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Ahead of the highly anticipated launch, the gaming community wants to know if Starfield will have Denuvo.
Denuvo is a cause of concern for some of the gaming community because of its perceived impact of performance issues and modding. So we’re all on the same page, Denuvo is an anti-tamper software aimed to prevent privacy and in-game cheating. Anything that could have an impact on a game’s performance is going to be controversial, and Denuvo is no different.
There’s been no shortage of instances in the past where Denuvo had to be removed post-launch after widespread issues like stuttering, (see Resident Evil: Village). There are also instances that do the flipside – quietly add Denuvo post launch (see Ghostwire: Tokyo). With understandable concern from the gaming community, let’s be clear on whether Starfield will have Denuvo.
Will Starfield have Denuvo or DRM on PC?
In the absence of any official word from Bethesda Studios, we kept our ears out for clues. One clue is that Todd Howard said Starfield will become a “modder’s paradise” in a podcast. Given that Denuvo can affect modding makes his words more valuable, though they alone are not enough to confirm Starfield won’t have Denuvo or DRM.
It’s tricky to say for certain whether Starfield will have Denuvo or DRM, since its software is hidden inside the game files, and the game isn’t released yet. Bethesda has historically not used DRM, which is hopeful.
There’s some more information that might help us figure out if Starfield is going to have Denuvo. For example, popular hacker Empress (who has also promised to add DLSS to the game), has alleged that they “don’t think Starfield will have any protection because they know sales are going to be crazy anyway,” which is generally what was seen with Skyrim and Fallout 4. Neither titles had any form of DRM, making it easy for piracy to happen, unfortunately, but also thankfully giving more power to the modding community.
On top of that – there’s also the clear indication that the game has no DRM on Steam. Pictured below is where Steam usually lists if a game is going to launch with DRM. You can check for yourself against a game that does have DRM – for example, Resident Evil 4 has Denuvo and so it is listed on the Steam store page. Starfield, on the other hand, looks as though it’s not going to be affected by Denuvo protection.
For now, there’s no definite answer to the question of whether Starfield will have Denuvo. In the meantime, you can check out the best SSD for Starfield, or else get inspired by the mods we’d love to see in Starfield.
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