Starbreeze has taken out the anti-piracy software Denuvo from Payday 3, as stated in a short announcement to Steam.
“Hello heisters, we want to inform you that Denuvo is no longer in Payday 3,” said the developer. “We look forward to seeing you in New York City! Happy heisting!”
Payday 3 is set to be released for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on September 21, so Starbreeze only just managed to make the change before the fans descend onto the game.
In addition, it offered no reason for the omission, though it is likely to be music to the ears of some of Payday 3′s potential players. Denuvo is divisive as it is intended to prevent piracy, but also adds a number of complications when running the game and securing its longevity.
In 2021, a downed Denuvo domain led to issues starting games like Football Manager 2022, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, Total War: Warhammer and more.
While it was resolved and Denuvo assured that it was “working to implement further improvements”, it pointed at a larger problem with the potential availability of these products determined on a momentary lapse.
Moreover, there are claims that games do not run as smoothly as they would otherwise with the inclusion of the anti-piracy software. Denuvo itself has categorically denied this. However, three individual investigations concluded that there were higher frame rates in the versions of the same game that did not have Denuvo.
In the future, Payday 3 players will look forward to the game’s first downloadable content (DLC) titled Syntax Error before the end of the year. Then, Boys In Blue will launch in early 2024 with The Land Of The Free set for summer 2024. Lastly, Fear And Green finishes Payday 3′s first year in autumn 2024.
In other gaming news, Nexus Mods pulled a pronouns mod that removed them from Starfield‘s character creator, stating that it “[stands] for diversity and inclusion in our community”.