To say Denuvo isn’t popular is an understatement. Why it is hated varies from person to person, with some hating how it means they never own the game and are just renting it until the servers shut down. At which point, none of the Denuvo protected games will function. Others point to how it is a blatant piece of malware, so intrusive that it now needs to log your key entries and data mine your computer in order to prevent you from removing it. Then some just hate it for the simple, pragmatic reason that it causes performance impacts to their game. As was seen with Doom Eternal, after it suddenly gained a plethora of performance-debilitating issues after it introduced Denuvo.

Regardless of the reason, enough people hate it that it’s inclusion oft goes unmentioned until post-launch. Companies understand a significant portion of consumers will just avoid their game if they know it is included.

Developers who haven’t drunk the progressive Koolaid understand how its inclusion is a slap in the face to paying customers. In essence, pirates get the superior version, whereas paying customers are treated like dirty criminals. Since Conan Exile’s launch on the PC, this has been the case for the game. An earlier Denuvo-free build was released at one point by “accident,” for the length of the game’s life, it has included the anti-consumer measure.

That has now changed. Owing likely to Tencent’s purchase of the game’s publisher Funcom, Denuvo has been removed as of the latest update. In its place, Funcom’s proprietary client has been introduced. At present, no reports of it picking assuming the duties Denuvo previously performed have occurred.

As a final middle finger send-off, the developers have listed Denuvo’s removal under the Performance and Stability tab in the update. Regardless of how one feels about Tencent and the growing Chinese soft power expansion, the removal of Denuvo is a welcomed improvement for both consumers and developers.