4A Games has pushed a patch for Metro Exodus that has removed the controversial Denuvo DRM solution from the game. This usage of the DRM was of course only one of many issues to befall the launch of the sequel to Artyom’s story. The Metro Exodus launch was moved to the Epic Games Store as part of a timed exclusivity deal. This deal later signaled a major strategy by Epic to compete with Valve using exclusives and free games.
But for Metro Exodus, using Denuvo DRM was just one more bad thing to talk about. The sudden shift to Epic’s platform left tons of Steam users angry, including those who had already pre-ordered the game on Steam. The release was plagued by review bombs of the older games on Steam, and plenty of other controversies. Deep Silver definitely took a reputation hit.
Alongside the removal of Denuvo DRM, this latest patch fixes a few bugs as well. There were some camera and graphical issues in various parts of the game that have been fixed in this update. Additionally, it adds save backup functionality for the Epic version.
And it’s possible that having the Denuvo-free version of this game could give slightly better performance, although this is unconfirmed. Although with the Denuvo 5.6 version in the game having been cracked relatively quickly, it could be argued to have been pointless from the start.
As of now, the patch has removed Denuvo from all PC versions, including Steam and Xbox Gamepass. This is pretty standard for AAA developers and publishers to do. The purpose of DRM is not to protect a game in perpetuity from pirates. It’s actually all about those launch numbers and getting as many sales in the first few weeks as possible. Many high-profile AAA releases have pulled Denuvo DRM from their games months after launch, feeling that it has done its job.
