Back 4 Blood Adds Denuvo at (Basically) the 11th-Hour!

With the release of Back 4 Blood set for October 12th, there is clearly a lot of anticipation surrounding what is effectively a brand new spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead. However, the news regarding the title has been coming thick and fast recently as only yesterday the official PC requirements for the game were confirmed (click here for more info!). – Following what appears to be a very low-key update to the Steam Store website, however, there is something that will probably raise more than a few concerns for those who have pre-ordered the title.

Namely, for reasons that we can’t entirely determine, Back 4 Blood will now be utilising the highly controversial Denuvo anti-piracy protection.

Back 4 Blood is Using Denuvo?!

For those of you unaware, on the surface, Denuvo is a perfectly reasonable piece of anti-piracy protection that looks to prevent, or at least delay, a game from being cracked and, ultimately, going online as a free (but illegal) download. However, one of the biggest criticisms surrounding it is that many people believe (with more than a little compelling evidence) that the anti-piracy software negatively impacts a game’s performance. Something that was (sort of) seen recently with Resident Evil Village.

In this regard, however, there are two key reasons why this very quiet update to Steam will annoy people who were looking forward, or perhaps had even pre-ordered, Back 4 Blood.

• The update on Steam, which now confirms the use of Denuvo, has only been made within the last 24-48 hours. As such, anyone who pre-ordered this game before this was given no idea that it would be using it!
• The use of Denuvo in a predominantly ‘online multiplayer’ title is, quite frankly, bizarre.

What Do We Think?

While you can debate the merits of Denuvo’s impact on a game’s performance, it’s hard to deny that the inclusion of it here for Back 4 Blood is very unusual. This is, after all, a title that has been specifically designed for competitive online multiplayer gaming. Something that is never expected, and even rarer, provided, in a cracked version. – Put simply Denuvo is always best suited towards games with predominantly single-player modes. And while Back 4 Blood does have them, surely those within the pirate community are not going to care much about simply fighting bots over and over again.

So, it’s a bit of a crappy double-whammy. Back 4 Blood has seemingly pointless Denuvo. And worse, it appears that the developers have tried to very quiet sneak it in! – You can, incidentally, check out the official Steam Store website for more information on this, and Back 4 Blood in general, via the link here!

What do you think though? – Let us know in the comments!