Ahead of launching on October 12, Back 4 Blood has added Denuvo anti-tampering software, as per an update to its Steam page.
Back 4 Blood has updated its Steam storefront page to note that it will launch with Denuvo, a highly controversial anti-tampering software meant to prevent early game piracy.
SteamDB notes that Denuvo anti-tamper was added to Back 4 Blood on September 28, though the change seems to have gone largely unnoticed until recently.
While Denuvo is only meant to affect those trying to pirate the game, the software has received significant criticism for allegedly harming the performance of legitimate players.
Extreme Tech has previously asserted that Denuvo does have a demonstrated negative impact on performance. Earlier in the year, hackers claimed that Denuvo and other DRM software were causing notorious PC stutters in Resident Evil: Village, claims which Capcom addressed by optimising Denuvo within the game.
The implementation of Denuvo also means that an internet connection will most likely be required to play Back 4 Blood, even for someone looking to play without engaging with any of the multiplayer aspects. Back 4 Blood‘s Denuvo update has been noticed by Reddit users, with one post racking up over 900 upvotes and hundreds of comments expressing displeasure with the change.
Marvel’s Avengers removed Denuvo from the game at the start of September, joining several other games to do so this year.
Significantly, back in July, strategy game Humankind dropped Denuvo before launching because “the way [Denuvo] was currently integrated was not good enough”, and the studio did not “want to sacrifice quality”.
In other news, PlayStation is introducing free game trials for first-party titles. However, downloading the game counts as using up the trial.
The post ‘Back 4 Blood’ quietly adds controversial Denuvo software before launch appeared first on NME.
