Decoding Denuvo's impact: How DRM shields early game revenue by up to 20 percent

A recent study by William M. Volckmann II at the University of North Carolina has highlighted the financial hit that Denuvo DRM cracks can have on PC game revenues. The research, titled "The Revenue Effects of Denuvo Digital Rights Management on PC Video Games," found that piracy can cause mean total revenue to drop by 20 percent when Denuvo gets cracked soon after a game's release.

This underscores how important it is for game publishers to protect their titles during those critical first weeks after launch. To fend off potential revenue losses, companies might layer up protections by combining Denuvo with other DRM tech, even though gamers often complain about possible performance issues and lack of optimization.

Interestingly, the study also suggests there's not much point in using Denuvo long-term, especially beyond three months. Volckmann found that when a game was cracked after week 12 or when the publisher removed Denuvo after this initial period, there was pretty much zero total revenue loss on average. He recommends that game publishers ditch DRM after three months, acknowledging that gamers are sensitive to the "negative technical side effects" that come with Denuvo.

While publishers might be tempted by Denuvo's potential to save up to 20 percent of revenue in the first 12 weeks—minus the DRM service fees—the study didn't find any reliable way to predict how long the protection will actually hold up. Volckmann noted that the characteristics of a game don't really explain its chances of being cracked, as long as cracking groups are interested in it.

The findings suggest that publishers could benefit from short-term Denuvo contracts, saving money by removing the DRM after those first 12 weeks. Longer DRM deals, on the other hand, seem to be a less effective investment.