So we’ve got some good and bad news for fans eagerly awaiting Final Fantasy XV. It turns out that the PC port of the game will use Denuvo DRM after all. Bandai Namco revealed as much during public statements recently. Back in February, Denuvo was not mentioned on the official materials for the game, leading to some confusion and speculation, which was further compounded by statements that the demo would not use the DRM. Now, it appears that issue has been cleared up thanks to changes on the Steam store page for the title.
Fans are worried about potential performance slowdown, or privacy issues, from the DRM tech. After all Denuvo has been under a lot of fire recently from both pirates and the wider games industry for what many claim are performance slowdowns stemming from its anti-piracy measures. The DRM technology was heralded as the death knell of piracy in 2016, before scene group sprang into action, trying everything they could to crack it. Early attempts often failed, and some games remained unbroken months after release, but Denuvo was eventually beaten. Some developers have even taken to patching it out of their games, as the software did its job of protecting launch window sales.
Final Fantasy XV has had some troubled history behind it. The game originally began development in 2006 as a PlayStation 3 spin-off titled Final Fantasy Versus XIII. As we now know, the RPG went through myriad delays and other development hell for years, languishing in a state of uncertainty. Then in 2012, progress was finally made as a new director pushed the game into an eighth generation title for the PS4 and Xbox One, with much of the story being reworked to accommodate the switch. It was eventually released for PS4 and Xbox One in 2016, with many fans liking it, while some found issues with the story or gameplay elements they felt were too disjointed or lacking in bite.
Final Fantasy XV did eventually introduce some very interesting innovations, like a full multiplayer system and live events, into the franchise. The Comrades multiplayer update which kicked off many of these new additions was fraught with its own developmental problems too though, seems like that’s a norm for this particular JRPG though.
Final Fantasy XV releases on March 6th for PC, and is out now for Xbox One and PS4.