After strong backlash from fans, developer id Software is undoing most of the changes it made to DOOM Eternal with the latest game update. Specifically, id is stripping out the Denuvo Anti-Cheat Software that it put in the game and which many players had a problem with once it arrived.
At its core, DOOM Eternal players felt like Denuvo Anti-Cheat was superfluous for a game whose core content is a single-player, offline campaign. If those players wanted to embellish the game experience, they felt like it could only help DOOM Eternal’s replayability.
Fans even review-bombed DOOM Eternal to drive down its aggregate user review scores and to show id Software and publisher Bethesda how unhappy they were with the additions. Many reviews also noted that the performance of DOOM Eternal on PC had taken a hit and felt like the Denuvo system was causing more problems than the developer intended.
On Wednesday, Creative Director Marty Stratton took to Reddit to clear the air and to promise DOOM Eternal players that they were being heard. In an upcoming update that should arrive in a week, id Software is going to remove the Denuvo Anti-Cheat System. He did explain that the goal of implementing Denuvo was to help protect the Battlemode multiplayer in DOOM Eternal and to set the stage for future modes that might release with DLC.
He also acknowledged that DOOM (2016) was slow to implement any form of anti-cheat system and players were disappointed by that response. However, DOOM had a dedicated multiplayer mode that was meant to be more competitive in nature, DOOM Eternal’s Battlemode is a lot more casual in its 2 monster-controlled players versus 1 Doomslayer concept.
But while the Anti-cheat itself was seen as a problem for players, Stratton did want to clarify that it was not determined to be the source of the performance issues. He says that the upcoming update should improve how DOOM Eternal runs on PC by making some changes to customizable skins and VRAM allocation in the game. Those two changes are apparently the culprits that lead to DOOM Eternal running poorly; they just coincided with the release of Denuvo.
If nothing else, such a quick response from id Software and a willingness to remove Denuvo shows that the developer is willing to listen to fans and put their experience above any other changes. Granted, Denuvo might be replaced by a different anti-cheat system if/when DOOM Eternal releases more multiplayer modes, but for now the game is back to its state a week ago.
DOOM Eternal is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, and Xbox One.
