A recently published study on the PC video games market looks at the impact that anti-piracy tech is having on the business. Specifically, The Revenue Effects of Denuvo Digital Rights Management on PC Video Games, by William M. Volckmann II, looks at the revenue impacts of DRM protections being cracked or bypassed.
The range of piracy impacts facing PC games software companies is incredibly wide. One of the highlights of the study, as called out by our headline, is that “Piracy causes mean total revenue to decrease by 20% when Denuvo is cracked quickly.” Thus, companies will be particularly keen to protect their wares for the key first few weeks of release. To this end, it seems like companies will multi-layer protection like Denuvo with other technologies. Though there have been repeated complaints about launch titles lacking optimization and being held back further by intrusive DRM, companies involved typically dismiss such concerns. Now we see why – there’s possibly a fifth of the total revenue at stake.
