Ace Combat 7 received a small update yesterday. As reported by DSO Gaming, it was mostly to remove Denuvo from the game, although there might be some slight updates included for the upcoming Cutting Edge Aircraft DLC.

For the uninitiated, Denuvo is anti-tamper software that ostensibly prevents a game’s files from being altered--usually to prevent piracy, but lately to stop cheaters too. However, Denuvo comes at a price to the player in terms of performance as the program constantly runs in the background, sucking processing power away from your CPU.

Denuvo's efficacy is also somewhat questionable. Hackers have been able to work around Denuvo anti-tamper tech in record time recently. Mass Effect Legendary Edition had its Denuvo removed after just one month, while Marvel's Avengers had its removed after just two weeks--a clear sign that the games had already been cracked and were circulating on piracy sites.



On the other hand, Nier Automata kept its Denuvo in for over four years. We know from the Crytek leak that Denuvo's rates drop precipitously after the first six months, so Square Enix probably wasn't paying all that much to keep Denuvo in the game, but at that point, Nier Automata had long since been cracked.

Ace Combat 7 released in February 2019, which is also a fairly long time for Bandai Namco to keep paying for Denuvo.

The update also may have included some code related to the upcoming Cutting Edge Aircraft DLC, which will add three new aircraft and over a dozen new skins for existing planes. Bandai Namco hasn't provided a release window for the DLC, but perhaps this update brings us one step closer.



Posted: Oct 22, 2021 5:12 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/ace-combat-7-removed-denuvo/