PlayStation 5 now officially supports Denuvo anti-cheat
Sony is adding Denuvo anti-cheat software to the PlayStation 5’s official Tools and Middleware program, Denuvo developer Irdeto has announced.
What this essentially means for developers is that they’ll be able to more easily implement Denuvo into the PlayStation 5 versions of their games, rather than developing their own anti-cheat solution or paying a third-party middleware provider.
That should be especially good news for developers of lower-budget multiplayer games. When cheaters overrun a game with a smaller playerbase shortly after launch, it can be hard to build a lasting community. Having easy access to anti-cheat software will hopefully diminish that risk, and let a game thrive (or not) on its own merits.
The potential upside is also obvious to PlayStation 5 owners. While there’s no guarantee any given developer will choose to implement Denuvo anti-cheat, the fact that it will now be easier should make anti-cheating measures much more widespread—and therefore cheating much rarer. Kinda hard to argue with that. Nobody likes losing to an aimbotter or wallhacker.
While Denuvo may not have the best reputation among gamers, that’s largely due to its PC offering. Denuvo anti-piracy software hampered performance on games like Tekken 7 and Sonic Mania Plus on PC. And id Software actually patched Denuvo anti-cheat out of Doom Eternal on PC because of backlash over how the software worked. In essence, the software needs to run in the background from startup, with an especially deep level of access to your computer.
Since the PlayStation 5 has Sony’s own anti-piracy built in to the console that aspect of Denuvo shouldn’t be in play here. That said, if future PS5 games with Denuvo anti-cheat do take a performance hit relative to other platforms, however, you can expect outrage over the Sony deal will follow—justified or not.
