It appears that Bethesda and id Software have removed Denuvo from DOOM. While id Software did not state anything at all in the release notes of the latest update for DOOM, Denuvo is no longer present in the latest version of id Software’s shooter.

This is the second game for which Denuvo has been completely removed. The first one was Playdead’s Inside.

Bethesda and id Software have not commented on this yet, and have not revealed the reasons why this anti-tamper tech has been removed.

However, it appears that Denuvo’s removal was due to both DOOM and Inside being cracked in such a relatively short amount of time.

According to a Redditor, who claims to be a game developer for a company that started using Denuvo, publishers do not have to pay for Denuvo (and claim a refund) if their games are cracked within a certain time. Moreover, and in order to claim the refund, publishers must remove Denuvo from their games.

As the Redditor claimed:

“I work for a large studio that started using Denuvo recently. I’m neutral on piracy and pirate TV shows a lot, so don’t give me a hard time, certainly not here to judge. I do want to explain what happened here, Denuvo Software Solutions offers a guarantee, if your Denuvo game is cracked within a certain time (3 months is normal), you do not have to pay for Denuvo. Part of claiming the refund is you must remove Denuvo from your game.”

As always, take with this with a grain of salt, however this logic does seem to apply to both DOOM and Inside.