A new update has removed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order's Denuvo DRM on PC -- and it's possible that the removal is related to recent problems with the upcoming 12th-gen Intel "Alder Lake" CPUs.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was first announced all the way back at E3 2018 and we finally got our first look at the game roughly one year later. More recently, EA has announced that it's getting a free next-gen upgrade. That's not the only upgrade on the way, though -- a new Steam update has apparently removed Denuvo DRM from the game.
Why Did Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Remove Denuvo?
The Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Denuvo DRM removal was first spotted on Reddit; an update on SteamDB showed the apparent removal of the DRM. The big question is this: why was it removed now?
One possible driving force behind the removal of Denuvo DRM is an issue with the Intel's 12th generation of CPUs code-named "Alder Lake;" as PC World reports, there are dozens of games that crash when you have one of these new CPUs installed. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is one of those games, so it's certainly possible that Denuvo was removed to solve this issue for people intending to buy the latest Intel processors.
However, discussion on Reddit raises another point -- we're roughly a week away from the anniversary of the game's original launch on Steam two years ago. It's possible that EA signed a two-year contract for Denuvo and is removing the DRM in advance of a timed contract expiring.
Denuvo DRM has been cited as the source of performance problems by gamers and developers alike; back in 2018, Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada stated that he believed Denuvo was behind framerate drops in the PC version of the game. More recently, the new 4X game Humankind removed Denuvo DRM prior to launching due to it having a negative impact on performance for playtesters.
Whatever the reason for the removal may be, it looks like Denuvo won't be a problem any longer. You can buy Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on PC via Steam and Origin starting at $39.99 or your regional equivalent.
What do you think of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order removing Denuvo DRM? Is the use of Denuvo a dealbreaker for you? Let us know in the comments below!
