1 yr. ago • 100%

Denuvo security is now on Switch, including new tech to block PC Switch emulation

www.videogameschronicle.com Denuvo security is now on Switch, including new tech to block PC Switch emulation | VGC

The company is the first security partner to be added to the Nintendo Developer Portal…

The first of the tools Denuvo is offering to Switch developers is Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, a “revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy”.

According to Denuvo, the new tech can be applied to Switch games to block the ability to play them on PC emulators.

“Even if a game is protected against piracy on its PC version, the version released on Nintendo Switch can be emulated from day one and played on PC, therefore bypassing the strong protections offered on the PC version,” the company says. “This can happen with any of the numerous games available on Nintendo Switch.

58 comments

Personally, I'm not much of a PC gamer, so I don't have a lot of personal experience with Denuvo; but this sounds pretty concerning.

My understanding is that by Denuvo LoJacking into every part of the game, it seriously hampers performance; and the Switch is underpowered enough as it is. I can only imagine how poorly games will run if the Switch has to devote resources to Denuvo as well.

Plus, from a preservation standpoint this is terrible too. Even if the studio drops Denuvo down the line, it will forever be included on the cartridge. This means that in the future, the only way to play this game will have to be an emulated copy, since you won't be able to get the update to clear the (no longer supported) Denuvo from the game.

105
- Exactly. But AFAIK every Denuvo game eventually gets cracked, so at least we will have the pirate copies. From a preservation standpoint, a dumped ROM is much better than a physical cartridge anyway, since it's more portable and easier to back up. It's the contents of the cartridge minus the physical limitations.
  
  22
  
  There's plenty of games which haven't been cracked. More often than not, a game is updated to remove denuvo or a drm-free .exe is released accidentally.
  
  It's been hard to crack games and from what I've read, it now relies on one person and they have been a bit of a lunatic.
  
  38
- I can only imagine how poorly games will run if the Switch has to devote resources to Denuvo as well.
  
  Pokemon Go added code obfuscation (I forgot the name of the company that provided it) some months after it was first released. Phones started running very hot, battery life dropped drastically, and people who played a lot had to replace their batteries (or phones) in a fraction of their normal lifetime. Also, as you imagined, performance dropped significantly.
  
  8
- Wouldn't necessarily be impossible to "remove" Denuvo from a cartridge after a certain amount of time, not physically remove it, but bypass it with a patch. Makes sense to add in this capability too, since Denuvo licenses can be subscription based and at some point it just isn't worth the ongoing costs.
  
  Definitely expect a huge performance hit though. Games with Denuvo run like absolute shit lol.
  
  2
And like every other DRM, it's just going to be something that the people who bought the game and play it unaltered will be forced to deal with in one way or another... while those who modify the game, emulate or pirate it, won't. I love DRMs. Nothing like feeling like a sucker for actually buying the game and not cracking it.

73
- Like Resident Evil Village before they fixed it.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXZGCwAJpbM
  
  It shouldn't be a problem if it's properly implemented, but games are so broken these days and take months to fix if lucky that it's insulting to paying customers. Properly implemented DRM is not a guarantee when games have been unoptimized even without it.
  
  19
  
  Even perfectly implemented DRM steals cycles that can't possibly benefit any gamer ever in any way.
  
  24
Surely a 1:1 emulator would just run DRM as expected and it would never know... Feels like it may stop day1 piracy via emulators but anything beyond I'm sure would be patched.

43
- [This comment has been deleted by an automated system]
  
  16
- Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't have a lot of experience with PC gaming (or its related piracy), but there seems to be a lot of drama in the pirate community due to the difficulty in bypassing Denuvo.
  
  In this particular case, a good Switch emulator may be enough to bypass it; but my guess is it'll be more complicated and resource taxing on the Switch than a simple hardware check.
  
  7
  
  IMO the worst part about Denuvo is that it just ruins any game they add it to by being a massive resource hog.
  
  37
  
  We've been down this road before. It just takes a few determined hackers to find a workaround. I can't wait to see what their solution would be.
  
  8
  
  I hope that the switch version would be easier to bypass as there's no way they're going to force you to connect to the internet to verify anything like the do on the PC.
  
