With the release of Patch 4.0, Bethesda and id Software have removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from Doom: The Dark Ages. This should be great news for those who have boycotted games that used it. As such, there is no reason to sail on the high seas. You can now finally purchase it.
Doom: The Dark Ages came out in March 2025. This means that it took a bit longer than a year for Bethesda to remove it. It’s obvious that the publisher has kept it so that it could protect its upcoming DLCs. With the release of Revelations, id Software will most likely move to its next project. And this is most likely why Bethesda has decided to remove it.
Before continuing, I should note that Doom: The Dark Ages ran extremely well on PC. Even though it used Denuvo, the game ran silky smooth without any stutters on PC. In fact, Doom: The Dark Ages was one of the best optimized PC games of 2025.
As I wrote in that article, id Software has decided to use Ray Tracing by default for DOOM: The Dark Ages, and that gamble paid off. DOOM: The Dark Ages not only looks great but also runs incredibly well on many GPUs. It features amazing destruction effects, and it has zero stutters. Even when you’re riding a dragon, the game feels ultra smooth. This was one of the most well-optimized ray-traced games we’ve gotten in 2025.
It’s worth noting that Bethesda has removed Denuvo from both Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein Youngblood. Ghostwire: Tokyo is another title that no longer has it.
Bethesda is not the only publisher that has removed Denuvo from its latest PC release. Take, for instance, Square Enix. SE has removed it from DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake. In December 2025, they also removed it from Just Cause 3. Not only that, but they have removed it from The Diofield Chronicle, VALKYRIE ELYSIUM, TRIANGLE STRATEGY, LIVE A LIVE, and Forspoken. Moreover, both Octopath Traveler and its sequel no longer use it. And that’s not all. In May 2024, SE removed it from Star Ocean The Second Story R. Finally, in March 2025, the publisher removed it from Final Fantasy 16.
Capcom is another publisher that has removed Denuvo from a lot of its games. In November 2025, they removed it from Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. Monster Hunter Rise, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, and Resident Evil Village are also Denuvo-free as we speak. Similarly, Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake no longer use it. In July 2025, the Japanese team also removed it from Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. Plus, Capcom has recently removed it from Resident Evil 4 Remake.
In March 2023, KRAFTON removed Denuvo from The Callisto Protocol. NEOWIZ has also removed it from its Souls-like game, Lies of P. In October 2024, Gearbox removed it from Homeworld 3, too.
And that’s not all. Bandai Namco has removed it from Tekken 7 and NARUTO TO BORUTO: SHINOBI STRIKER. Furthermore, Warner Bros has removed it from Gotham Knights, Back 4 Blood, and Mortal Kombat 11.
Stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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