Kaspersky, world-renowned anti-virus software has flagged Doom Eternal’s Denuvo encryption as malware. In a Reddit post, the screenshot shows that the anti-virus software has started to crack down on the newest Doom Eternal update released by Bethesda. Making the game unplayable for many since the firewall won’t allow for a smooth sail of operations.
Denuvo in its early stages quickly became the centre of DRM’s for various publishers for its advanced encryption allowing for very little to no piracy. Now while this may be extremely lucrative for developers and studios however all this comes at a price and multiple trade-offs. While almost unreachable apart from a few instances where the early stages of Denuvo were cracked, the DRM offers a seamless security option of video games requiring an online activation.
While all this is nice and dandy where Denuvo suffers is the performance department. The DRM is known for sucking up CPU usage, engraving its roots deep within the storages and having little to no limits. These features allow it to be slow yet secure but the real problem isn’t the performance but how much leeway is given to Denuvo.
It’s the year 2020 where almost everything is connected to the world wide web and not so surprising is the importance of privacy on the internet. Some might argue that all these mega-companies wouldn’t risk their reputation over some scandal however that is not where the problem lies. The fact that an anti-virus software labels something like Denuvo a threat only means that it has way more power than it should and could very well be used by those who mean harm. Of course, this could all be fixed by relaxing the abilities of the DRM at the cost of security.
The real question is whether companies like Bethesda and many more value their customer’s privacy or their own revenue security. Even better would be the middle route where they could very well work out a better way to provide a safe DRM without been given immense power.
