Two Point Hospital launched less than a week ago to a largely positive response – though, predictably, its use of Denuvo proved to be a controversial point for many fans. It seems you don’t have to worry about pesky DRM anymore, however, since a new hotfix out today removes Denuvo from the game.
Hotfix 1.02 fixes a number of big issues, including bootup crashes and failed loads for save games, and some other fixes for AI and NPC behaviour. But the bit that stands out comes at the very bottom of the patch notes: “Replaced Denuvo anti-tamper with Steam DRM.”
You can read those patch notes in full here. Two Point Hospital’s use of Denuvo was already a curious one, since it’s a Unity game, and the file structure of such titles makes this form of DRM very easy to bypass. In fact, Two Point was cracked before it even released to the public, so pirates were playing it even earlier than people who had bought the game legitimately. Denuvo’s stated goal is to protect early sales, but it certainly didn’t work in that regard here.
Don’t expect this to be a death knell for Denuvo, though. While Two Point Hospital was cracked in record time, it’s an outlier with a very specific vulnerability. Other big games, notably Jurassic World Evolution, have remained protected for months with no cracks in sight, and Denuvo is even reaching out into other areas like anti-cheat solutions.
With or without its controversial DRM, our Two Point Hospital review paints the game as an able successor to Theme Hospital, even if it does share some of the same flaws that hit the original. Hopefully this means a few more players will be willing to give it a try.