https://steamhost.cc/app/2701440/PARANORMASIGHT_The_Mermaids_Curse/?curator_clanid=1012195

https://steamhost.cc/app/3483510/The_Adventures_of_Elliot_The_Millennium_Tales/?curator_clanid=1012195

Square Enix stuff shown at today Nintendo Direct

Speaking about Bamco new leadership...
They fully embraced and force censorship, fully aligned with d.e.i. policies.
Look no further from CV II which, good news, sales bombed.
Japan game devs are fully infiltrated and compromised.

But, we are about Denuvo DRM here so I won't comment more.

Thanks! Desphael will put the announcement up as soon as possible.
The Denuvo contract for the Resident Evil games must be really weird seeing how they only remove it when the next one releases... I wonder what kind of benefit they expect for keeping it that long?

Resident Evil 4
https://steamhost.cc/app/2050650/Resident_Evil_4/
Denuvo Removed, added DRM The Enigma Protector

If you consider that ACE COMBAT 8 already has a niche audience, this move seems to be weird. Give a potential customer more reason to consider a niche genre. Who is making these decision.

This will damage the brand and hurt the sales on the long-term but it's not the first-time a company shoots itself in the foot out of myopic management decisions and it certainly won't be the last.

Yeah, I mentioned that on Discord some time ago. They didn’t just change the management - they also restructured their remuneration so it’s now largely sales-based.

That likely pushes them to prioritize quick, short-term results to keep shareholders happy, at the expense of goodwill, reputation, and - most importantly - the long-term sales tail, which on PC is just as important, if not more so, in many cases.

https://www.bandainamco.co.jp/files/E6A183E4BA95E38195E38293E5BDB9E881B7E4BFAEE6ADA3E6.pdf

Seems like they had quite a shift at the top so could be: new management, new rules

Disappointing, I know.
Bandai Namco spent six years not using it on a single game realizing their best profits to this day and amazingly, they still go back to treating their customers like thieves.

https://steamdb.info/app/2288340/history/?changeid=33560250

Added launch/7/description: ACE COMBAT 8 Shipping build for Denuvo
Added launch/7/description_loc/english: ACE COMBAT 8 Shipping build for Denuvo

@lukaself as I did not like the games they made after the first, I pretty much hoped the new Team could do a better job. Its of to a rocky start already, yay....

Square usually removes it after 6 months or so

If someday they remove DENUVO from DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D REMAKE
I'll be good to do all the series XD

@CasaRomeo Are you speaking about Life Is Strange? If that's any consolation, this isn't from the same devs. Bandai Namco merely owns the IP.

This is unfair the first time, I hear about my favorite game is that I cant buy it. Didn´t even know they still made games after the flops they made before. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥,

We'll know once the 10th year mark comes for Mankind Divided this year. I wouldn't put it past them to have made 10 year contracts for every western game they published but it's also likely to have been a fluke and that they don't actually care.

Speaking of Square and Life is Strange,can they please remove Denuvo from LiS 2 ?? The game was released in September 2018 ffs.Or do I need to wait for the game's 10th anniversary like Just Cause 3 to have it removed....

The original developers of Life is Strange have moved on years ago and none of their products published or developed, use Denuvo now - some are even available on GOG.
I'm not surprised, Square Enix would have forced them to make sequels until the end of time and it would have ended up like Telltale.

https://steamhost.cc/app/2624870/Life_is_Strange_Reunion/
Square Enix at it again

https://steamhost.cc/app/2624870/Life_is_Strange_Reunion/ Uses denuvo. Proof on store page.

My bad... You're right, I mixed them up.

You're thinking of Tekken 8. Tekken 7 used to have Denuvo.

Tekken 7 never had Denuvo.

Also, astroturfing is a thing.

Well, It's a discussion we've had a few times in this group in more detail but for short, it adds up because when a publisher uses Denuvo it shows that they consider their interests are more important than not inconveniencing the paying customer.
The whole industry knows it's backwards and Denuvo remains fortunately infrequent but some individuals are just not moved by rational thought.