  2
- Yuzu (and Ryukahr) are not 1:1 emulators though, and they aren't attempting to. Attempting 1:1 emulation of the hardware is only feasible with very old hardware like the NES or whatever, where modern hardware doesn't have a problem simulating every detail of the CPU. Yuzu doesn't try to simulate the Tegra SoC that's in the Switch, I think it works by transpiling game code and hooking into system calls and whatnot, similar to what Proton does on Linux (only probably more complex).
  
  If the Denuvo team studied how these emulators work well, it's probably very hard to effectively defeat Denuvo DRM in general (as opposed to on a per-game basis).
  
  1
What I will always find funny is that pirated and cracked games run better than the actual ones with Denovo.

43
Even if a game is protected against piracy on its PC version, the version released on Nintendo Switch can be emulated from day one and played on PC, therefore bypassing the strong protections offered on the PC version,”

Are there that many multi-platform games that have denuvo and a switch version too?

I'd think most games "big enough" for denuvo wouldn't have a switch port anyway.

41
- That was my thought. Most games that are on both PC and Switch are not big enough to want to pay Denuvo for their services. Any game that is big enough to care probably also can't afford to take the Denuvo performance hit (that they claim doesn't exist) on the under-powered Switch.
  
  29
- There were a few years back. The Tony Hawk remasters cone to mind
  
  5
- There are a surprising amount of pc games on switch. I’m not sure if all these titles have denuvo on PC but as an example.
  
  Dragon Quest 11 Doom Eternal Divinity original sin 2 Disco Elysium Most resident Evil games There are a lot of other games that have a switch port, but I’m too tired to think about it further.
  
  4
- Sonic frontiers and persona 5 royal both have denuvo on PC I think and both are pretty big and great imo.
  
  3
Welp, I guess we're going to be getting a DRM-breaking emulator accompanied by some weird new rant by Empress.

30
- Was she the one who released an nfo where she went off on a random insane rant against trans people?
  
  18
  
  yes
  
  8
- it would be preferable to have someone other than her cracking denuvo lol
  
  15
  
  No one else is batshit insane enough to wanna warp their minds working with this garbage. She is already warped, so it doesn't affect her. Much.
  
  8
Well, shit, sorry Switch gamers, you're going to have to put up with this steaming pile of shit us PC gamers had to do as well.

30
- Yep, except you can take the FPS hit on PC.
  
  2
As a Switch owner, fuck this. This is reason enough for me to stop buying games on the Switch and go full piracy/emulation mode. I don't have any Denuvo games on my PC and I am not having any on my Switch.

30
Best way to fight against things like this is with your wallet. Stop buying and supporting games with Denuvo or any other similar DRM.

29
- I buy physical because I don't trust Nintendo's online services, but I'm not even going to get physical if it comes with DRM. I'm buying it expressly to dump it and run in an emulator eventually.
  
  Not to mention that the Switch is already showing its age, so any added burden is going to come with noticeably performance loss.
  
  16
Fuck Nintendo, Fuck Denuvo, Fuck everyone

28
How is this going to affect battery life? Some of us don’t have the switch connected to power 24/7. Sounds like a bad idea for an underpowered handheld device.

18
- It'll probably rely on offline checks
  
  Will be equivalent to steamdrm, uplay, etc
  
  3
It's going to be cracked within a week

13
- That's not how it works for most games unless Empress goes at I. U
  
  6
https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/24/23319847/nintendo-switch-denuvo-drm-anti-cheat-software-emulated-games-pc this news isn't even new. i figured they'd have at least applied it to a game by now.

13
I hope most developers stay away from Denuvo on Switch. Devs already have to squeeze the thing for every fps they can get out of it, it really doesn't need anything else bogging it down.

12
And yet my friends wonder why I play ancient games and indie games. Less shit I have to out go with

9
Well they're a little late at least. All the good games worth getting on the Switch are already out, and it'll be about a year until Switch 2 will probably be out.

8
- Could be doing this in preparation for the Switch 2.
  
  10
  
  Switch 2 should then be a much less of a hit than Switch. Already Steam Deck has proven to be a far better handheld gaming console.
  
  6
  
  Given this is Nintendo, I highly doubt this code would be portable to the new console.
  
  3
Is this some hardware they're activating or software that's going to hurt already struggling performance?

8
- It will hurt performance, yeah. DRM is evil.
  
  7
- Software probably, it already hurts performance on PC versions.
  
  7

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