Suicide Squad adds Denuvo DRM, ruining its upcoming offline mode

Suicide Squad characters from the game in front of a Superman with Denuvo logo on him
Credit: WB Games / Denuvo

Suicide Squad characters from the game in front of a Superman with Denuvo logo on him
Credit: WB Games / Denuvo

For many PC gamers, the addition of Denuvo, the anti-tamper software, is the difference between a purchase or a skip - and now, the upcoming Suicide Squad game has added it, mere days before launch.

While the game is currently online-only, thanks to the various live-service elements like the battle passes and future content updates, Rocksteady plans to add in an offline, single-player only mode in the future. However, for those playing games on-the-go with the best gaming handhelds, you may want to miss Suicide Squad altogether.

That's because Denuvo, the controversial digital rights management, or DRM, has been added to the game, according to the Steam store page for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Additionally, the SteamDB update history for the game only points to the DRM being added to the game's information as of January 20, 2024, as spotted by PCGamesN. The January 20 change log states "Added 3rd-Party DRM – Denuvo Anti-Tamper".

While Denuvo is far from the only DRM software out there, and it doesn't require you to be permanently online to access your game, it's the most controversial. That's because it not only has a history of causing performance issues, but because it's practically uncrackable. There's very few people who can crack the DRM, with one of the only ones being the popular cracker called Empress, and she refuses to tell people how they can do it, and charges a hefty fee for those who want Denuvo broken for a certain game.

DRM issues have plagued PC gamers for years, with a recent example being Capcom's latest DRM updates. Recently, Capcom added DRM to Monster Hunter Rise, causing the game to be unplayable on Steam Deck. In most cases, the anti-tamper can be cracked, meaning it just causes problems for those who purchase the game legitimately.

That means that, whether you're using one of the best graphics cards to play Suicide Squad or not, you may have issues when playing the game simply because of the Denuvo implementation. We're not going to go into detail about whether DRM is right or not (it isn't), but it's certainly going to be turning some players away from the upcoming DC game.