Study Claims Quick Denuvo DRM Cracks Will Cost Game Publishers Big Money

Game developers and publishers have been using the Denuvo digital rights management (DRM) scheme to protect their games for several years, often to the chagrin of PC gamers. The reason Denuvo has such a bad reputation is because it’s often found to severely effect game performance, souring game buyers who feel like they get a worse experience than those who pirate. A new study shows why Denuvo continues to be used despite how much customers dislike it.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that Denuvo can protect a “total revenue from piracy by a mean of 15% and a median of 20%.” Additionally, if the DRM can survive unscathed for the first 12 weeks of the game’s release, it prevents any potential losses that might be incurred through piracy. These are significant numbers that prove how effective Denuvo can be, and why it’s not going away anytime soon.


However, it’s not a perfect system that can guarantee protection. The DRM needs to hold up to whatever crackers are going to throw at it, which can be a crapshoot for developers and publishers. The researchers were unable to determine what leads to some games getting cracked early versus those whose DRM held strong, saying that “the characteristics of a game cannot explain its likelihood of being cracked.”

Despite the imperfections, the data is undeniable: Denuvo is worth deploying from a monetary standpoint, if there’s a chance that it can help developers and publishers recoup the costs of game development. Especially because the DRM can be most effective during the initial launch period, which is when a game makes the majority of its revenue.

A good middle ground, which is recommended by the researchers, is to employ Denuvo for the first 12 weeks of the game’s release and disable it past that point. This will enable companies to bring in the maximum amount of revenue from a game while improving game performance later on for those who made the purchase.