In a recent interview, Denuvo's Product Manager Andreas Ullmann responded to the ongoing criticisms from the gaming community regarding their anti-piracy software. Ullmann firmly defended Denuvo's stance while addressing the persistent backlash.

Denuvo’s Product Manager Defends Anti-Piracy Software Amidst Backlash

Denuvo Addresses Performance Concerns and Misinformation

Andreas Ullmann, Denuvo's product manager, has openly discussed the intense criticism the company has faced from gamers over the years. He described the gaming community's response as "very toxic" and suggested that many of the criticisms, particularly those related to performance impacts, are based on misinformation and confirmation bias.

Denuvo's anti-tamper DRM is often used by major publishers to protect their new game releases from piracy, with titles like Final Fantasy 16 utilizing it. Despite this, gamers frequently claim that the DRM hampers game performance, often referencing anecdotal evidence or unverified benchmarks that show differences in framerate or stability when Denuvo is removed. Ullmann refutes these claims, asserting that even cracked versions of games still include Denuvo's code.

"The cracks, they don’t remove our protection," Ullmann explained in an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "There is even more code on top of the cracked code—that is executing on top of our code, and causing even more stuff to be executed. So there is technically no way that the cracked version is faster than the uncracked version."

When questioned about whether he denies that Denuvo can negatively impact game performance, Ullmann responded, "No, and I think that’s also something we’ve stated in our FAQ on Discord." He admitted that there have been "valid cases," such as with Tekken 7, where games using Denuvo DRM experienced noticeable performance issues.

However, the company's Anti-Tamper Q&A contradicts this statement. According to the FAQ, "Anti-Tamper has no perceptible effect on game performance nor is Anti-Tamper to blame for any game crashes of genuine executables."

On Denuvo’s Negative Reputation and Discord Shutdown

Ullmann, a passionate gamer himself, acknowledges the frustrations gamers have with DRM, noting that it's often "super hard to see, as a gamer, what is the immediate benefit." He argues that the benefits to developers are significant, citing studies that show games with effective DRM experience a "20%" revenue increase by deterring early piracy. He also suggested that misinformation from the piracy community has fueled misunderstandings, urging players to appreciate Denuvo's contributions to the industry and avoid unfairly vilifying DRM without solid evidence.

"These big corporations are… looking for a way to minimize the risk for their investment," Ullmann stated. "Again, this does not have an immediate benefit for me as a player. But if you look further, the more successful a game is, the longer it will get updates. The more additional content will come to that game, the more likely it is that there will be a next iteration of the game. That's basically the benefits that we offer to the average player."

Despite the company's efforts to clarify these issues, Denuvo continues to face backlash from gamers. On October 15, 2024, Denuvo launched a public Discord server in an attempt to foster open communication with gamers. According to Denuvo, this was "a way to open up our communication and, in a way, ourselves, to your voices."

However, the server's main chat was shut down within two days as users flooded it with anti-DRM memes, complaints about game performance, and other critical messages. The overwhelming volume of posts overwhelmed Denuvo's small moderation team, forcing them to pause chat permissions and temporarily reconfigure the server to read-only mode. Similar criticisms continue to appear on their Twitter (X) posts.

Despite the initial failure of this outreach effort, Ullmann remains optimistic. In his interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, he stated, "You have to start somewhere, right? So this is now the start for this initiative, and we want to be out there. It will take some time. It will start on Discord, and later on we hope we can move to other platforms: Reddit, Steam forums, to have official accounts and throw our comments into the discussions."

Whether Denuvo's upcoming transparency efforts will change the community's perspective is uncertain, but their initiative to take control of the narrative seems aimed at fostering a more balanced dialogue between gamers and developers. As Ullmann emphasized, "This is exactly what we are looking for. Having honest, nice conversations with people. Talking about what we all love, which is gaming."