Denuvo Ruins The Reputation Of A Game & It's Developers
As admitted by Denuvo themselves in an interview:
Denuvo Negatively Affects Game Performance
During the release of Devil May Cry 5, users found that they could access a QA testing branch of DMC5 that had an unprotected .exe without Denuvo that could be used with the released version.
The result? A 20+ FPS boost across the board. Crackers have also directly observed certain versions of Denuvo doing 10-30 checks every second. This has led to Denuvo causing consistent & very noticeable stuttering in games that only disappears when the DRM is cracked &/ removed:
As seen in: Assassin's Creed Origins, Arkham Knight
Other general performance examples include:
Death Stranding, Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil Villager
Hitman, Abzu, Sherlock Holmes, Mad Max, Agents of Mayhem, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3
Company of Heroes 3, Ghostwire Tokyo, Immortals of Aveum, Borderlands 3, Doom Eternal, Dying Light 2, Lies of P, Ace Combat 7, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Hogwarts Legacy
Loading Time Comparisons
More Loading Time Comparisons
Besides extensive user testing, there are also multiple video game companies admitting to Denuvo butchering performance:
Humankind Devs Drops Denuvo Due To Performance Crash
Tekken 7 Denuvo Fiasco
Results can vary from user to user depending on system configurations and what
version of Denuvo is currently being used but the claim on their website
that:

Is a complete and utter lie.
Denuvo Causes Games To Expire
This exposes the reality of online
game libraries. You only ever owned a temporary game LICENSE,
not a copy:
^ EXAMPLE OF EXPIRING GAME LICENSE DUE TO ALWAYS ONLINE DRM ^
This
happens due to how Denuvo is as it has to clumsily embed
itself into games and their DRM through a complicated
manually done process that few developers & publishers are willing
to invest the money, time and effort into removing once their game fades
into obscurity.
Denuvo Is A Scam
Their sales pitch of "ooga booga protect games" is completely unfounded. There has not been a single credible study done that have been able to reliably show the effects that online piracy has on video games which is why Denuvo does not provide you with any on their website. Fallacious attempts of creating them have been
violently debunked & discredited. Being a digital medium, there is absolutely nothing being lost besides the goodwill of customers and game performance.
People pirate for a reason. To test games before buying
due to the abandonment of demos. To aquire them where they are otherwise unavailable for purchase or made far too expensive. To get a superior copy that isn't butchered with DRM and always-online checks.. To not financially support developers and producers soiling their games with a scam DRM.
None of these are a lost sale.
Denuvo Is Illegal
There are no checks, balances or regulations on this new function being used world-wide on all products with Denuvo.
Denuvo Forces Games Online
Denuvo
essentially turns all games into "Always Online" titles, requiring computers needing an
active internet connection multiple times during the first initialization on a machine and afterwards.

When a verification has first been done, Denuvo creates a local file that stores a limited-time license which can be as short as a single day but can be up to weeks.
This constant reliance of an internet connection can be observed by outages during Denuvo server issues completely preventing games from being played.
2
Denuvo Steals Funds From Game Budgets
Purchasing
Denuvo to be used in a game costs
a LOT of money. (2)Precious
effort & time from the game developers is also required in order to
implement Denuvo into any given game (and more later if they remove it)
which further increases the costs associated with using the DRM.
Further costs can be accumulated through visits from Denuvo employees,
all of which is resources, time and effort that could have been spent on the
game itself.
Denuvo Has Hardware Incompatibility
Denuvo
is incompatible with certain hardware configurations, such as
Phenom Processors. The games themselves may be
fully compatible but customers with such hardware configurations are
completely shut out from being able to play games with Denuvo.
This also remains true for newer technology as Intel's latest hybrid CPU's have 50+ games affected.
Denuvo Has Operating System Incompatibility
Denuvo
prevents games from functioning on other operating systems outside of Windows, such as
MAC and Linux. Even if a game is compatible, they will simply not work as long as they are infected with Denuvo.
It also prevents customers from using Virtual Machines to play Windows games on MAC/Linux.
Denuvo Challenges Pirates
Smaller
developers deciding to use Denuvo for their games often have their actions get
interpreted as public challenges for piracy groups, causing their games
& DRM to become cracked/pirated faster than they would normally be
in the pace of public demand.
Denuvo Adds Additional Game Development Complexity
Denuvo
makes game development for any given title more complicated and time consuming. Depending
on when and how it was implemented, it can become an escalating headache for
developers by causing waves of bugs, instability, crashes, incompatibilities and more.
The difficulty of this process becomes very clear when you look at all the publishers and developers that don't remove it after their games fade into obscurity.
Denuvo Is Bloatware
Denuvo
is by definition Bloatware due to it having files be left behind
on a system after being uninstalled on the software it was originally
downloaded & associated with, as admitted on their own website:
Denuvo Blocks Common Modding
Denuvo
makes modding certain games impossible by making any sort of tampering
with the .exe file and the content that runs through it extremely
difficult which can completely shut down any and all attempts to create
community mods for certain games. Denuvo is also known for extending
it's "protection" to certain .dll files.
Denuvo Are Pirates
Denuvo
is a second layer DRM derived from a
PIRATED VERSION of something
called VMProtect. Calling them hypocrites or the situation itself ironic
is an understatement.
Denuvo Prevents Backups
Denuvo prevents you from backing up your legally owned games or making reserved playable copies.
Just like it's DRM counterpart, it wrecks performance.
Pro-Denuvo Study Debunked Here
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