Irdeto, the software company that owns Denuvo, have announced Denuvo Anti-Cheat, and have added it to Doom Eternal.
The news comes via Irdeto Perspective, Irdeto’s news blog. The blog post states that the anti-cheat software has been in development over the last three years, with an early access program for AAA publishers and developers in the last two.
Now, Denuvo Anti-Cheat has launched, and is now part of the multiplayer for Doom Eternal. “Our Anti-Cheat solution doesn’t have annoying tray icons or splash screens,” the blog post explains, “and this invisibility could raise some eyebrows.”
As they feel “installing files onto your gaming rig deserves full transparency,” they explained further.
“Install and uninstall
- The first time you start your game, Anti-Cheat installs a kernel mode driver into the Program Files folder.
- When you uninstall your game, all previously installed Anti-Cheat files are removed.
- Bethesda.net PC customers will need to manually uninstall Denuvo Anti-Cheat via Add or Remove programs in Windows settings.
Starting and stopping
- When your game starts, Denuvo Anti-Cheat starts automatically.
- When your game stops for any reason, Anti-Cheat stops automatically.
Although Anti-Cheat starts with the game, actual monitoring only happens during multiplayer matches.
Monitoring
Denuvo by Irdeto is a GDPR-compliant third-party data processor and it’s in our best interest to avoid collection of any personally identifiable information. Unlike other anti-cheat solutions, our Anti-Cheat solution does not take screenshots, scan your file system or stream shellcode from the internet. We collect information on how the OS interacts with the game and send the information to Amazon-hosted servers for cheat detection.”
For those unfamiliar, Denuvo DRM has been criticized for allegations of its effectiveness. These include the need for a constant and uninterrupted online connection even on single-player games, and allegations of causing severe performance inhibition.
There have even been claims and rumors of the anti-piracy measure being “cracked” (allowing the once-protected software to be copied and distributed) mere days after or even before a game’s release. Whether Denuvo Anti-Cheat will suffer the same issues will remain to be seen.
The blog post concludes “We couldn’t be more excited to take the knowledge we’ve gained in battling piracy and apply it to catching cheaters in the very games we play daily, with you.” There has been no announcement from id Software or Bethesda Softworks as of this time of writing.
Doom Eternal is available via Windows PC (via Bethesda, and Steam), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and 2020 for Nintendo Switch. In case you missed it, you can find our review here (we recommend it!)
