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Doom Eternal developer id Software will remove the game’s PC anti-cheat program, Denuvo, in its next patch.
The anti-cheat technology was added with Doom Eternal’s first update on May 14 — less than a week ago — to an overwhelmingly negative response from players. The game ended up getting review-bombed on Steam after the patch dropped.
“Despite our best intentions, feedback from players has made it clear that we must re-evaluate our approach to anti-cheat integration,” executive producer Marty Stratton announced on the Doom subreddit. “With that, we will be removing the anti-cheat technology from the game in our next PC update. As we examine any future of anti-cheat in DOOM Eternal, at a minimum we must consider giving campaign-only players the ability to play without anti-cheat software installed, as well as ensure the overall timing of any anti-cheat integration better aligns with player expectations around clear initiatives – like ranked or competitive play – where demand for anti-cheat is far greater.”
Stratton noted that any performance issues that players may have noticed in the last update were not caused by Denuvo, and are separate issues that’ll also be fixed with the next PC update. He said the performance problems players have seen on PC “are based on a code change ... around VRAM allocation.”
Similarly to Valorant’s anti-cheat, Doom Eternal’s was required to run on start-up and has a deep level of access to information on the PC. No time frame was given for the next PC update, but players on social media and Reddit are already celebrating the death of Denuvo — at least in Doom Eternal.
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Doom Eternal
- $60
Prices taken at time of publishing.
Bethesda’s follow-up to Doom (2016) is “one of the best shooters in years.” Doom Eternal is available on PS4, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.
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