Denuvo is one of the most controversial pieces of tech in PC gaming. Designed to prevent games from being tampered with or pirated (with varying degrees of success), the software is often blamed for performance issues in PC games. Games like Resident Evil Village, Tekken 7, and Devil May Cry 5 have all fallen prey to the issues the DRM causes.
Crimson Desert looks set to be one of 2026's biggest games, but there have already been concerns about its performance, particularly on consoles, with limited pre-launch footage shown. Now, however, those concerns have moved to PC as, on March 12, just a week before launch, developers Pearl Abyss have added Denuvo to the game's Steam version.
A couple of weeks ago, Digital Foundry released a video diving deep into Crimson Desert's BlackSpace Engine, designed specifically for that game. The tech experts heaped almost universal praise on it, specifically highlighting its 4K performance, ray tracing efficiency, and water effects. Having played six hours of the game myself, I concur and did not face a single performance issue on PC. Expectant players are worried that's about to change, though.
Just seven days out from launch, a new update...
