According to TheGamer, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight has had Denuvo DRM added ahead of its launch - and yes, this is the same game that was already raising eyebrows for its hefty performance demands. Truly a combo attack nobody asked for.
For the uninitiated, Denuvo is anti-tamper software that has historically been about as welcome in PC gaming circles as a lag spike in ranked mode. Critics of the tech have long argued it introduces additional CPU overhead, which can translate to lower framerates and stuttering - essentially a debuff on your own legally purchased copy of the game.
Piling Denuvo on top of a game that was already described as demanding is a bold strategy, to say the least. It's like equipping your character with the heaviest armor in the game and then bolting on extra weight just to make sure they can barely move. Developers and publishers often defend DRM adoption as a necessary shield against piracy, but the timing here - right before launch - suggests it was a last-minute addition rather than something baked into the architecture from day one.
The performance question
The concern isn't just theoretical. Games that ship with Denuvo and later have it removed have, in documented cases, shown measurable performance improvements after the fact. That's a real-world data point that keeps the debate alive and the playerbase salty.
For a Lego game - typically a franchise associated with cozy, accessible, family-friendly fun - this feels like an especially strange hill to plant a flag on. Nobody's out here trying to pirate Lego Batman in some grand act of digital rebellion. Yet here we are, staring down a launch-day experience potentially weighed down by anti-piracy software on a game that already needs room to breathe.
Whether the performance hit will be noticeable in practice remains to be seen when the game hits shelves. But the optics of launching a visually demanding title with last-minute DRM bolted on is the kind of decision that tends to age poorly in Steam reviews - and we all know those little green and red thumbs can be brutal.
Stay tuned as we find out whether Legacy of the Dark Knight can still deliver the Caped Crusader experience fans are hoping for, framerate intact.
