Before we even dive into this, let’s be clear: the data sampling within this video which is currently making the rounds is a bit suspect, running each title once per version. This is well below what many would consider a standard for introducing something as fact, but it’s an interesting jumping point.
Overlord Gaming premiered a new video a few hours ago that matches the frame rates in Metro Exodus, Detroit Become Human, and Conan Exiles in versions with Denuvo Anti-Tamper (DAT), and versions without. These three titles were selected because they’re all relatively performance heavy, and offer both DAT and non-DAT versions for purchase.
Here’s a shocker to relatively few: the findings support the theory that DAT is causing frame-loss in titles.
The minimum frame difference between the two can often be staggering, netting a loss of almost one hundred frames per second in titles featuring a technology that has been stated by the developers, time and again, to offer no impact on gameplay performance.
When standing them up to each other with DAT as the only difference, however, the difference is clear and more than a bit staggering.
When you figure that PC gamers are purchasing selective hardware and attempting to maximize their proverbial bang for their buck, the issue becomes a bit more concerning as it’s nerfing hardware and rigs by including an anti-tamper.
What isn’t news, however, is that anti-piracy measures continue to foil legal consumers of products, to where piracy is the only resort for multiple titles now as anti-tamper mechanics have expired and corporations have gone belly-up, leaving swaths of titles to simply exist in a void.
DRM-free versions of these titles are available on GOG and the ilk, meaning that users that have purchased the title on a storefront or platform that sees the title continuing to use DRM are receiving an objectively worse experience simply due to the existence of DAT.
Titles have been pulled from libraries with no warning as users that have purchased games can no longer play them due to rights being transferred, or when SecuROM contracts failed to be renewed; it seems like the modern era of digital ownership results in wavering (or nonexistent) rights for the legal owners.
If the findings from Overlord Gaming are accurate, and again, it’s difficult to use this as a foundation of truth without more rigorous testing, then it could finally be a fact in PC gaming: pirates receive the best copies of games, where they don’t have to worry about obtrusive DRM’s or hundreds of small DLCs and pre-order bonuses fragmenting the game into a fraction of its whole.