Like many recent Capcom games published on PC, Resident Evil Village included everybody's favourite anti-piracy software Denuvo when it launched back in May 2021. Also like many recent Capcom games published on PC, the DRM has quietly been removed.
As chronicled by VGC, Denuvo's removal from Village was initially reported by the website Dark Side of Gaming, then verified by SteamDB, which tracked a new change to the game stating "Removed 3rd-Party DRM – Denuvo Anti-tamper, 5 different PC within a day machine activation limit."
Whatever your perspective on videogame piracy, Resident Evil Village's Denuvo protection caused more fundamental problems for many players, with reports that the DRM's presence could severely impact game performance. These reports were confirmed when Capcom released an update to Resident Evil Village designed to "optimise the anti-piracy technology."
Bundling PC releases with Denuvo seems like standard practice for Capcom's big games, with Resident Evil 2 Remake, Resident Evil 3 Remake, and Monster Hunter World all launching with the anti-piracy software included (all of which later had the software removed). Denuvo has lingered in Village for an unusually long time, however. The game's anti-piracy software was cracked around a month after launch, yet it's taken Capcom almost two years to ditch Denuvo. Then again, at least Capcom removed Denuvo deliberately, unlike Warner Bros Games Montreal, who accidentally ditched Denuvo from Gotham Knights last October before adding it back in (which didn't help with that game's dubious reputation).
It's worth noting the Resident Evil 4 remake also comes with Denuvo packaged in, with some players in the game's Steam Discussions complaining it causes issues ranging from traversal stuttering to save file corruption. At present, however, Denuvo has not been confirmed as the cause of these reported issues.
