Back 4 Blood, Turtle Rock’s spiritual successor toLeft 4 Deadbut now with live service elements, will be launching next Tuesday on October 12. Despite its positively-received pre-launch testing, the discourse surroundingBack 4 Bloodhas taken a surprisingly negative turn. That’s in part due to the game’s live-service aspects, including an always-online requirement and its only solo mode being detached from online progression. In yet another disappointing turn, it’s now confirmedBack 4 Bloodwill be using Denuvo DRM.
Oddly enough, confirmation of Denuvo’s use inBack 4 Bloodwas made in late September. However, it was done via a circumspect update toBack 4 Blood’s Steam page that appears to have gone unnoticed until just recently. In one of theBack 4 BloodSteam profile’s side panels, a notice reading, “Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: Denuvo Anti-tamper,” is slipped between confirmation of the game’s support for controllers and details about theBack 4 BloodEULA.
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Needless to say, the confirmation ofBack 4 Blood’s implementation ofDenuvo DRMwas meant to be shared under the radar. It definitely worked, too, as enthusiasm forBack 4 Blood’s beta overwhelmed any possible mention of Denuvo being a part of the game. Now that it’s confirmed, it’s unclear whether the news will impact perceptions ofBack 4 Bloodahead of launch. There are just three days until release, after all.
Denuvo DRM has become a focus for frustration over publisher anti-piracy efforts since its first use in 2014. Denuvo is a layer of anti-piracy placed on top ofPC games, often with little to no notice to potential players. When implemented, Denuvo has repeatedly been shown to impact the performance of the PC games it’s built onto – sometimes severely. Yet publishers believe the outcry from PC gamer players is worth accepting in trade for a launch window with perceived anti-piracy efforts.
What’s particularly surprising about Denuvo’s implementation inBack 4 Bloodis that the game is already inherently built to combat piracy efforts. It’s an always-online game, after all, even through itssolo campaign mode. As such, piracy groups would have to build their own server infrastructure, which is an incredibly burdensome process that’s rarely carried through.
Ultimately, the implementation of Denuvo inBack 4 Bloodmay never cause as big of controversy as it does for other games. That’s because even if Denuvo results in a significant performance decrease while playingBack 4 Blood, players won’t have a point of comparison forBack 4 Bloodwithout it. At the very least,Back 4 Bloodplayerscome October 12 will be aware that their game has Denuvo running within it.
Back 4 Bloodreleases October 12 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
