Amid the enthusiastic presentations of new features and shimmering graphics of the upcoming AAA title, there is one thing that publishers never mention, and that is anti-piracy software that has been popular for a few years. It is indeed the infamous Denuvo that we are talking about here. Only a few days ago, a new rather discreet mention appeared on the steam page from Gotham Knights:
This mention indicates that the third-party DRM program is going to be incorporated into the game. Those who follow big PC releases and the performance issues that often accompany them know that there is good reason to be concerned.
Denuvo problems
A few years ago, some were whispering that the era of PC game piracy was coming to an end with the introduction of a brand new revolutionary and highly secure anti-piracy software, Denuvo, which is supposed to block piracy and therefore protect the rights of the studio as well as the publisher. The problem is that Denuvo greatly harms PC gaming performance. There are several documented cases, in which different versions of the same game worked more or less well, on the same machine, depending on whether or not Denuvo was present. Ironically, much to the chagrin of gamers who paid their way, pirated versions of these games ran much smoother and more stable once completely stripped of the software.
This had been the case with Monster Hunter World Iceborne, and more recently with Resident Evil Village and Deathloop. Measures had to be taken each time by the publisher and the studio afterwards, in order to optimize the integration of Denuvo, as well as the rest of the game, in a desperate attempt to improve things. In some cases, the studio ended up removing Denuvo altogether, although this is still rare.
Gotham Knights, a demanding game?
We can not predict with certainty what it will give with Gotham Knights, but there are good reasons to worry, since the game seems beautiful, but above all very greedy. It has already been announced that Gotham Knights will not go above 30 FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series, and that there is no performance mode to achieve the much desired 60 FPS in this type of game. minimum requirements on PC are quite reasonable, but the recommended requirements have still not been revealed, less than a week before the release.
For some players, the presence or not of Denuvo will determine if they can play in good conditions, or not. We will get the answer to these questions on October 21.