https://www.dsogaming.com/news/denuvo-removed-from-shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-rise-of-the-tomb-raider/

Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider have had Denuvo removed!

Now they can come to GOG!

good
ban denuvo

Well damnit... what the heck Square?

https://steamcommunity.com/app/391220/discussions/0/4580716151549921865/

They added Epic EOS to online multiplayer and made it so you have to be online for all 3 games to play single player... and now they rolled back the patch. So it's currently got Denuvo again.

That is an amazingly bad move, especially the always online requirement. I hope they will fix it.

At the moment, GOG's DRM-free version of the first game is clearly superior, because at least you can play its single-player content with the up-to-date build (not some "beta branch") while being offline.

Kingdom Hearts on Epic requires an online server check to launch every time I believe, seems like this might be Square's new stance. Ridiculous.

Sounds like they are acting like Blizzard...

And then the question that comes to my mind is what happens to the GOG version of Tomb Raider GOTY after all of the EOS issues are resolved. This isn't going to be HITMAN GOTY all over again, is it?

How do you mean? Tomb Raider GOTY has no DRM in it as far as I know, and IO Interactive split from Square Enix in 2017 along with their Hitman series anyway.

Oh. I am currently playing RoTR and I wondered why it was updating yesterday.
I would be happy with Denuvo gone but I would still prefer it over always on requirement.

They added 'always online DRM' on the Steam copy of Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider GOTY. So now the question is will they add the same DRM to the GOG version.

1. They added it to Rise and Shadow, not the first reboot. Those two games are not sold here.

2. Why does GOG have to get constant second-guessing like this when they just reaffirmed their commitment by removing Hitman 2016? Silly negativity.

1. They added that Always Online DRM to all 3 TR games on Steam.

2. If they add that DRM to the GOG version GOG will pull it from the store yes but what about current owners of the game? They could probably just not update the game I guess. But that was my concern regarding TR on GOG.

Isn't that how it works on all games that Square sells on their store? Including games like Final Fantasy 8 build which was almost 20 years old. They eventually replaced it with their "Remastered" build, but I remember it maintained the online requirement for Square's store.

If you've already downloaded and backed up your installers, this isn't a concern.

Even were something like this to happen, then GoG would roll-back the server install to the latest version without the DRM.

However, if you're worried, download and back-up your installers.

Nothing surprises me these days. As soon as Steam started encouraging devs to move parts of the game into the client, the writing was on the wall as to how many problems we'd have in future when other competing clients do the same. Also no Denuvo doesn't = DRM-Free. Both games are still 100% DRM'd on all platforms:-

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Rise_of_the_Tomb_Raider
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Tomb_Raider

^ It's unknown whether the Epic version of Rise of the Tomb Raider has DRM in, but if it needs to be online anyway for Epic Online Services, it hardly matters as it's exactly the same. Likewise, the Microsoft Store and Mac versions of Rise have DRM in.

Because of the mixed messages. Hitman was dealt with, but people are still waiting for a fix after 4.5 months of "investigating" this game's broken offline installers (on top of the two years people are still waiting for a fix for Divinity Original Sin). I suspect the "constant second-guessing" of which offline installers work properly or not, will reduce when more of the broken stuff actually gets fixed instead of ignored & abandoned...