Digital Rights Managment (DRM) is a contentious subject around games, and of the current DRM solutions commonly used, perhaps none is more so than Denuvo's "anti-tamper" technology. The lack of information on how it works has created a lot of wild mass guessing, especially when games that have it exhibit poor performance. Thus, there was much rejoicing when today PlayDead announced that they were removing the Denuvo DRM from their title Inside on Steam.
This move comes after PlayDead recently released Inside on the DRM-Free PC shop GOG, and in many ways equalizes the two versions. Beyond the lack of information, much of the controversy around Denuvo is due to early reports that came out that it consistently encrypted and de-encrypted information, something that Denuvo has repeatedly denied. Another point of contention is that Denuvo requires occasional connections to the Internet to confirm that it is still untampered with; generally, if there are any hardware changes, it needs to connect to the Internet. DRM solutions that require that type of connection can be problematic if the company goes bankrupt or fails to maintain the servers further, although Denuvo's online authentication approach is a far cry from what was seen in the mid-2000s with SecuROM and other things requiring validation every so many days in some cases.
Mentioning SecuROM brings up a more recent controversy surrounding DRM with it and Safedisc not functioning on Windows 10 and even on older versions of Windows if they were kept up-to-date. This causes a situation wherein the games are unplayable unless you get a crack for them, due to that lack of support.
Given that DRM generally functions to protect the early sales of a game in practice, it is laudable that several months later, when that is no longer a factor, PlayDead has opted to go and remove the DRM from their most recent title. Inside is available on GOG (Affiliate Link) and Steam for 25% off right now, and Playdead's last title Limbo is part of the GOG Connect program for the rest of this year.
If you want to learn more about Inside, read our review from earlier this year on it.
What do you think of Playdead removing Denuvo on Inside? Does DRM influence your purchasing decisions? Share your thoughts in the comments below!