In context: Denuvo is one of the most hated copy-protection solutions in PC gaming. The company behind the DRM is struggling to keep resourceful pirates at bay, while some studios are already backtracking on their earlier decision to implement the technology.
Earlier this month, the studios working on the Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis remake updated the game's entry in Steam's database. The update appears to remove Denuvo's anti-tamper technology, potentially marking a major change coming four months before the game's scheduled release on February 12, 2027.
While gamers are celebrating yet another major production getting rid of Denuvo, many are wondering why the studios made the decision in the first place. The Irdeto-owned technology is one of the most universally hated copy-protection solutions PC users have to deal with right now, yet many high-profile publishers are still quite willing to implement it in their latest games.
Some users suggested that the developers could re-add Denuvo closer to the game's launch, or even add something "even worse" to the game's executable. Some are even speculating that Tomb Raider pre-orders are doing so poorly that publisher Amazon Game Studios decided to strip the much-maligned DRM from the game to score a small PR win among Lara Croft fans.
Either way, things could change considerably before the game's actual release. Some studios remove Denuvo from their games a few months after launch, while others confirm the DRM's presence when a game is just about to arrive in stores. Denuvo is often blamed for poor performance on otherwise capable PC hardware, but other DRM solutions can perform even worse in this regard.
Over the past few years, Denuvo has made quite a splash among DRM-friendly studios. The anti-tamper technology proved to be a very capable solution for protecting early sales, until hypervisor-based "tricks" and Voices38 started targeting Denuvo-enabled games.
Every Denuvo-protected game released before April 2026 has been cracked, and Irdeto is now resorting to lawyers in an attempt to fight back against pirates. Irdeto recently targeted Voices38, the mysterious developer who has released many successful Denuvo cracks after "Empress" left the piracy scene.
After being targeted by Irdeto and Denuvo, Voices38 said that everything was "fine" and that cracks would continue as usual. Voices38 did not release any cracked games after that message, while Denuvo continues hunting for the coder in an attempt to uncover their real identity and location.