“There is only two ways to protect a game against piracy, right?
Heres that interview, edited for brevity.
What claims are you referring to?
Andreas Ullmann:It’s basically really about the stuff that’s posted by the community.
So you just need to check out Steam forums, for example.
Very toxic, very hostile environment.
SSDs are destroyed by our solution.
We want to also be there for a person who has not heard about us before.
RPS:You mentioned hostility and toxicity there.
Andreas Ullmann:I definitely think there should be a level of trust built.
Of course, on the Discord now.
I’ve already seen a lot of people asking for our pricing and things like this.
There needs to be some proof for that.
And I think we did a good job before launching all this inwriting up our FAQ, explaining.
I think that’s very important, explaining how our solution works.
RPS:Why do you think Denuvo has garnered such a poor reputation?
Andreas Ullmann:I think two main reasons.
First, our solution simply works.
Secondly, I think it’s super hard for a gamer.
I’m a gamer myself, and therefore I know what I’m talking about.
For anti-cheat, for example.
It’s different, though.
There wasa recent studyabout the financial impact of our protection.
But in the end, it’s not that easy.
Especially currently, the gaming industry is going through a very tough time.
Budgets for AAA games are in the hundreds of millions.
So it’s a huge risk for them, and therefore they are looking to something like an insurance.
They’re looking for a way to minimize the risk for their investment.
Again, this does not have an immediate benefit for me as a player.
That’s basically the benefits that we offer to the average player.
RPS:A lot of companies seem happy enough with the service Denuvo provides to keep using it.
Why are you so concerned about public perception?
Why not just let people have their theories and carry on doing your thing?
Andreas Ullmann:Hard to answer.
So maybe it’s just… maybe it’s even a personal thing.
I’m with the company for such a long time.
On the other hand, I can imagine that this reputation also has some kind of business impact.
Because currently, there is only two ways to protect a game against piracy, right?
Either you don’t, or use our protection.
There is no competitor.
Andreas Ullmann:That’s the only point of the study where I’m not totally agreeing.
The reason is: what is the data foundation for this?
It doesn’t make sense anymore, if you don’t know how much somebody’s paying for it.
We leave that up to our clients.
I mean, they have all the numbers.
They have their sales numbers.
They even have the pirate numbers for games that have been cracked.
They know how much they make with a game over a certain time period.
So I totally trust their view on when it it’s required to be removed.
RPS: Youve pushed back against some of the complaints about Denuvo tanking performance.
Can you show us raw data and benchmarks to demonstrate that Denuvo games dont affect performance?
Andreas Ullmann:Perfect timing for this question, actually.
And one question there was, of course, it’s always about this performance topic.
That’s something we cannot force them to do.
There seems to be reasons why they are not doing it.
Second case is: we do it.
We have the unprotected execute tables, usually, for the game.
So we would have both available.
We could do a direct comparison.
But two problems there.
First is we would need the approval from our customer to do that with the game.
And the other one is: again, there will be claims that this is rigged.
Nobody will believe us, as we are the evil ones here.
The third option is third parties.
I think that will be the way to go.
Of course, again we have the problem.
So something like this would need to happen here in our office in Salzburg.
But this is definitely something we can think about.
Inviting, I don’t know, Digital Foundry [to test our software].
Who they would believe if they would post something like this.
That was also confirmed by by the technical producer back in the day on Twitter.
Thing is, I think it’s important to understand how our solution works.
That’s really just a minority.
RPS:You said the wrong part of the source code was selected for protection, with Tekken.
Do you think you could be doing more to instruct and guide companies in the implementation of Denuvo properly?
Andreas Ullmann:It makes a lot of sense.
RPS:Is there anything else you wanted to cover?
Andreas Ullmann:When there are reports about us, it’s mostly done in a negative way.
There are rarely references to the other tests that have been done, likeFinal Fantasy 15orHogwarts Legacy.
And the other thing people bring up is: but there is this test.
Because what we’ve seen, there is really a lot of very good questions.
And this is exactly what we are looking for.
Having honest, nice conversations with people.
Talking about what we all love, which is gaming.
