Capcom’s classic Resident Evil games launch on Steam for $4.99 amid backlash for Enigma DRM, Steam Deck compatibility issues

Capcom’s classic Resident Evil titles have recently landed on Steam, giving gamers another platform to enjoy or collect the original trilogy that jump-started the series.

Capcom has released the original Resident Evil from 1996, Resident Evil 2 from 1998, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis from 1999, and the RPG Breath of Fire IV for $4.99 each, which is 50% off until April 15. However, there’s a catch: all classic Resident Evil titles on Steam are the same enhanced GOG releases, but with the inclusion of Capcom’s Enigma DRM. 

Capcom’s re-releases of the mainline Resident Evil trilogy are mere ports of the GOG releases that we received a few years ago, featuring smoother animations, improved keyboard and mouse support, overhauled audio, and more display settings.

However, the major problem causing outrage among gamers is that Capcom has added its Enigma DRM to the Resident Evil titles on Steam. By contrast, you can purchase the same Resident Evil games without DRM protection on GOG, which aligns with the platform’s stance on DRM-free games that players can own and play offline with no caveats.

A performance-averse DRM tool foisted on gamers?

Capcom’s third-party Enigma protection software has slowly slipped into many of its recent releases, and it has become something of a standard digital protection solution. “The Enigma Protector,” as it’s called, was first added to Resident Evil Revelations, and users reported performance issues and crashes when it was introduced in 2024.

Capcom repeated the same move with Resident Evil 4 Remake, which was released in March 2023. In February 2026, Capcom replaced Denuvo with its Enigma DRM, which caused stuttering frame rates and conflicts with third-party mods. Following the backlash, the company removed DRM entirely from Resident Evil 4 Remake within 28 days.

Considering that the original Resident Evil collection is more than two decades old, gamers are scratching their heads, wondering what Capcom is thinking. The classic ports have earned a “Very Positive” rating on Steam; however, many users online are still criticizing the addition of Enigma to these titles.

Steam Deck users, in particular, are on the fence about these classic ports on Steam. Many Reddit users with Steam Decks running SteamOS state that the classic Resident Evil games don’t run well right out of the box.

Steam Deck users report needing some manual tweaks and fixes to get the games running smoothly under SteamOS. Furthermore, many other Deck owners have reported that the Resident Evil collection has input issues on the handheld, along with video playback inconsistencies, no cloud save support, and general compatibility problems tied to Enigma DRM.