UPDATE #2
To conclude this article out, it looks like Capcom has released their patch update. This has improved the performance of their Resident Evil Village PC build. Now fans don’t have to rely on a pirated copy of the game to avoid the stuttering issues.
UPDATE
In a statement provided to Eurogamer, Capcom confirms that they are working on a patch to address the PC performance issue. It looks like there’s not going to be a move to take away the DRM but at the very least this performance update should take away the stuttering. Unfortunately, there’s no specific date as to when this update will actually hit the marketplace.
Original Story…
DRM is something of a hot topic when it comes to the video game industry. With DRM, developers along with publishers will receive some kind of a security measurement. Overall, it’s an anti-tampering measure that allows the game to be played for those that legitimately purchased a copy of the game while piracy is able to be put on hold. There’s never really a roadmap for when a game is cracked and DRM gets removed, it could happen in hours, days, weeks, months, to even years.
Sometimes DRM never gets cracked and it was actually the cause of a Ubisoft game being removed online completely. Still, this is a big topic for more than just anti-piracy measures. Some players are against DRM simply because it can ruin the gameplay experience. We’ve seen video games released in the past that are affected in some capacity because of the software used to prevent piracy. Others are not fans of DRM because sometimes they require an online connection so if your internet is down or you just don’t have great internet, it’s a bit of a pain to play some video games.
When it comes to Resident Evil Village, the latest mainline installment to the franchise, it looks like DRM was the reason behind an annoying stutter issue fans were dealing with. There were plenty of complaints that were sent out online asking Capcom to address the stuttering issues that would pop up within the game but now we know that the cause of this stuttering problem is the DRM placed within the retail build of Resident Evil Village. This is reported by DSO Gaming who had played a recently cracked copy of Resident Evil Village and compared it to their legitimate copy.
According to the publication, there were no issues with stuttering on the DRM-free version of the game. Now that the game is available as a cracked edition and piracy is allowing more players to gain access to Resident Evil Village, it will be interesting to see if Capcom opts to remove the DRM completely to play the game since more fans are finding out that it’s the main cause for the stuttering problems. However, there’s always the anticipation of potential DLC expansions which might be a reason to keep DRM intact for the time being.
Source: DSO Gaming
Source Update: Eurogamer
Source Update 2: VGC