There haven’t been any public statements from the developers at Techland about Denuvo, but Dying Light: The Beast comes after many issues with Denuvo. If you’re expecting an announcement, you’re out of luck, because the publisher likely wants to do this quietly.
So, Dying Light: The Beast will likely operate in silence to add the necessary pirating measures to the game. There are other great games to choose form this year, but Dying Light: The Beast is a real return to form. Luckily, there are pages to check to find out if Denuvo is coming with this game.
Does Dying Light: The Beast Have Denuvo?
Right now, there’s no official word on whether Dying Light: The Beast will have Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM, but it will not. The game’s Steam page doesn’t list it. Still, honestly, a lot of us in the PC gaming community are pretty sure it’s going to be added at the last minute, probably right before the September 18 release date. This feeling comes from a pretty frustrating thing Techland did before.
The reason for all the worry is what happened with Dying Light 2: Stay Human back in 2022. They added Denuvo just a few days before the game came out, with no warning at all. It caught a lot of us off guard and led to a ton of backlash from PC players.
At the time, Techland said they did it to protect the game from piracy, since the original Dying Light was heavily pirated. Because of that, people are talking all over Reddit and the Steam community pages, getting ready for the same thing to happen with The Beast. To be fair, Denuvo was eventually removed from Dying Light 2 after the initial launch window, so maybe if it is included, it’s just a temporary thing for the first sales rush.
I’m hoping Techland will skip Denuvo this time to avoid the big fan backlash and negative press they got before. There are a few reasons they might. Denuvo isn’t cheap; it has big upfront fees and ongoing monthly charges, which might not be worth it if the game gets cracked quickly anyway. Plus, there’s the whole player satisfaction thing, and the game is pushing a big narrative, so hopefully it will learn not to use Denuvo.
Denuvo is often blamed for performance issues like longer load times and lower frame rates, which would really hurt the experience. The anti-consumer vibe around it can lead to review-bombing and just turn players off.
Will Dying Light Get Denuvo Eventually?
There hasn’t been any official word from Techland, but a lot of us are expecting it to happen eventually, and there’s a good reason why. We saw this exact same thing happen with Dying Light 2: Stay Human. Just a few days before that game dropped, Denuvo was suddenly added without any warning, and it really upset a lot of PC players. Because of that, a bunch of us on Reddit and Steam forums are already talking about and worrying that Techland will pull the same move again.
Right now, the Steam page for The Beast doesn’t mention Denuvo at all, which just adds to the uncertainty since that’s exactly what the Dying Light 2 page looked like before the sudden change. On the other hand, it’s worth remembering that if Denuvo does get included, it might not be a permanent thing. They actually removed the anti-tamper software from Dying Light 2 a little while after it launched.
This makes me think it might just be a temporary protection for those all-important first few weeks of sales, which is a pretty common strategy for big games. We all know Denuvo doesn’t stop piracy forever; it always gets cracked eventually. So, given the huge backlash and bad press they got with Dying Light 2, they might not see a long-term commitment to Denuvo as worth the trouble.
What Anti-Piracy Measures Does Dying Light Use?
As of right now, if you go look at Dying Light: The Beast’s Steam page, there’s no mention of Denuvo or any anti-piracy measures. However, that doesn’t really mean anything yet, and a lot of us are just waiting to see what happens.
On the other hand, maybe Techland will surprise us and decide not to use any measures this time around. That would be a huge relief, especially after all the negative feedback they got from the last game. There are a few good reasons they might skip it.
Beyond Denuvo, Techland has plenty of other options. They could just stick with something simple like Steamworks, which still offers decent protection without being super intrusive. Or, they could focus on making the game so good that you actually want to buy it.
They could add online features that make the pirated versions less appealing, like co-op or other social elements. They could also add things like digital bonus content or give free updates to people who bought the game. Honestly, building a strong community and making people feel good about supporting the developer is probably a much better long-term strategy for Dying Light: The Beast than an intrusive DRM that just causes headaches for everyone.
