Denuvo wants to set up independent benchmark program to disprove performance impact

For years, many PC gamers have believed that Denuvo DRM negatively impacts performance for games. There have been attempts over the years to dispute this but public opinion has remained undeterred. Now, Denuvo parent company, Irdeto, wants to settle the matter by setting up an independent benchmarking program.

Some benchmark comparisons between cracked versions of games and Denuvo-protected versions have shown changes, but Steve Huin, Chief Operating Officer, claims these comparisons are flawed as game builds change and go through significant improvements over time, including months and years after launch.

To try and settle the debate, Huin told Ars Technica that Irdeto wants to set up a new independent benchmarking program, in which media outlets will be supplied versions of games with and without Denuvo to publish their own performance comparisons and benchmarks.

Huin acknowledges that the community can't necessarily trust the word of the company itself, so they hope that independent benchmarks showing minimal or no performance differences between versions of games will help. Of course, beyond any potential performance impact, there are plenty of other reasons that a lot of users object to DRM like Denuvo, such as limits on number of activations for digital games.

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KitGuru Says: Several media outlets have already looked into exactly this, concluding that Denuvo did not impact performance in a meaningful way but the narrative has continued. If the program can get to a point where every major game is being benchmarked around launch with Denuvo on/off comparisons, then eventually, things may change, assuming the results end up coming out in Iderto's favour. 

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