Back 4 Blood Will Include Denuvo

Back 4 Blood is one of the most anticipated FPOV shooters, if the millions of players who joined the open beta are to be believed. Back 4 Blood may well be just the game we need to fill the hole created by the absence of a Left 4 Dead 3. 

There is just one possible hitch. Developer Turtle Rock Studios has updated their Steam page description to state that Back 4 Blood will include Denuvo, a controversial DRM (Digital Rights Management). No further comment or announcement came with the update, which went live on September 28. 

DRM is nothing new. A service designed to prevent tampering and piracy, players had to deal with DRMs for decades, with the likes of Steam and GoG relieving some of the stress involved by providing helpful services like game libraries and a storefront. That said, Denuvo has been the subject of intense controversy for causing performance issues and a host of other problems. 

In several cases, developers have dropped Denuvo from their games sometime after launch. These include AAA games like Monster Hunter: World, Resident Evil 3, and Marvel’s Avengers. Even a pirated version of Resident Evil: Village apparently ran with fewer problems compared to a version with Denuvo. Then there are cases like Humankind, which dropped Denuvo before its release, to the relief of fans.

Compared to other FPOV games, Back 4 Blood doesn’t have high requirements for PC, so there’s a chance that high-end machines may not experience problems with Denuvo. On the other hand, owners of lower-end PCs should probably be more cautious. 

We’ll find out the impact of this DRM soon enough. Back 4 Blood will launch on October 12 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC platforms. See our comparator for cheap prices for Back 4 Blood.