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Denuvo, the infamous company on which game developers rely on to implement DRM to almost every new release nowadays, to varying degrees of performance issues and even worse user experiences, has announced today that their protection technologies are now available and accessible as an authorized Nintendo Switch "middleware" in the Nintendo Developer Portal (NDP).

This means that now developers working on Nintendo Switch titles or ports now have the accessibility and option to add Denuvo's anti-piracy protection, which they titled "Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection". Their goal is to disallow any new game release from running in Nintendo Switch emulators, although this remains yet to be seen and properly tested from the end-user perspective. It is currently unknown how they would check between an emulator and real-hardware, but we can be sure that the current emulator developers (be it Yuzu or Ryujinx) will catch unto it and go into details about it when they find a game that uses it.

Denuvo released a following statement regarding Nintendo Switch games that are released as multi-platform and their emulation on day one in comparison with other consoles/PC:

Even if a game is protected against piracy on its PC version, the version released on Nintendo Switch can be emulated from day one and played on PC, therefore bypassing the strong protections offered on the PC version. This can happen with any of the numerous games available on Nintendo Switch.

By blocking unauthorized emulations on PC, studios are able to increase their revenue during the game launch window, which is the most important period for monetization. The Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection will ensure that anyone wishing to play the game has to buy a legitimate copy.

Alongside this statement, Denuvo claims that "the technology integrates seamlessly into the build toolchain with no impact on the gaming experience", but given almost every release that uses it and comparisons in performance between before and after the removal of Denuvo's DRM from known games, it's doubtful that this will be the case. To close it up, the CEO of Irdeto, Doug Lowther, said the following:

As gamers, we know first-hand how piracy negatively affects the gaming industry. We’re thrilled to be part of the Nintendo Developers Portal, so that we can provide the latest technologies to help fight this issue for Nintendo Switch players and developers.

We witness an increasing need to protect against emulation on PC from game launch, our solution is a must have for publishers to monetize the games fairly on this platform and also not impact PC game sales.

Additionally, it remains to be seen just how this would affect gamer that don't connect their Nintendo Switch to the internet, or only use it for handheld gaming with no internet connection, given how the DRM is known to do its checks with a connection to the internet, as having a hybrid console this means that the system wouldn't always have an internet connection available.

Source

 

[subcon959]

It's still a variant of Denuvo, and it has to run on the Switch to tell if it's fake or not. The code that runs these checks isn't just magically disabled on your Switch thus defeating the entire point.

The asinine nature of the DRM depends on it's implementation, but considering Denuvo's reputation in going way too far in some cases and causing legitimate copies to be the worst versions (whether the game developer was to blame for poor integration with the SDK or not), it's not unreasonable that people expect the same poor outcome on their consoles.

It's literally called Emulator Protection so at this stage there's no reason to think it will have any impact on performance when playing on a Switch. I also feel that Nintendo wouldn't allow such a thing since they are not stupid (evil yes, but not stupid). Hence why they are trying to scare third party devs into believing they are losing money due to emulation of their games on PC.

 

[EpikJimmer]

will they put denuvo on already existing games (first party or not) or just certain games?

 

[Naendow]

Good question. TotK got an update today.

 

[EpikJimmer]

nintendo what the fuck

 

[Bladexdsl]

Good question. TotK got an update today.

get ready 15fps for that game!

 

[James_]

will they put denuvo on already existing games (first party or not) or just certain games?

There wouldn't really be a point to putting Denuvo on older titles considering the fact that all of Nintendo's games on Switch have already been pirated to hell and back. And pushing out a small update to add Denuvo won't stop people from just downloading the older version without Denuvo.

 

[EpikJimmer]

well i just hope they dont put denuvo on mario wonder and mario rpg or something

why would they do that, you ask?

nintendo

 

[Axido]

It's literally called Emulator Protection so at this stage there's no reason to think it will have any impact on performance when playing on a Switch. I also feel that Nintendo wouldn't allow such a thing since they are not stupid (evil yes, but not stupid). Hence why they are trying to scare third party devs into believing they are losing money due to emulation of their games on PC.

Again, it still has to check whether the code runs on an emulator. And whatever checks they do on PC, those checks do harm the game's performance observably. I'd be very surprised if Denuvo ran on Switch consoles without noticable side-effects. And just out of principle I'd avoid buying any game that has Denuvo as I already do on PC, especially when it comes to cartridges. No game that needs fixing after the physical release will enter my collection.

