Huh... so Denuvo isn't a PC specific thing...

[kane_magus]

This article is from back in March, but I only heard about this today... i.e. that the Denuvo malware is (or will be, if it isn't already) also in console games as well as PC games. The article is about PS5, but it's almost assuredly on X-bone as well. (And even if it isn't on X-bone, I'd already sworn off ever buying another Microsoft console years ago for other, similar reasons, anyway, so whatever.)

*shrug* Oh well, all the more reason for me not to be interested in modern consoles at all, I guess.

Comments

[owsf2000]

I don't think that would change my opinion on if I wanted to get a PS5 or not honestly. 3rd party DRM on PC annoy me to no hell because of how it typically fucks over the PC itself and cripples it for doing things unrelated to the game it's designed to protect. Particularly when it fucks over system security 'accidentally'.

On a game console, the only thing I'll be running on that console is legit game software. (ie: I don't hack my consoles for any purpose.)

However. However... if they toss Denuvo on the PS5, it's likely going to cause the same performance issues it often causes on PC. And if I bought a Denuvo-infested game on PS5 and it crashed often, had horrible framerates often, etc, I wouldn't blame that on Denuvo. I'd blame that on the GAME ITSELF. And the developer and publisher of said game. And I'd likely end up boycotting said publisher and being quite vocal on reviews etc.

[kane_magus]

Even beyond the performance issues, even if a game somehow happens to run perfectly despite the Denuvo malware being there, there's still the issue of any game that is infected with Devuno becoming unusable if/when the Denuvo servers ever go down, unless the badware is patched out by the devs at some point. And that's by no means a certainty, depending on who the devs in question may be, and that's assuming said devs are even still around by that point. That will fuck over console games just as badly as it will PC games. PC or console, if you buy a game that has Denuvo built into it, should the Denuvo servers ever go down for good, you will be forced to download a patch to remove the malware (assuming such a patch exists), or else you'll be left with non-functional software (and a useless coaster, if you bought a physical disc of the game). But then, given how shoddily made most games tend to be these days, regardless of DRM, I guess that's not really anything new. *eye roll*

I've seen morons/fanboys/rep management drones say things along the lines of "meh, Denuvo will outlive you, it will always be supported, and worrying about the servers going down is stupid, just buy the game already." I'm sure similar morons said the same sort of things about SecuROM and SafeDisc, too. The only way to play SecuROM/SafeDisc-infected games nowadays is through cracks (official or otherwise), especially given that Windows 10 explicitly doesn't support software that includes SecuROM or SafeDisc now. (If only they would do the same with Denuvo... but then, as has been shown in the past, Microsoft is just peachy with the idea of phone-home DRM, so that'll probably never happen.)

As for me, I simply blanket boycott any games on PC that contain Denuvo at all, and that will be the case for console games going forward, also (theoretically speaking, of course, since I haven't cared about consoles since around 2014 or so, when I sold all the ones I had at the time). But then, that assumes that the devs/pubs properly disclose whether the game contains Denvuo or not, which, as we've seen, they sometimes don't (at least on Steam; no idea how/if that's handled at all on consoles). Only after it has been confirmed that the badware has been removed from a game will I even remotely consider buying such game, and even then, the likelihood of me ever buying it is very low.

[owsf2000]

You're right about the servers going down potentially causing a serious fuckup of the game. There are a couple of caveats to it though I guess for me.

1. I don't spend a lot of money on digital stuff - I always wait for a sale.

2. If a game becomes unusable due to the malware servers going down, I end up blaming and boycotting the publisher and developer, most likely for the rest of my life. (As I will be way too apathetic to reassess if they've redeemed themselves.)

So I likely won't get bitten by that too often - or at all given as I said, I still haven't the slightest interest in getting a PS5. PS3 and PS4 had games on them I wanted to play enough to get the console - but the PS5 simply doesn't have that. And with all the goodwill burnt through by devs and publishers this last generation with how shitty they've been at releasing games - and the general deliberate destruction of physical media (The quality of and benefits of having quality media, not them actually crushing discs, naturally) I'm pretty much 90% certain I've seen my last playstation.

I have a switch but I honestly don't see myself using that nearly as much as you'd think, and to be honest Nintendo isn't that much better at physical releases than their competition. (Typically just getting a small bad tasting cart in a plastic case - no manual or anything.)

In all honesty these days they leave it to third parties like Limited Run Games to release a physical copy at all...

And yeah, I do the same with Denuvo riddled games on PC. As I click through discovery queues on steam, whether I'm interested in a game or not, I'll always scroll down to see if it has either third party drm, or a requirement of having a third party account somewhere. If I see either of those - the game is marked ignored. Even if the game has the Denuvo removed later on, or is changed so you don't have to sign up at the dev's website, the game is already marked as ignore, and I won't bother trying to figure out why I ignored it later on.

[owsf2000]

To clarify, on a game console I won't be doing any banking. I won't be giving any credit card numbers out. I won't be surfing the web. Etc. So if Denovu were on it and crippled the security, there's very little that will be at risk from my side. Everything that will be vulnerable will belong to Sony and the devs. For instance what if the security flaws created by Denovu allowed a hacker to get unfiltered access to Sony's network, since Sony's network generally trusts it's consoles. (One would assume.)

All this aside, I still have no plans on buying a PS5. (And you'll notice I'm not talkinga about Xbox at all. That's because I haven't touched a Xbox console since the 360. Even during the 360 era I barely touched it. Basically the poor entertainment value of the 360 (To me personally mind you. It ain't my cup of tea) along with the attempts by Microsoft to corrupt the console market at the start of the Xbone era (attacking secondhand market, among the other things) caused a complete boycott of Xbox consoles that survives to this day.)