Capcom removes Denuvo from Resident Evil Village
Almost two years after launch.
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Like many recent Capcom games published on PC,Resident Evil Villageincluded everybody’s favourite anti-piracy softwareDenuvowhen it launched back in May 2021. Also like many recent Capcom games published on PC, the DRM has quietly been removed.
Aschronicledby VGC, Denuvo’s removal from Village was initially reported by the websiteDark Side of Gaming, then verified bySteamDB, which tracked a new change to the game stating “Removed 3rd-Party DRM – Denuvo Anti-tamper, 5 different PC within a day machine activation limit.”
Whatever your perspective on videogame piracy, Resident Evil Village’s Denuvo protection caused more fundamental problems for many players, withreportsthat the DRM’s presence could severely impact game performance. These reports were confirmed when Capcom released an update to Resident Evil Village designed to “optimise the anti-piracy technology.”
Bundling PC releases with Denuvo seems like standard practice for Capcom’s big games, withResident Evil 2 Remake,Resident Evil 3 Remake, andMonster HunterWorld all launching with the anti-piracy software included (all of which later had the software removed). Denuvo has lingered in Village for an unusually long time, however. The game’s anti-piracy software was cracked around a month after launch, yet it’s taken Capcom almost two years to ditch Denuvo. Then again, at least Capcom removed Denuvo deliberately, unlike Warner Bros Games Montreal, whoaccidentally ditchedDenuvo from Gotham Knights last October before adding it back in (which didn’t help with that game’s dubious reputation).
It’s worth noting the Resident Evil 4 remake also comes with Denuvo packaged in, with some players in the game’s Steam Discussionscomplainingit causes issues ranging from traversal stuttering to save file corruption. At present, however, Denuvo has not been confirmed as the cause of these reported issues.
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