Payday 3 Developers Have Removed Denuvo Ahead Of Its Release

Update:

Here are what some players had to say about the sudden DRM removal.

Original Story…

For fans of Payday 3, we knew a while back that this game would receive Denuvo DRM. Developers and publishers have used this popular DRM software for several years. It’s also a relatively solid DRM to prevent piracy from taking video games and spreading them online. However, typically, we do see the Denuvo DRM removed well after the games have been released into the marketplace. That’s not too surprising as, at this point, the game has likely sold as many copies as possible and is marked down for those who might want an official copy of the game. 

However, that’s not what’s happening right now for Payday 3. The video game was initially confirmed to have Denuvo DRM ahead of its launch. But today, the development team has taken to the official Payday video game X account to reveal that the DRM was removed. There won’t be Denuvo featured in the game at launch, but that doesn’t mean there’s not something else planned to take its place. At any rate, for fans, this might be a joyous announcement as Denuvo takes quite a bit of hate from the gaming community.

Mostly, the reason gamers are not a fan of Denuvo DRM is not because of anything that deals with piracy. Instead, we see a lot of comments online claiming that Denuvo causes the game performance to take a hit. For some, this performance hit might not be too much to notice. However, there are showcases online to highlight a game build featuring Denuvo and the game without the DRM. Typically, the build without the DRM has better performance. But that also has Denuvo themselves making bold claims.

Earlier this year, Denuvo was looking to release software to third-party testers in order to show that their DRM does not hurt game performance. However, it’s clear that fans have strongly voiced against the DRM, and now that Payday 3 is confirmed to not feature Denuvo, it might have some players more willing to give this game a purchase. Fortunately, we don’t have long to wait until we can dive into this new FPS heist-focused title. Payday 3 is set to launch on September 21, 2023, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms. In the meantime, you can view a game trailer for Payday 3 in the video we have embedded below.