[UPDATE: A note from Denuvo claims that there was no outage related to its servers at this time.]
Summary
The PC version ofPersona 5 Royalhas been rendered temporarily unplayable in early May due to a major Denuvo server outage. While a partial workaround allowed fans to circumvent the issue and access the game with some features disabled, this turn of events still angered manyPersona 5 Royalplayers.
The definitive edition of Atlus’s 2016 RPG has been a long-time hit among PC gamers, as underlined by the fact that theSteam version ofPersona 5 Royalhas been consistently averaging thousands of concurrent playerssince its late 2022 debut. The game had a significant popularity spike in late April, doubling its daily concurrent player peak to 25,000, after a 60% discount saw it drop to its lowest-ever price of $23.99 on Valve’s storefront.
Persona 5 Royal Rendered Unplayable For Hours Over Denuvo Issue
And while tens of thousands of Steam users have beenplayingPersona 5 Royalon a daily basis ever since, the vast majority of them were forced to stop on Thursday, May 2, when a Denuvo outage stopped their attempts to launch the game. With Denuvo’s servers being down, the DRM failed to work as intended, preventing authentication at launch.
While the situation was ongoing, some fans realized that they were still able to launch the game offline, albeit without any online functionality, like the ability to perform Network Fusions and check the Thieves Network activity log. But most Steam users either didn’t try any workarounds or didn’t think of this particular one. That’s according to public account data scrapped bySteamDB, which reveals that the outage resulted in the number of concurrentPersona 5 Royalplayers plummeting from 16,600 to just over 600. The same dataset indicates that the outage itself lasted for a bit over four hours, ending around 9:30am Eastern on May 2.
The problem seemingly only affected Denuvo’sPersona 5 Royalservers, as suggested by the lack of similar outage reports concerningotherPersonagames using the same DRM solution. Short-lived or not, the outage angered some vocal fans, who took to social media to bemoan the situation as everything from “ridiculous” to unacceptable.
No Atlus PC Game Has Yet Removed Denuvo
Many players chiming in on the ensuing controversy used it as an opportunity to call for Sega to stop implementing Denuvo into its games, especially single-player titles. While the company does occasionally remove Denuvo from its products via updates, itsPersona-making subsidiary is not in the habit of doing so. Specifically, althoughevery Atlus PC game since 2020 debuted with Denuvo, none have yet ditched it.
Persona 5 Royal
WHERE TO PLAY
Don the mask and join the Phantom Thieves of Hearts as they stage grand heists, infiltrate the minds of the corrupt, and make them change their ways! Prepare for the award-winning RPG experience in this definitive edition of Persona 5 Royal, featuring a treasure trove of downloadable content included!Forced to transfer to a high school in Tokyo, the protagonist has a strange dream. “You truly are a prisoner of fate. In the near future, ruin awaits you.” With the goal of “rehabilitation” looming overhead, he must save others from distorted desires by donning the mask of a Phantom Thief.Explore Tokyo, unlock Personas, customize your own personal Thieves Den, experience alternate endings, and more. Become the ultimate Phantom Thief and defy conventions, discover the power within, and fight for justice in the definitive version of Persona 5 Royal.
