Denuvo DRM has been a thorn in the side of PC gamers for many years. Anti-piracy software requires constant online checking (even for single player games) and often results in performance because it consumes CPU resources during its many checks. Good for publishers maybe, but very bad for gamers. Fortunately, it is finally being removed from a number of games.

As Kotaku pointed out, Square Enix recently patched Denuvo from Nier Replicant, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. He did the same for Life Is Strange: True Colors in September, just days after launch. Square Enix is ​​one of the biggest publishers in the game, so this should set a solid precedent. Bandai Namco is also joining. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown has had its Denuvo implementation removed, as Dark Side of Gaming pointed out. Crytek did the same with the recent Crysis remaster, notes GameRant.

It should be pointed out that these are all fairly recent games, the most recent of their respective series in most cases. Denuvo is often removed from older games that have been fully pirated and deemed undeserving of protection, but in the case of Nier Replicant, this game has yet to be cracked – this is unusual, as noted. NME. So while this technically opens the door for hackers to some extent, this round of Denuvo removals is hopefully the start of a bigger push for better DRM implementation.

The stress is not completely gone, however. Back 4 Blood, which received a heavy review from Gamepur, still includes Denuvo. We’ll have to see who else jumps on the bandwagon to fix it from their PC games.