Bethesda has added Denuvo DRM to Ghostwire: Tokyo, as it’s confirmed Redfall will have it too

Bethesda has added controversial Denuvo anti-tamper technology to the PC version of Ghostwire: Tokyo, more than a year after its release.

Dark Side of Gaming notes that the game’s latest update, which also adds new story missions, combat abilities and a new rogue-lite ‘Spider’s Thread’ mode, also appears to have added Denuvo’s DRM tech.

To check whether the tech had been added, DSoG changed the number of cores their AMD CPD was using.

After changing it five times, the publication received an error message saying the game could no longer be authenticated on new devices, a sign that Denuvo was flagging the CPU changes.

The news follows the discovery that another upcoming Bethesda-published title, Redfall, will seemingly have Denuvo tech included at launch.

Bethesda is also set to publish Starfield on September 6, though it’s not yet clear if it too will feature the DRM.

Denuvo has been the source of controversy for some time now, as some players believe it can have an adverse effect on PC game performance.

Earlier this week Capcom released a new update for the Steam version of Resident Evil Village which removed Denuvo from the game.

When Village was initially released in May 2021, players complained that the PC version suffered from severe performance issues at times, with some suggesting that the problem lay partly with Denuvo, which runs in the background.

This suggestion was given more credence when a ‘cracked’ version of the game was released in July 2021 which removed the copy protection and ran noticeably better than the official release as a result.

Further reading

5

Capcom has removed controversial Denuvo DRM tech from Resident Evil Village on Steam

The software was accused of causing performance issues with the PC version

Capcom went on to release a patch later that month designed to improve performance, specifically stating: “Adjustments have been made to optimise the anti-piracy technology.”

It wasn’t fully clear whether it was Denuvo or Capcom’s own copy protection that was causing performance issues, or the two working alongside each other.

It remains to be seen whether the addition of Denuvo tech in Ghostwire: Tokyo’s latest update will affect the PC version’s performance.