Denuvo’s servers had a bit of a problem last November 7, making a handful of games using the popular DRM technology unplayable for some time.
Why was the Denuvo domain down last weekend?
Hundreds of thousands of people play games that use Denuvo software. So, when Denuvo is down, you’d best bet that it will make waves. This is exactly what happened last weekend. Gamers started flooding online forums asking what was going on and why they weren’t able to play their favorite games. The issue was so prevalent because it affected recent big titles like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy as well as older titles such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It took a while for Denuvo to acknowledge the issue and provide an explanation. Because of this, some speculated that the downtime was the result of the company’s failure to renew the domain that they used to activate games, which is a big oooof if true. In a reply to PC Gamer, Denuvo confirmed that this was indeed the case and assured fans that it is working to “implement further improvements to avoid such downtime in the future.” Denuvo is one of the most hated pieces of tech available today. Downtimes like this certainly don’t help its cause. While most audiences understand that studios have every right to protect their properties from piracy, implementing measures like Denuvo hasn’t always worked. If anything, Denuvo is seen as a temporary measure that only works for a couple of days before it is cracked. To make matters worse, Denuvo has been proven to affect gaming performance, which is why so many gamers are against it. A recent example of Denuvo causing problems is with Resident Evil Village. Pirating groups discovered that non-DRM versions of the game ran better. Denuvo would later deny that its software was behind the game’s prevalent stuttering issues, but the damage had already been done. Speaking of Denuvo, gamers expressed their concern earlier this year when the company announced that it was making its Anti-Cheat Software available to developers and publishers on the PlayStation platform.