Death Stranding Will Use Denuvo DRM On PC

Death Stranding is officially coming to PC in June, and now another detail about the PC release has been confirmed. The game’s Steam page shows that Death Stranding for PC will use the Denuvo digital-rights-management (DRM) to try to thwart tampering.

By nature of being DRM in the first place, Denuvo is often seen as controversial software in the eyes of PC players. One of the main pieces of criticism of Denuvo is that the anti-piracy software has been shown to impact performance in some cases.

Denuvo the company understands that no DRM product can stop tampering. What Denuvo offers for publishers is a software that protects initial sales. “Games will be cracked at certain points; there is no uncrackable product. But what we do is protect the initial sales,” Denuvo’s Elmar Fischer told GI.biz in 2018.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War used Denuvo as DRM, and it was cracked within 24 hours. Other publishers have elected to remove DRM after a period of time, which was the case for Mass Effect: Andromeda and Rage 2, among others.

Death Stranding will also release on the Epic Games Store, but the DRM situation on that platform has not been confirmed.

Death Stranding’s PC version is published by 505 Games. There will be a special crossover promotion that brings Death Stranding and Half-Life together for this release. The PC version of Death Stranding will feature a new photo mode, as well as support for ultrawide monitors and high frames rates.

Death Stranding was initially released in November 2019 exclusively for PlayStation 4. Here at GameSpot, we called it one of the best games of 2019, with reviewer Kallie Plagge scoring it a 9/10 and praising the game’s themes. “It’s positive without ignoring pain; in fact, it argues in both its story and its gameplay that adversity itself is what makes things worth doing and life worth living,” Kallie wrote. “It’s a game that requires patience, compassion, and love, and it’s also one we really need right now.”