Resident Evil 4 Remake's Problematic DRM Removed After 28 Days

In early February, Capcom removed Denuvo from the 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake on Steam and replaced it with a different anti-tamper system called Enigma. Players soon reported major performance drops that hadn’t been present before the change, especially during action-heavy moments.

YouTuber ItalicMaze used a mod to restore the game's previous version and compared performance with and without Enigma, finding significant FPS losses. Digital Foundry conducted similar tests and measured roughly a 20 percent drop. After widespread backlash, Capcom issued another update on March 3—28 days after the original swap—that removed the new DRM; SteamDB’s changelog reflects the change and RE4 now appears to have no DRM on Steam.

The episode recalls a 2021 problem with Resident Evil Village, where pirated copies reportedly ran better because they lacked DRM. Capcom later removed Denuvo from Village in April 2023 and did not replace it.

re4, capcom, denuvo, enigma, drm, steam, fps drop, digital foundry, italicmaze, piracy