The latest update to Doom Eternal has arrived, but it’s bringing something rather unwelcome with it: Denuvo Anti-Cheat. This latest Doom Eternal Denuvo update is making a lot of people upset, especially because this anti-cheat system wasn’t included with the game at launch.
Doom Eternal Update 1 arrived last night and it’s brought with it a bunch of new features. However, it also included a new anti-cheat system made by Denuvo for the game’s multiplayer mode. As with some other anti-cheat solutions, players are reporting that Denuvo Anti-Cheat is an invasive program that hurts game performance and runs in the background all the time — even if you’re not playing Doom Eternal multiplayer.
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A Reddit submission explains the scope of the problem. Although the Doom Eternal Denuvo update adds this anti-cheat system for Battlemode, the program is always running in the background. This can result in some problems with other games.
What are the problems with the Doom Eternal Denuvo update?
- Some players are reporting performance drops of 30%.
- Some players are reporting BSOD (Blue Screen of Death — that is, their Windows is crashing).
- Some players report that playing on Linux via Proton does not work any longer.
While these are the most obvious issues with this Doom Eternal update, they aren’t the only ones. The author of the thread points out that this is yet another “ring-0” application running on your PC, meaning that it runs at a very high permissions level. That said, there are no known issues with Denuvo’s program at this time.
Recent Steam user reviews have been unkind. Today has seen 433 negative reviews for the game versus only 96 positive reviews and the day is far from over.
The Doom Eternal Denuvo update may be upsetting to some, but the worst consequences you’re likely to face are a dip in performance. However, the backlash from fans will get Bethesda to consider figuring out a less controversial solution to battling cheaters.