Forspoken, the upcoming RPG game from Final Fantasy’s Square Enix, and starring Ella Balinska from the Netflix Resident Evil series, will come with Denuvo Anti-Tamper when you purchase it from Steam, adding an extra layer of authentication and piracy protection ahead of the Forspoken release date.
If you’re unfamiliar with Denuvo Anti-Tamper, it’s a third-party software, developed by eponymous Austrian company Denuvo, which adds various protections and anti-cheat safeguards to videogames.
Essentially, it prevents people from adding to or altering the central files of a game – if developers want to make their games more difficult to pirate, or stop cheaters from hacking and modifying game files to gain unfair advantages in online modes, they might choose to incorporate Denuvo Anti-Tamper. Battlefield 2042, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and The Callisto Protocol are just some of the other games that use Denuvo.
In the past, there have been claims that incorporating Denuvo can negatively impact a game’s performance, specifically leading to drops in framerate. Fighting game Tekken 7, for example, launched with Denuvo back in 2015, but removed the program in 2021 after director Katsuhiro Harada said “anti-tamper third-party middleware” had led to framerate drops.
The Steam page for Forspoken has now been updated with a disclaimer: “Warning: This title uses 3rd-party DRM (Denuvo Anti-Tamper).” Forspoken’s page on the Epic Games Store does not mention the inclusion of Denuvo, though it is possible that all PC versions of the game will feature Anti-Tamper.
The Steam page update follows a new, cinematic trailer for the fantasy open-world game, which centres on Balinska’s character Frey as she runs from pursuers in modern-day New York City before entering the magical land of Athia.
If you’re looking forward to Forspoken, check out some of the other best story games to keep you busy in the meantime. You might also want to take a look at the most-promising upcoming games in 2023, or maybe some other fantasy games, if exploring strange, magical lands is your type of adventure.
