, there is not much sense in keeping Denuvo in the game for much longer, so 4A Games is …

Denuvo has been the number one choice of DRM for major publishers for quite some time now. Occasionally though, a studio will screw up its implementation and pave the way for swift piracy despite intentions to protect at least the first week of sale. We saw this happen with Mass Effect …

Earlier this week, GOG announced a change to its refund policy, giving customers of the DRM-free games store a 30-day refund window. Refunds can be obtained at any point within those 30 days, whether the game has been downloaded and played or not. It is the most generous refund policy …