Games publisher Capcom is being accused of stealthily adding DRM to some of its back catalog of games and players are reporting a degradation in performance as a direct result.

After a fuss last year forced the gaming giant to remove the highly unpopular and controversial Denuvo DRM from Resident Evil Village, it seems another DRM issue is bearing down on the company.

The DRM in question is called Enigma Protector and it prevents mods and use of the Cheat Engine program.

More damningly, Enigma Protector seems to be adding stutters to gaming and reducing frame rates by between 10-16 frames per second, once again leaving the bizarre scenario where pirated copies of the game run better than legitimate paid-for copies.

A video surfaced on YouTube two months ago on the Capcom R&D channel of a presentation suggesting a will within the company to create its in-house DRM to work alongside Denuvo. It seems we may have reached that point. 

The description of the video reads, “PC games have always been subject to cheating and piracy. Malicious cheating and piracy can reduce the value of the product and lead to a loss of profit.

“This presentation will explain the past background and current efforts to combat cheating and piracy.”

The complaints at the moment center around the ten-year-old Resident Evil Revelations, which, even after a decade, still has a Very Positive review rating on Steam.

It seems odd that Capcom would choose to re-protect such an old title and incur a cost for doing so, so there is potential that these accusations are inaccurate but reports that the Enigma Protector is blocking mods are rife on the Steam Community Forums.

User Dam Shark said, “They have been adding Enigma Protector to their games, even old games. Maybe a part of their recent anti-modding stance? Truly incomprehensible tbh.”

It seems Capcom might be going after modders of its games and trying to clamp down as reports on Twitter a few weeks back highlighted Capcom games featuring speedrunning or any kind of mod were hit with copyright strikes and removed from YouTube.

In the middle of 2023, Capcom was embarrassed when a Street Fighter 6 major tournament host forgot to turn off his nude Chun-Li mod and the show went live with viewers getting more than they perhaps bargained for.

Featured Image: Street Fighter 6/Capcom

Paul McNally

Paul has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision. He spent over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title. Has written gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Pro, Amiga Action, Mega Action, ST Action, GQ, Loaded, and the Daily Mirror. Former champion shoot ’em-up legend.