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

I am a bit concerned with this addition, though not from an emulation standpoint since I don't emulate Nintendo Switch games period, my gripe is more so the issues when running on genuine hardware. I don't play very many games that ever had Denuvo crammed into them on the computer (at times it seems the DRM gets removed with updates for certain titles out there anyways), but I do know of the DRM's flaws in regards to performance related issues. Personally I'm not much of a hardware whore who expected the Nintendo Switch to be extremely powerful and what not, even I know that these sorts of measures aren't practical on devices that can't just power their way through the impractical flaws produced by the DRM via hardware power brute force.

I kind of dread for titles like Metroid Prime 4 now.

 

[Hassal]

well i just hope they dont put denuvo on mario wonder and mario rpg or something

why would they do that, you ask?

nintendo

For the most part, many games nowadays are released multiplatform, PC being the first priority for devs. So the question becomes which devs are these people targeting exactly? How many devs make games exclusively for this piss console? Realistically speaking, little to none.

The sole customer for this malware will be the platform owner themselves besides the infamous 3 on PC side.

 

[Clydefrosch]

its fair. good on them if they can actually manage to prevent piracy

 

[Hassal]

its fair. good on them if they can actually manage to prevent piracy

Its funny because even if you prevent pirates from playing, either way you never earn a dime from them so from your perspective as a dev you lose little to none. A lot gamers already understand this basic concept, if you stop supporting game devs by buying legit copies then there's no backing to finance other projects to develop sequels and other great games.

The only people that would be concerned by this are those unsecure greedy bastards that launch bugware. It was proven many times, piracy has no impact on good games. In fact, if your games being listed on these many pirated sites plays a role of advertisement to the masses.

 

[swabbo]

Fuck 'em

 

[linuxares]

Its against emulators on pc. Which ironically will make emulators better since they need to emulate the Switch more real.

 

[Bladexdsl]

its fair. good on them if they can actually manage to prevent piracy

except they will fail miserably yet again. they will never stop emulation they are fools if they think they can

 

[Hassal]

Its against emulators on pc. Which ironically will make emulators better since they need to emulate the Switch more real.

If they are solely targeting PC emulation (emulation of which isn't perfect by any means), so clowns make claims of trying to protect against piracy when real pirates can just play games on real switch hardware. These circus clowns believe that obtaining a hacked a switch is a barrier of entry.

 

[Ondrashek06]

This is pointless. An emulator gives all the tools for a dedicated hacker to find what's not being properly emulated and easily replicate how real hardware would work, making the DRM unable to distinguish between a real console and an emulator.

Wiimmfi still can distinguish between real console keys and fake ones forged by Dolphin so they can ban most emulator users from playing MKWii online. I had to have someone supply them for me so I could play.

Most likely that DRM will be always online, and because Yuzu has no online capabilities...

 

[console]

How sad news. Denuvo's DRM are awful and hurt performance in games to run slower FPS.

Compare like how Steam company force some new PC games have DRM built in them and slow down when running have terrible FPS.

Scene hacker groups (CPY, etc) will come to join and hunt down on new games which are release out on September 2023 and after then search Denuvo's DRM codes inside new title games released out then patched them then release out would take longer time to process. Scene groups have move on and will do work very hard can take weeks, months and years to solve worst Denuvo's DRM.

Also watch out for another bad scene hacker groups without no names will bundle malware / ransomware / etc with new games together to destroy their devices (Nintendo Switch, computers, Steam docks, etc) into failure or bricked. Everyone have to be very careful. To any adult parents have any children, please monitor your kids and teens what they are doing on internet is very dangerous.

 

[IRUZZ]

Oh thank god I hate playing games at a decent framerate anyway.

 

[linuxares]

If they are solely targeting PC emulation (emulation of which isn't perfect by any means), so clowns make claims of trying to protect against piracy when real pirates can just play games on real switch hardware. These circus clowns believe that obtaining a hacked a switch is a barrier of entry.

The thing is, it's a limited amount of people pirating on a console. While 99.9% pirates on emulation on PC. I do understand companies like Nintendo seething seeing TOTK playable on something else than the Switch during current gen where the PC is an indirect competition to the Switch if so.

Normally emulators are fully and developed and working after the lifespan of the consoles.