Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t have third-party DRM

Dragon Age: The Veilguard continues to look like a great PC release. Publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that the upcoming open-world RPG won’t feature Denuvo or any other third-party DRM when it launches on October 31.

EA announced this in a blog post, which also goes over the recommended PC specs and release times. While this means you won’t be able to preload the game (you can still do so on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5), you will get some benefits.

DRM (digital rights management) is a way for PC game publishers to deal with potential piracy. When you launch a game, the software checks to see if you have a registered license and then launches the game. It sounds reasonable, and for the most part, it doesn’t interfere with your playtime.

However, there have been instances in the past where DRM has caused some problems. In 2021, players couldn’t reach multiple offline single-player games due to an issue with Denuvo. The idea is that if a DRM service goes down or can’t connect to the internet, it’ll cause even games that work offline to be unplayable. This leads to concerns players have in the event of a delisting, although that’s not usually the case these days — at least with DRM.

A more common complaint from players is that DRM causes performance issues. Multiple tests have been done throughout the years that show it can lead to frame rate drops and longer loading times. For example, Digital Foundry discovered that a cracked, DRM-free PC version of Resident Evil Village ran better than an official one. Capcom eventually released a patch to address PC performance.

People with concerns about DRM have options. Games on Steam tend to have it, but you can get titles off of GOG and the Humble Store DRM-free. So Dragon Age: The Veilguard not shipping with DRM is a huge win for PC players — not all of them, but a decently-sized chunk of them.

EA and BioWare have made other pro-PC choices for the game’s release. It’s not only already Steam Deck verified but also won’t need to be connected to the EA app, which isn’t natively supported on the Steam Deck. Players also generally don’t like having to use extra accounts and software to get a game up and running through Steam.