Square Enix Makes Bold Move: Forspoken's Controversial Feature Axed!

Highlights

The game's PC version underwent an update wherein Denuvo was eliminated, however, no changelog was provided alongside it.

Despite the potential performance boost from the removal of Denuvo, Forspoken still imposes high system requirements, making it resource-intensive to play. Square Enix has eliminated the Denuvo Anti-Tamper software from Forspoken, a controversial move that comes only six months after the game's release, which received mixed reviews.

Luminous Productions's final game failed to meet expectations, resulting in Square Enix acquiring the Forspoken developer. Since then, the PC version of Forspoken has received two updates, with the latest one on July 25. Although the patch did not come with a changelog, data from SteamDB shows that this version of the game no longer includes Denuvo. Previously, Denuvo was present in the PC port of Forspoken, but it seems that Square Enix quietly removed it in the latest update, as the game's Steam page no longer mentions Denuvo.

Before this update, the Steam edition of the game had undergone seven patches. These patches primarily focused on addressing the significant issues encountered with Forspoken's PC version that had been continuously criticized by the fanbase. Although the results were not entirely successful, it may be worthwhile to revisit the game now that it no longer includes Denuvo—a software known for being associated with performance problems.

Denuvo Anti-Tamper is not a standalone module that developers can easily add to their games to benefit from its anti-cheat and anti-piracy features. Instead, it requires manual integration with the game's codebase, and its impact on performance can range from non-existent to highly problematic, depending on how it is implemented. While Luminous Productions may have effectively used the software in Forspoken, PC players who initially struggled with running the game may now consider trying its first-ever Denuvo-free build.

The recent update does not change the game's version number, which has remained at 1.20 since the release of the In Tanta We Trust DLC in late May. Although the removal of Denuvo could potentially enhance the RPG's performance, Forspoken still has demanding system requirements on PC, with one of the most resource-intensive specifications on Steam. Merely running the game at 720p and 30 frames per second necessitates 16GB of RAM and a GPU with at least 6GB of VRAM. Furthermore, Forspoken also consumes a significant amount of storage, totaling 150GB.

Forspoken is available on PC and PS5.

Source: SteamDB, DSOG