Bethesda relaesed the first Doom Eternal update 1 this past Thursday which also brought the Denuvo Anti-Cheat technology to the game. Notably, soon after the update went live, many of the players started reporting about the instability and performance degradation issues on PC, and some even related the issues to the inclusion of Denuvo Anti-Cheat technology into the game.
In a Reddit post earlier today, Bethesda provided some important information on why they included the Denuvo Anti-Cheat technology in the first Doom Eternal update. Bethesda shared a number of factors that made their decision to include Denuvo Anti-Cheat technology in the Doom Eternal. You can check out the factors given below.
- Protect BATTLEMODE players from cheaters now, but also establish consistent anti-cheat systems and processes as we look ahead to more competitive initiatives on our BATTLEMODE roadmap
- Establish cheat protection in the campaign now in preparation for the future launch of Invasion – which is a blend of campaign and multiplayer
- Kernel-level integrations are typically the most effective in preventing cheating
- Denuvo’s integration met our standards for security and privacy
- Players were disappointed on DOOM (2016) with our delay in adding anti-cheat technology to protect that game’s multiplayer
After this, Bethesda announced that despite their best intention, feedback received from players has finally made the team to remove the anti-cheat from next Doom Eternal update 1.1 for PC.
- Despite our best intentions, feedback from players has made it clear that we must re-evaluate our approach to anti-cheat integration. With that, we will be removing the anti-cheat technology from the game in our next PC update. As we examine any future of anti-cheat in DOOM Eternal, at a minimum we must consider giving campaign-only players the ability to play without anti-cheat software installed, as well as ensure the overall timing of any anti-cheat integration better aligns with player expectations around clear initiatives – like ranked or competitive play – where demand for anti-cheat is far greater.
Please note, that Bethesda has clarified that the decision of removing the anti-cheat from the game is not related to the performance and stability issues introduced in Update 1.
- It’s also worth noting that our decision to remove the anti-cheat software is not based on the quality of the Denuvo Anti-Cheat solution. Many have unfortunately related the performance and stability issues introduced in Update 1 to the introduction of anti-cheat. They are not related.
Bethesda notes that their decision of including the Denuvo Anti-Cheat was based on the factors and goals listed above.
In addition to the upcoming Doom Eternal update 1.1 for PC. Bethesda also revealed that they have fixed several crashes in our code related to customizable skins and have also identified and fixed a number of other memory-related crashes that should improve overall stability for players. Finally, Bethesda noted that the performance issues some players have experienced on PC were based on a code change related to VRAM allocation.
Notably, all these fixes will be available in the upcoming Doom Eternal update 1.1 for PC.
DOOM Eternal is now available for on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and Nintendo Switch.
