You know, it’s pretty sad when a pirated version of a game performs smoother than the paid version.
Right from the start, the pirated version loads faster than the Steam version. The Steam version needed 30 seconds in order to launch (for the first time) whereas the pirated version was ready in just 3 seconds. The second launch (by exiting and then re-launching the game immediately) needed 8 seconds for the Steam version, whereas the pirated version was – once again – ready in 3 seconds. The in-game maps also loads faster in the pirated version (58 seconds versus 1 minute and 40 seconds). Below you can find a video with the loading times for both the pirated and the Steam versions.
I’m not advocating piracy, but this kind of DRM will most likely hinder more than help as it’s only a matter of time before someone or some group cracks through your safeguards, and once word gets out that your product delivers better performance if pirated guess what people are going to do? You might get the guilt ridden people who will buy the store version and then pirate it to get what they want, but chances are for most people they’ll pirate it straight away and give a giant fuck you for using something as shitty as Denuvo. I have a couple of games in my library that either used or still use Denuvo, and fortunately I haven’t noticed much in terms of performance. But seeing things like this makes me question if it’s even worth it for companies to place this kind of DRM into their products in the first place.