Any game that has Denuvo DRM installed, even if it's later removed, I'm going to stop buying. I recently bought Dead Island 2 and was happy and excited that they removed that plague from the game, but it was a horror show: lots of stunting, re-shades being loaded, sudden FPS drops, and after 9 hours, out of nowhere, the game started crashing... So any game that's released and contains Denuvo DRM, I'm going to stop buying it, and even better, I'm tired of headaches.

Hello everyone, have you noticed that every game infected with the Denuvo DRM, after the DRM is removed, has glitches, stuttering, poor optimization, and numerous problems that prevent the game from actually running?

Agents of Mayhem , Metro Exodus , Borderlands 3 , Rise of the Tomb Raider , Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Dead Island 2 !

By some miracle, the only games that run smoothly without problems are Monster Hunter: World, Tekken 7, and Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes.

What? Because discussions where deleted and therefore have to be unavailable, is that steam rule? Wow, is there a logical reason for this?

@かぐや
I had to remove the link to the video due to reverse engineering discussion being banned on Steam but if anyone's interested, it's been posted on the Discord server too.

A long time ago, Humble used to have really interesting deals. Now it's mainly used to offload unsold goods.

Also man, I am saving a lot of money on Humble Bundle with all of their Denuvo titles they keep dropping. This month has *two*. Sonic Frontiers and Etrian Odyssey II. Shame because it has some really good games otherwise, but at least Denuvo is making me save money. So... thanks Denvuo!

@Amaterasu I know. But it's not in Crisis Core and they *do* remove it at least. So I can walk away and wait for a few months and then get it.

@Amaterasu Square Enix implemented denuvo in their last cashgrab, sorry to be the guy with bad news:
https://steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/app/2893570

They seem to remove it after a while, but the way they go is already bad.

@Pillman And this is why I don't buy Ubisoft games. I mean for all the boneheaded moves Square Enix makes, at least if my internet goes out for any reason, I can still play Crisis Core.

According to PCGamingWiki's page about Skull and Bones it says:

"All versions require Ubisoft Connect, Denuvo Anti-Tamper, and VMProtect DRM and a constant internet connection for all game modes."

Woodie, it seems the Denuvo warning is gone from the store page. I'll investigate at some point early in the next year.

@lukaself Geez I didn't even know they said this, hopefully this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ business decision will be overturned with all the complaints people have with Denuvo, since they have backtracked on it before like when they tried sneaking it into Sonic Mania

They all but confirmed it when they started delisting games that still had Denuvo. They're anti-preservation. I shared that earlier this year:
"During the SIGGRAPH convention in 2024, SEGA admitted they didn't know how many games they owned the rights to. [images.timeextension.com] Yosuke Okunari confirmed that cataloguing only really started in 2023 and that SEGA had absolutely no policy towards preservation before that.

Basically, you can consider anything SEGA produced before 2024 as lost media already. "

@Amaterasu I wouldn't be surprised honestly

@Asillyhat SEGA seems to be of the mind where they would rather go bankrupt and kill ALL their games... before considering the possibility of removing Denuvo.

I'm really hoping SEGA will ditch denuvo for Yakuza & Sonic titles, they did ditch it when it came with Sonic Mania Plus

fingers crossed less games with drms in future is a continuing trend :)
and happy christmas too :)

It seems to be going that way.
In 2023, 53 new games launched with Denuvo.
In 2024, that dropped to 43.
In 2025, it’s down to 30.

At the same time, Denuvo was removed from 15 games in 2024 and 22 games in 2025. You have an explosive growth of the video game market (19k games released on Steam this year) and online DRM solutions such as Denuvo keep shrinking.

Hopefully the new year will have less games with Denuvo and more removals haha 😁

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

I'm wishing everyone an excellent end of year!

In any case, thanks for the heads up! @JetPackAndButlers

They added it back? Would you look at that... the Astragon wannabe also imitates their inane DRM practices.

https://steamdb.info/depot/2604481/ City Transport Simulator added Denuvo back