Tekken 8 Director Confirms Game Won't Have Denuvo

Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada confirmed that the next main installment in the Tekken franchise will not include the anti-piracy software Denuvo.

In a post on the social media platform X (spotted by PCGamer), Harada confirmed that the development team will not introduce Denuvo "or anything else" into Tekken 8. Harada made the statement after a now-deleted post pointed out that Tekken 8's End User License Agreement on Steam mentions Denuvo is being used under the third-party software category.

this EULA is probably simply a copy/paste of TEKKEN7 or something (I'm not a registered this but sure).
Anyway, I’ve no plans to introduce Denuvo or anything else in TEKKEN8, so stop your tedious allergic reactions to every single thing & sit quietly (sit the hell down). https://t.co/oT1Wj9VTpd

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) August 7, 2023

"[T]his EULA is probably simply a copy/paste of TEKKEN7 or something..." Harada posted. "Anyway, I've no plans to introduce Denuvo or anything else in TEKKEN8, so stop your tedious allergic reactions to every single thing & sit quietly (sit the hell down)."

Denuvo is an anti-tampering and DRM software released in 2014 and is commonly used in big PC releases. However, the software has been criticized for altering the performance of a game, and the always-online mandate has made it unpopular in the PC gaming community.

Tekken 8 still has no release date, but we know that in addition to PC, it'll release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. In our first hands-on with Tekken 8, Mitchell Saltzman said "Tekken 8 looks phenomenal, its hits feel as impactful as ever, and its iconic cast of characters are even more uniquely defined thanks to the new Heat system."

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.