The reveal of Dying Light 2 Denuvo DRM less than a week before the game's launch has upset some gamers, resulting in a torrent of complaints on social media.
Dying Light 2 is launching in less than a week on most platforms. While the Nintendo Switch version has been delayed, Techland has been praised for announcing free PS5 and Xbox Series X|S upgrades and its promise to provide 5+ years of post-launch content. Now, the Polish video game developer and publisher is coming under fire for the recent reveal that this upcoming game will include Denuvo DRM.
Why Dying Light 2 Denuvo DRM Was Implemented by Techland
The reveal of Dying Light 2 Denuvo DRM was highlighted in a submission on the game's official subreddit earlier today. A change to the game's Steam Store page notes that it now includes Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.
As those in the know might expect, this has made a lot of people very unhappy. Aside from a number of complaints in that Reddit submission, the game's Steam Community forums are filled with dozens of individual threads (cumulatively totaling thousands of comments) decrying the decision, along with a smattering of complaints on the game's most recent tweet and most recent YouTube video. These complaints have caused Techland to respond to the issue with a statement on the game's official subreddit.
"When it comes to Denuvo - Dying Light 2 Stay Human was in development for seven years; throughout that period, over fifteen hundred people invested their time and talent into making the game. To protect the efforts of the whole team from piracy we suffered when we released Dying Light 1, we’ve included the Denuvo system, at least for the launch period. It’s a solution used widely for AAA games nowadays. Being gamers ourselves, we understand your concerns, and we want to ensure that it will not impact your gaming experience. We continue putting extra resources into testing the game, and at this stage, we do not see any noticeable impact on the performance. We’ll be actively reviewing feedback during the game’s launch. Do not hesitate to share yours with us too."
"Please remember, no matter the side you're in - to not insult other users just because they disagree with you."
By and large, people are upset for two reasons. First and foremost are performance concerns -- while Techland assures players that Dying Light 2 Denuvo DRM "will not impact your gaming experience," Denuvo does not have the best track record. Tekken's Director Katsuhiro Harada blamed Denuvo DRM for frame rate drops in Tekken 7 back in 2018; more recently, Humankind removed Denuvo from its game prior to launch due to performance concerns.
In addition to these incidents, several commenters are highlighting last year's video by Digital Foundry which compared the vanilla PC version of Resident Evil Village versus a cracked version that stripped out Denuvo DRM; the Denuvo-free version of the game had noticeable performance improvements, suggesting that Denuvo DRM may have been the culprit.
Potential performance issues are not the only concern; several people have also called out Techland for quietly revealing the inclusion of Denuvo DRM less than a week before launch, well after pre-orders first opened for the game.
We can't say for certain whether or not the Dying Light 2 Denuvo DRM will have any impact on its performance until a DRM-free version of the game is available for comparison. It is certainly possible that the DRM has minimal impact (or no impact) on the game's performance. For now, you can pre-purchase Dying Light 2 for PC and consoles via its official website starting at $59.99 or your regional equivalent.
What do you think of the inclusion of Denuvo DRM in Dying Light 2? Do you think it will have an impact on the game's performance? Let us know in the comments below!
