[STEAM] You can finally mod Resident Evil 4 worry-free as Capcom ditches Enigma DRM: ‘It was only hurting those who purchased the game’

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In the video game space, we are constantly reminded that we do not actually own the things we buy but are rather indefinitely "renting" them, that is, until our corporate overlords decide to pull the plug. One way for publishers to protect digital products thrown out in the wild is DRMs, i.e., digital rights management software that runs in the background of each proprietary game or software to ensure you "own" it.

DRMs have existed for a long while, but it wouldn't be until the last few years that they'd really catch on in the gaming industry, particularly due to the sharp increase in piracy as more and more people gained access to online gaming. Capcom has been one of the worst offenders when it comes to DRM use, as it is known for stacking several DRMs on top of each other to ensure its games are never cracked, caring little about the incredible performance effects these copyright protection solutions tend to have.

For older games in particular, DRM usually doesn't pay off, and Steam's own protection is good enough once your title is past its prime. But Capcom doesn't think so, as it introduced Enigma DRM to protect Resident Evil 4 Remake years after it came out, since its Denuvo license likely expired (and because it probably didn't want to pay extra for a game that doesn't sell much anymore).

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However, a month or so after putting it into the game, Capcom silently removed the DRM, which was there not only to keep the game from being cracked, but also to circumvent any sort of modding that Capcom doesn't like. Now, however, with Enigma DRM gone, modding is once again (mostly) free in Resident Evil 4.

And not only that, players can expect a significant uptick in performance, especially if they had CPU-related issues while playing Resident Evil 4. DRMs have to run actively alongside the game itself, which often proves taxing for many CPUs, particularly older and weaker ones.

The decision to remove the DRM also likely came due to player complaints, as there was no real reason to put it into the title in the first place. It only hampered performance for paying customers, and since the game has been cracked for a while, pirates were getting literally a better deal than those who dished out the dosh to play the game legitimately.

"Glad they listened. That DRM change was only hurting those who purchased the game in the first place,"

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. Another said they had bought the game but wound up pirating it anyway since the DRM was causing problems for them that should not have been there.

"Who would’ve thought it was a good idea to put in a DRM on a 2-year-old game?"

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.

And who, indeed.

If a game is cracked, even with high-level protection like Denuvo, then I do not see the point in putting any sort of extra layer on it. It's already in the ether, and no amount of patches or fixes will be able to stop pirates from enjoying the version that they had forced themselves into. Paying customers should not have to suffer, but of course odds are that Capcom didn't care about pirates at all.

As I mentioned above, Capcom

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. Way back in Resident Evil Village, you could get yourself a ban on the game if you used mods, especially those that Capcom had a particular disdain for. Enigma DRM was a major barrier for modding in RE4R, and it was likely put there as an extension of the company's anti-modding stance.

Thankfully, though, we now can freely modify the game however we see fit, having to only deal with Steam's own DRM, which protects games as much as asking pirates not to crack them would.

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