Cross-posted from "Capcom celebrates the first anniversary of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess by ripping out its Denuvo DRM" by @free@rss.ponder.cat in !pcgamer@rss.ponder.cat
Birthdays can be tricky. They can be a celebration of our continued existence, or a grim reminder of our steady forward march towards an inevitable mortality—or, in the case of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, a birthday can mark the occasion that Capcom removes the Denuvo DRM software that's been a headache for its customers throughout the last decade, according to its SteamDB update history (via DSOGaming).
Mercifully, Kunitsu-Gami's Denuvo implementation doesn't seem to have been the source of many player complaints since its launch last July. Other Capcom games in recent years haven't been so lucky. In 2020, Capcom pulled Denuvo from DMC5, where casual testing found it had been decreasing performance by as much as 25%.
(Image credit: Capcom)
In 2021, Digital Foundry tested to confirm that Denuvo was responsible for similar performance issues in Resident Evil Village, though it wasn't removed from the game until 2023. It's worth noting that Monster Hunter Wilds, which continues to attract negative Steam reviews over ongoing performance issues, is strapped down with both Denuvo and Capcom's internally developed rights management software.
Denuvo seems to linger longer in games from Capcom's most well-known franchises like Monster Hunter and Resident Evil, presumably to protect sales numbers from piracy while demand remains high. Its removal from Kunitsu-Gami a year after launch might be an indicator that its widely positive critical reception—we gave it a very favorable 86 in our own Kunitsu-Gami review—didn't translate into strong sales interest.
Kunitsu-Gami has been noticeably absent from Capcom's quarterly and yearly financial reports since its launch. Capcom's handling of the game seems to have generated some criticism from its investors: In a shareholder meeting earlier this month, the company was asked why Exoprimal received promotional support after a middling demo response, while Kunitsu-Gami "received positive feedback from its demo" but "did not appear to receive strong promotional support to drive sales."
(Image credit: Capcom)
"For Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, we have been maximizing promotions for it as a new IP. In the fiscal year ending March 2026, we released this title for Nintendo Switch 2 along with additional downloadable content," Capcom said. "We remain committed to increasing awareness and communicating the appeal of both titles."
As for what that commitment might look like, Capcom is also celebrating Kunitsu-Gami's launch anniversary with a new in-game talisman that will change the game's background music "to an 8-bit retro style in certain situations."
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is available now on Steam.
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