Nintendo has decided to bring Denuvo, a controversial software for anti-piracy. With Irdeto finally entering the Switch platform, the gaming community has mixed reactions about the tool.
Emulator Protection for Nintendo Switch
With Denuvo now available for Nintendo Switch, developers and publishers on the platform gain access to powerful tools designed to safeguard their games from being run on PC emulators.
This is a significant development because, previously, even games equipped with robust anti-piracy measures on their PC versions were susceptible to emulation on PCs.
This loophole allowed players to enjoy Nintendo Switch games without purchasing legitimate copies. The introduction of emulator protection through Denuvo aims to put an end to this practice, ensuring that players must acquire authentic game copies.
Denuvo Gets Mixed Reactions From the Crowd
According to Game is Hard, gamers get used to praising and criticizing Denuvo for its "questionable" purpose. While it helps publishers and devs gain revenue, the players think that it shouldn't be allowed in the first place.
First, many gamers think that anti-piracy software impacts their user experience and slows down the game performance.
Complaints include longer loading times and reduced framerates in games protected by Denuvo. Additionally, skeptics argue that Denuvo's ability to thwart piracy is limited, as cracked versions of Denuvo-protected games have surfaced relatively quickly.
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Denuvo's Controversies
Just last April 2023, Capcom bid farewell to Denuvo after its two-year partnership. According to Tech Times, the gaming giant decided to remove Denuvo DRM from "Resident Evil Village."
While Capcom did not state the reason behind the removal of the anti-cheat software, some gamers believed that the company wanted to avoid potential performance issues for "RE" titles.
In 2021, "Humankind" also ditched Denuvo because it's still not optimized. The report said that when the software is enabled, glitches and bugs will suddenly appear in-game.
Amplitude Studios, the developer behind the PC game, said that the testers noticed a sudden performance slowdown in games with Denuvo.
The COO of Amplitude, Romain de Waubert said that the team did not push through the collaboration since the Closed Beta test yielded a negative result.
With Denuvo's implementation on the Nintendo Switch, it will take some time before players discover some issues, if there are any. Of course, the insights about this anti-piracy tool vary from one user to another.
Nintendo might have chosen to take the "good" path so players can continue to buy legitimate copies of the games on the handheld console.
We never know what will happen in the next few months or years. Some gamers think that Nintendo will cut ties with Irdeto soon while others believe that the Japanese publisher will continue using it for at least two years.
