Square Enix took out the Denuvo anti-tamper technology from the PC version of Final Fantasy XVI on March 4, 2024. It took about six months after the game’s June 22, 2023 release.
SteamDB confirmed this change when it noticed the game’s executable file had become smaller. It’s not uncommon for publishers to remove Denuvo from their games after some time. This is often because the publishers are no longer as worried about piracy as sales drop.
In this case, the removal of Denuvo from Final Fantasy XVI happened faster than usual. A recent study stated that developers could lose up to 20% of revenue if a game is cracked after release. However, that number nearly goes to zero if the game is pirated after the first 12 weeks post-launch.
Denuvo is great for making sure launch day piracy is lowered. The launch day sales are very important to any game’s lifecycle. Sure, some games grow over time, but that isn’t a good thing for Triple-A releases. These games need big sales as their life projections have a lot to do with launch day sales. A developer could get closed over a poor launch if the publisher doesn’t believe in a game.
The choice to get rid of Denuvo differs from Square Enix’s ongoing use in Final Fantasy XV, which was released nine years ago. This difference is due to Denuvo’s subscription model costs. While Denuvo only charges 50 cents a game with a regular license fee, the subscription fee is $25,000 per month. It could be assumed that the newer game was better off without Denuvo, but keeping it for the older game still makes financial sense under the subscription model.
Many PC gamers have a negative opinion of Denuvo because it can cause performance problems like stuttering and drops in frame rates. It also makes it harder for players to create mods. This dislike is shown by the mixed reviews Denuvo gets, including the brief existence of a Denuvo Discord server that was quickly closed down. Even though Denuvo has tried to improve how it’s seen, including comments from its product manager about the benefits of anti-piracy measures for game development, it still remains a controversial topic among PC players.
Taking Denuvo out of Final Fantasy XVI doesn’t seem to have caused any clear performance boosts, but it’s pretty early still. The absence of performance data before the patch makes it hard to compare. However, removing it does fix problems with running the game on Linux and Steam Deck, stopping issues that could lead to temporary account lockouts.
It will take time to see the overall effect removing Denuvo will have on Final Fantasy XVI. There are plenty of players who choose not to get games with Denuvo on them as a matter of principle, and if any were holding out hope for its removal, now is the time to buy it. There could also be some who want to reward Square Enix for removing the software by buying the game now that Denuvo has been removed.
The company does see when game sales take off and measures them based on any trends or changes that were made. This is a good way for players to show their disdain for the software, but it’s doubtful whether there are enough players who are still willing to buy the game who did not when it was released due to Denuvo.
If it somehow does work and a ton of people buy the game, this may be the smartest sales strategy for any company. Getting Denuvo just to remove it and increase sales would be an interesting strategy. However, it doesn’t look like the removal of Denuvo will do much except ease Square Enix’s subscription fee.
Source: SteamDB, GamingOnLinux
