Developed by Blackbird Interactive and published by Gearbox, Homeworld 3 arrived to fans of the classic real-time strategy series earlier this year in May after numerous delays. As with many high-profile launches nowadays, though, the Denuvo Anti-Tamper digital rights management (DRM) solution was attached to the release. Now, five months after launch, the divisive DRM format has been removed from the game in a silent update.
The studio has not yet announced the change. However, as it can be seen on SteamDB when viewing the latest changes made to the game, Homeworld 3"s massive .exe file containing Denuvo protection, which had weighed in at over 400MB, has been swapped to a standard one. At the same time, the game"s Steam page no longer has a third-party protection tag that previously displayed Denuvo, confirming the removal.
The change arrives as Blackbird is preparing a massive update to the game in November. The studio is packing all planned content updates, both free and paid, into one drop that"s happening next month. These were originally slated to arrive in 2025 as part of the game"s initial roadmap.
Community-requested changes to the game"s skirmish mode, like Hyperspace Jumping, as well as balance changes in the early game to drive more tension into the decision-making, are incoming with the update. A traditional RTS-style tech tree, a choice of when to advance some story missions so players can catch their breath, and other changes will be implemented too.
Another game that recently pulled Denuvo DRM from its innards is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which also received some major performance improvements in the same update. BioWare has also confirmed that the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard RPG will not ship with any sort of third-party DRM, including Denuvo.