Capcom caught adding Enigma DRM to older titles, for no good reason

Daniel Sims

Daniel Sims

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Facepalm: Capcom has a mixed history with DRM. The company often removes Denuvo from its titles post-launch but has faced significant controversies regarding DRM. Despite these removals, Capcom continues to secure its games with software that may hinder modding.

The recent patch for Resident Evil Revelations highlights Capcom's practice of incorporating new DRM into some of its games. This software seems to disrupt modding and could impair performance.

Users noticed an update for Resident Evil Revelations introduced anti-tamper functionality in the game's executable earlier this month. There were reports of crashes, reduced framerates, and malfunctioning mods. In response, Capcom withdrew the patch, intending to re-release it after addressing these issues.

The incident seems to be Capcom's latest effort to implement Enigma Protector DRM, seen in several titles since last fall. Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection received it in September, and it was added to Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection the next month. Most mods for these games stopped working unless players reverted to an earlier version.

Capcom's games have long used Denuvo, but the company usually removes it after some time. However, when it eliminated the DRM from Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective last year, Enigma was quietly introduced as a substitute. A workaround was found within days, rendering Capcom's decision moot.

The company's aggressive stance against piracy and modding isn't surprising. Last October, Capcom presented on anti-piracy tools, equating mods to cheating.

While cheating is a major issue in multiplayer games, Capcom acknowledged that many mods are harmless. For instance, the Resident Evil Revelations patch broke mods for ultrawide screens, Vulkan conversion, and other helpful features.

Possibly the most baffling part of Capcom's DRM policy is the decision to introduce a new DRM to a game released in 2013. While it's not surprising to see newly-released games equipped with such software to deter piracy, cracked versions of Resident Evil Revelations have likely existed for years, meaning the new DRM only inconveniences legitimate customers.

This isn't the first time Capcom's security measures have degraded the player experience. When Resident Evil Village launched with Denuvo, users noticed stuttering not present in cracked versions. The company's most egregious case might be when it added a rootkit to Street Fighter V, making PCs significantly more vulnerable to malware.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/101477-capcom-caught-adding-enigma-drm-older-titles-no.html

 
toooooot said:
No reason? There are plenty.
Older games are only becoming more
popular with the crisis of ideas and lack
of inspiration in gaming industry.
These things sell, are played, and bring money.
Click to expand...

I'll add some more to the list.
Day 1 DLC
Game breaking bugs at launch.
Extremely poor optimization.

Its enough that I am actually considering building a retro PC to natively play older games.

Same with my consoles. I blew the dust off my old Dreamcast and modded it. There is a fairly large community of modders and enthusiasts that are modding old consoles for use today just to play those old games.
 
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Not paying not playing anything from them. Same with Ubisoft for PC games. Don't give them a cent. It's that simple: woke garbage and customer spying multiplayer like Ubisoft wants to implement: ok, I'm fine with your games, no matter what you tell me.
This is why I'm buying CDPR games: no MTX, no DRM.
it's easy put your wallet where your mouth is. Punish them. It's the only thing they listen to.
 
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ShadowDeath said:
I'll add some more to the list.
Day 1 DLC
Game breaking bugs at launch.
Extremely poor optimization.

Its enough that I am actually considering building a retro PC to natively play older games.

Same with my consoles. I blew the dust off my old Dreamcast and modded it. There is a fairly large community of modders and enthusiasts that are modding old consoles for use today just to play those old games.
Click to expand...

You don't necessarily need a retro PC to play older games. It may be easier getting them to run on an older XP system, but from what I've found out, it's not really needed.

I've been getting a lot of my old physical copies of PC games running on my Windows 10 system. Some games take a bit of work to get functional, seeing as they're pushing 20+ years old, but so far only 1 game gave me issues. I've got most of them that I've installed working without the game discs, too. No need to swap out discs to play them.

The one game that gave me problems was Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone. It played and ran like crap - maybe at times getting up to 20fps, but generally staying down in the 8-12fps range. It was like playing a live action slideshow! I don't know if the issue is because of Windows 10 or maybe the fact it's a physical copy or something else, but it was bad. I had to uninstall it. Makes me wonder if the digital version of the game from GoG runs well or if it chugs along, but I'll never find out because I think the game itself is trash from what little I did play through.

Oldest game so far that I've gotten running on Windows 10 from game discs is Darkstone and that game came out in in July of 1999, quarter of a century ago.
 
All thanks to the "all digital future". What you pay for today, isn't what you have tomorrow.

This market made its bed, now, it can lie in it.
 
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As usual, the pirates will get the best experience after some hacker removes this protection, as they always do. Meanwhile, people who buy the game will be left with a game that runs slower and mods won't work.

Brilliant.
 
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Jerry in WA said:
As usual, the pirates will get the best experience after some hacker removes this protection, as they always do. Meanwhile, people who buy the game will be left with a game that runs slower and mods won't work.

Brilliant.
Click to expand...

I started playing with computers in the early 80's, when Apple // software were protected. At that time, protection schemes did not harm the user, it just made copying games more difficult, without ever totally preventing it, just delaying it, same as today BTW. I've always said the same thing since with newer so-called protection schemes: legit users are always worse off because of those. Random crashes, slower running games etc. without ever preventing illegal copying of games...
 
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m4a4 said:
Build a retro PC?
Because it would be a fun hobby? Or you don't want to emulate?
Click to expand...
Both. I can run PCem to emulate older computers and play games that way but I still kinda want a dedicated computer with an OG 4:3 monitor to play the older games.

I used to emulate Dreamcast games on my desktop then decided to blow the dust off my old dreamcast and swap in a GDEMU. I just enjoyed it so much more that way.

I don't have the room for it currently but I'll work that out later. :)
 
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