Civ 7 will potentially launch with Denuvo

Civilization 7, the next entry to the long running strategy series from Marvel’s Midnight Suns, XCOM 2, and Civilization 6 creator Firaxis Games, is set to come out next February. It looks to be a solid iteration on the classic historical strategy design that’s made Civ so successful for decades now. However, it may launch with the inclusion of controversial anti-piracy and anti-tampering software Denuvo, as evidenced by updates in Steam’s back end recorded by SteamDB.

Civilization 7 looks to bring welcome changes to the strategy game series. Our recent preview describes how Firaxis has altered significant aspects of traditional Civ staples, such as leaders’ ties to their historical civilizations and how time passes in more strictly defined eras. The game will also come out without requiring players to use publisher 2K’s desktop launcher, which previously slowed down the process of starting up a program.

Civ 7 also seems to be making another, potentially less popular decision, though. As shown in one of its recent pre-launch update logs recorded on SteamDB earlier today, the game may come out with anti-piracy and source code protection software Denuvo. Including Denuvo in a game is typically controversial among players, some of whom claim that it negatively impacts performance. Postal creator Running With Scissors has called the digital rights management (DRM) software “intrusive” and “an unfair punishment on the consumer” in the past.

In the recent past, we’ve seen games ranging from Back 4 Blood to The Callisto Protocol remove Denuvo after launch and others, like Tekken 8 and Payday 3 decide against its inclusion before coming out. Last year, a post on X from the official Lords of the Fallen account stated that the game’s creator was “pleased to confirm that Lords of the Fallen does not, and will never, feature Denuvo.”