If Denuvo is cracked soon after release, piracy can reduce sales revenue by 20%.

[Puff]

Tweaktown

A new study indicates that Denuvo DRM helps protect 'total revenue from piracy by a mean of 15% and a median of 20%' on the initial impact of sales.

Digital rights management software like Denuvo might be pesky for consumers and gamers, but it apparently helps reduce the impact piracy has on game sales by a significant amount.

A new study has some pretty interesting info on how Denuvo DRM can help stabilize piracy as it relates to full game sales. The study is called Revenue effects of Denuvo digital rights management on PC video games, and was published in volume 52 of the Entertainment Computing journal.

The study surmises that piracy and illegal sharing of software can actually have a sizable and noticeable impact on initial PC game sales during a title's critical launch window. The idea is that publishers and developers use Denuvo DRM to shield their games for the first 12 weeks on the market, which is enough time to alleviate most of the revenue losses.

The paper's author, William M. Volckmann II, explains:

I exploit the randomness with which Denuvo is cracked to estimate the effect Denuvo has on protecting revenue from piracy displacement.

When Denuvo is cracked very early on, piracy leads to an estimated 20 percent fall in total revenue on average relative to an uncracked counterfactual, but that effect is weaker the longer it takes for Denuvo to be cracked.

When Denuvo survives for at least 12 weeks, piracy leads to nearly zero total revenue loss on average. The results suggest that Denuvo does protect legitimate sales to an estimated mean of 15 percent of total revenue and median of 20 percent, but there is little justification to employ Denuvo long-term (i.e. for more than three months), especially given that Denuvo can have negative technical side effects and is generally disliked by users.

• Denuvo DRM protects total revenue from piracy by a mean of 15% and a median of 20%.
• Piracy causes mean total revenue to decrease by 20% when Denuvo is cracked quickly.
• Piracy causes zero mean total revenue loss when Denuvo survives for 12 weeks or more.
• The characteristics of a game cannot explain its likelihood of being cracked.

This explains why publishers typically only use Denuvo DRM on a temporary basis, and will often remove the protections months or so after the game is released. The teams clearly want to absorb as much initial sales revenue as possible before the game rotates into an evergreen catalog title.

I really don’t want to know how often Sony games get pirated at launch.

 

[Yurinka]

why not 8395,74%?

The paper doesn't include the supposed data he did use to make the study. So can't be verified and can't be seen if the sample and methodology was good/representative enough. In fact we can't even double check if all the claims are just made out.

 

[BillyZ]

Denuvo? No thanks.
Day and date? Yes please!

 

[Systemshock2023]

I don't mind Denuvo as long as its being removed from games in 6 months to a year.

 

[All Might]

why not 8395,74%?

The paper doesn't include the supposed data he did use to make the study. So can't be verified and can't be seen if the sample and methodology was good/representative enough. In fact we can't even double check if all the claims are just made out.

That's not the paper, that's a summary of its contents, unless you purchased it, which you didn't

 

[Boswollox]

Strange title to choose, op, when the study also says that pirating after 12 weeks affects sales by 0%.
You're not pushing an agenda, are you?

 

[Ezekiel]

Denuvo? No thanks.
Day and date? Yes please!

You'll keep getting DRM on PC my guy AND later ports. It's the nature of being a secondary market.

 

[anonpuffs]

why not 8395,74%?

The paper doesn't include the supposed data he did use to make the study. So can't be verified and can't be seen if the sample and methodology was good/representative enough. In fact we can't even double check if all the claims are just made out.

bro did you just link to the article's abstract page and claim it didn't cite sources? you gotta pay $50 to read the whole thing lol, or subscribe to the journal

 

[Old Gamer]

Denuvo? No thanks.
Day and date? Yes please!

You're not pushing an agenda, are you?

 

[Yurinka]

bro did you just link to the article's abstract page and claim it didn't cite sources? you gotta pay $50 to read the whole thing lol, or subscribe to the journal

That's not the paper, that's a summary of its contents, unless you purchased it, which you didn't

I know what I linked, I've been reading tons of papers during more than a decade and even contributing to a few of them. I obviously didn't link the paper itself because it isn't free.

The claim I made about it is what someone else who bought it told it to me. I haven't read or bought this paper.

 

[All Might]

I haven't read or bought this paper.

At least you admit to being dishonest, cuck

 

[BillyZ]

You'll keep getting DRM on PC my guy AND later ports. It's the nature of being a secondary market.

Not from Sony. We're gonna get games sooner and sooner with no DRM.