The exact details of the PC release of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding were only released on March 2, 2020, but there is already the first annoyance: Since the courier adventure will use the controversial copy protection Denuvo Anti-Tamper, players complain on the Steam Community and on other social channels is already loud – sometimes even threatening to boycott.
"How long before Denuvo is removed?"
If you are currently taking a look at the Steam forums about Death Stranding, you will find numerous articles on the choice of Denuvo as copy protection – positive comments are, of course, in vain.
Topics such as "How long do we have to wait until Denuvo is removed?", "DENUVO – I will not buy it :(" and "Warning: the people behind Denuvo have simply given up on its predecessor SecuRom" currently determine the image on Steam -Community.
Various discussions with several hundred comments can also be found on Reddit. The comment that received the most upvotes – the most encouragement – comes from Reddit user AlexanderDLarge:
"The people who welcome Denuvo's inclusion in new games are crazy. I really doubt the psychological process that defends corporate interests to the point where it defies your own as a customer."
Does Denuvo detract from performance?
According to the complaining players, there are plenty of reasons that speak against the controversial copy protection:
- Denuvo is said to degrade game performance.
- Denuvo only offers a certain number of activations (usually five per day), so the game cannot be reinstalled as often as you like.
- If Denuvo's activation servers are offline, protected games may not be able to start.
At least there seems to be something wrong with the performance losses: As we reported in 2018, the YouTuber Overlord Gaming found that games without copy protection sometimes significantly faster to run. The biggest jump was made by Mass Effect: Andromeda, which ran 45 percent faster after Denuvo was removed.
Despite all possible problems, Denuvo is currently the only copy protection that protects the important time window around the release from pirated copies: To crack the copy protection of blockbuster titles like Borderlands 3 or Assassin's Creed: Origins, the software pirates took longer than one Month.
Death Stranding will be released on June 2, 2020 on Steam and in the Epic Games Store. You can find out whether it's a boring postman simulator or an artistic masterpiece in our Test the console version read on GamePro.de.
