At its launch in April 2019, Mortal Kombat 11 was seen as a welcome addition to the hugely popular fighting game franchise by most fans. However, some PC players were irritated to discover that the controversial DRM Denuvo was being placed into the game. Of course, from a developer's perspective, digital rights management technology is useful in protecting IPs, though to some gamers it can be the cause of poor performance during the first few weeks of a game's launch. Mortal Kombat 11's developer NetherRealm and the fighting game community has often been untrusting of PC players, who have access to mods and allegedly easier access to cheats.
It's not only Mortal Kombat 11 that has used Denuvo and DRM though. Recently, the zombie action game Dying Light 2 faced some controversy after it was announced that the game would be using Denuvo at launch. Because PC players often expect better performance than their console counterparts, it can be irritating when technology like Denuvo can worsen that performance, making them wonder why it was worth buying the game on PC in the first place.
After three years of using Denuvo though, it seems Mortal Kombat 11 has finally rid itself of the anti-tampering technology. There was a rumor that Mortal Kombat 11 had removed Denuvo back in November, after a tweet surfaced the game no longer contained DRM. This tweet was later deleted though, and five months down the line, the fighting game no longer contains the anti-cheating software.
Sometimes, a developer will remove the DRM technology following backlash, though it is more often the case that Denuvo is removed on a PC game after the software has served its purpose in preventing piracy, cheating, and tampering in the weeks and months following a game's launch. For some games, such as the Resident Evil 3 remake, it can take six months for Denuvo to be removed, though in the cases of games like Mortal Kombat 11 and Wolfenstein: Youngblood, it can take years for the software to disappear.
Denuvo isn't just restricted to the PC platform though, as it was announced in March 2021 that Sony was adding compatibility for the controversial DRM software for the PS5. Fans are hoping that consoles won't have the same performance issues caused by Denuvo that PC players deal with. For Mortal Kombat 11 though, this change likely comes too late for any real performance improvement to be noted by the few players still left on PC.
Mortal Kombat 11 is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Source: DSOGaming