At its launch in April 2019,Mortal Kombat 11was 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’sdeveloper NetherRealmand 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 onlyMortal Kombat 11that has used Denuvo and DRM though. Recently, thezombie action gameDying Light 2faced 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.
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After three years of using Denuvo though, it seemsMortal Kombat 11has finally rid itself of the anti-tampering technology. There was a rumor thatMortal Kombat 11had 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 thatDenuvo is removed on a PC game after the software has served its purposein preventing piracy, cheating, and tampering in the weeks and months following a game’s launch. For some games, such as theResident Evil 3remake, it can take six months for Denuvo to be removed, though in the cases of games likeMortal Kombat 11andWolfenstein: 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 thatSony 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. ForMortal Kombat 11though, this change likely comes too late for any real performance improvement to be noted by the few players still left on PC.
Mortal Kombat 11is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
