Amplitude Studios - HUMANKIND will not have Denuvo

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Spaceman
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Amplitude Studios has announced on their forums that Denuvo will be removed for HUMANKIND on launch.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your feedback on this, we have been following along and having internal discussions before getting back to you. Based on data from our trial during the Closed Beta, we have decided not to include Denuvo in Humankind at launch.

First, let me explain the reasoning behind our initial decision including Denuvo - We work really hard and pour our hearts into these games we make, and pirating really does affect our ability to keep creating games with you guys.

We've been working on this game for more than 4 years now and personally it's been my dream project for 25 years. We've been one of the most wishlisted games on Steam this year, so we know we're going to be targeted by pirates, more so than any of our previous games. If Denuvo can hold off a cracked version, even just for a few days, that can already really help us to protect our launch.

That being said, our priority is always the best possible experience for the players who buy our games and support us. Denuvo should never impact player performance, and we don't want to sacrifice quality for you guys.

We believe that it's possible with the right integration, which is what we wanted to test during the Closed Beta. However, we found that the way it was currently integrated was not good enough, and it's not something we can fix before release. So, we are taking it out.

I hope this answers your questions. Thank you as always for your support, and we can't wait to see you all at launch (and beyond!)

- Romain, CCO & Studio Head
More information.
 
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Crapware like Denuvo has no measurable impact on piracy, which is much much reduced, at least in the West, since the rise of Steam and easily accessible, cheap games.
THE END
 
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Nice to know but I'm sure many legit buyers don't care nowadays. Me personally I hate the tech and the scene crackers who developed it. It's bloatware that adds garbage.
 
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Humankind, even without Denuvo, will receive a large pass from me. I didn't like its gameplay when I played the released Steam scenarios. A pity, I think :(
 
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I didn't think Denuvo was still enough of a thing to have a public announcement for.

Maybe it was a thing, back when it was released (2014). Now... I don't think so.
 
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Plenty of people on certain sites like Steam and Reddit still hate it. Just read some of the threads when a game is officially announced to use Denuvo. So it's still a thing.
 
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I'm delighted to see such announcements by game developers.

I had contended with invasive and unstable DRMs like Securom and other pieces of junk long ago, but when Denuvo was out I simply stopped buying games that had this nasty piece of work in them. Sony has a history of being the worst for their customers.

I realized I never missed any of these games and it made me discover much more interesting indie ones from companies that cared more about customers than raking money in.
 
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For a moment with sleepy eyes, I read the title as "Humankind will not save Denuvo." :D
 
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Piracy is this giant, idiot bogey-man for dim developers.
Anytime I see someone publicly worrying about it, and trying to defend DRM software in their games, I just think they can't be that bright, and probably aren't releasing some amazing, innovative game.
 
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Clickbait ! Denuvo


I'm delighted to see such announcements by game developers.

I had contended with invasive and unstable DRMs like Securom and other pieces of junk long ago, but when Denuvo was out I simply stopped buying games that had this nasty piece of work in them. Sony has a history of being the worst for their customers.

I realized I never missed any of these games and it made me discover much more interesting indie ones from companies that cared more about customers than raking money in.

Steam = DRM
 
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Steam = DRM
Yes, and most of the time for AAA titles, it's hard to know exactly what they put. It's easy to solve though, just avoid AAA titles. Or wait a little bit, they remove nasty and expensive DRMs when it's not worth it anymore (sometimes they remove the bugs from the game too).

If the DRM is light and reasonable, I have no problem with that. I'll usually choose GOG over Steam when it's possible, because there's no DRM, but also because the client is lighter (and not even mandatory), and it will not force an update if you don't want to.
 
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I think there's a touch of hyperbole with the DRM issue sometimes. Personally, I would never deprive myself of a potentially good game because of it.

Not saying it's never been a legit issue for some people, but I've had many games installed over the years that had Securom, Denuvo, etc, and never experienced anything negative.
 
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Humankind, even without Denuvo, will receive a large pass from me. I didn't like its gameplay when I played the released Steam scenarios. A pity, I think :(

Sadly, I've come to the same decision and it kind of bums me out, considering how much I like both Endless Legend and Endless Space 2. It's far too similar to Civilization, which I don't much like in the first place.

I may get Old World at some point, though. With its Crusader Kings elements, its more prominent narrative elements and its more focused time period, it appeals to me more.
 
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I would prefer not to have the additional security, yet I can understand it because theft these days is just so prevalent. If I had an intellectual property to protect, I'd likely take steps to do so as well.
 
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I would prefer not to have the additional security, yet I can understand it because theft these days is just so prevalent. If I had an intellectual property to protect, I'd likely take steps to do so as well.
You're right, it must something else when we're on the other side I suppose. But there are other, simpler protection methods. Denuvo is quite expensive and had an impact on performance, at least in some games or on some systems (for ex. Overlord Gaming's tests on Youtube); I haven't seen a large-scale test that can be considered as objective (well, I have seen some, but not read them in detail). It's sure that we'll only hear about the bad cases.

Once I had to change my CD-ROM device in order to play a game, because of Securom.

So one may wonder, isn't that bad for both sides in the end?

A 2014 study by the European Commission concluded that no DRM could increase sales in music, videos and literature (which don't suffer from performance penalty). And could also increase game sales, though the statistics didn't have a high level of confidence and the structure has changed since then, we're much more online.

It's a complex subject, with many considerations: price, online requirement, risk of being busted, risk of getting a virus, complexity and transparency of the DRM, privacy, ...
 
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