Capcom's New DRM Update is Fucking Bullshit: What You Need to Know
This shit show first started a few months ago when Capcom gave their Open Conference for 2023. There was a portion of the conference which focused solely on the issue of "Anti-cheating and Anti-piracy measures," in which Capcom outright stated that they believe ALL mods are inherently bad and should be targeted by DRM (Digital Rights Management) programs. They also cited the potential "reputational damage" called by "malicious mods" and while they don't provide a definition for what they deem "public order and morals" I think it's very easy to read between the lines there.
Everyone (rightfully) clowned on Crapcom since this is such a bullshit statement to make (more on that later), however, Capcom has since begun implementing this policy.
A few months ago, a few streamers, including one who seemed to specialize in Monster Hunter content, had their videos taken down, removed by a copyright strike Capcom filed due to their use of mods in the stream.
And as of yesterday morning, Steam users are reporting a horrific new update to Resident Evil: Revelations, which added what was called the "Enigma Protector" to bar players from using mods and subsequently "cheating." However, to say the update was a shitshow would be a hot mess. It caused a 10-15% drop in performance, from what I've heard, which resulted in extremely laggy play for those were fortunate enough to still be able to launch the game. For many others, the game was effectively broken and unusable. Due to the many issues, Capcom then had to remove the update, but did so stating that they would fix it and re-install it later. Now keep in mind, this game came out OVER A DECADE AGO, and they're doing this shit NOW. To my knowledge, Capcom tried this bullshit a few years ago with RE7, but was swiftly bullied out of it (as they should've been).
Yes, this is fucking bad!
There's been a lot of debates on lewd/nude mods in this fandom, but what I need everyone to understand here is that this policy goes far beyond people putting Leon in a thong. Mods are integral to the gaming community, especially with companies like Capcom who are too big to give a fuck about their fanbase.
There are many games which have flashing lights that could potentially cause seizures, migraines, etc. that cannot be turned off, so people use mods to do so. This bans those protections. There are people who are visually impaired that use mods to adjust colors, fonts, text size, etc. when the game doesn't provide those functions. This bans those protections as well. Capcom is certainly not known for this accessibility in gaming, and now they are cutting out a whole section of the fanbase over fucking mods.
It's also worth mentioning that some Capcom games, especially the original RE4, literally cannot run without mods. Capcom will gladly take your money and Steam will let you download the game, but it will be unusable unless you have certain mods installed, which fix the failure to launch errors due to the broken programming of the game. As a result, a lot of older games will now be completely broken if this is implemented
Moreover, this only punishes buyers. People who emulate the games or have otherwise cracked them seem to be relatively unaffected. So, once again, Capcom is going to take your money and you get to waste your time downloading a game you can't play because a billion-dollar company was upset that someone could potentially think they made a game in which a male character wears a dress.
And as I've implicitly mentioned in the aforementioned text, this negatively impacts the queer community as well. Capcom has an extreme lack of representation, but I'm going to mainly speak to the RE fandom since that's what I'm a part of. Mods that swap characters to create queer relationships are now banned, as are mods that put men in "women's clothes" or women in "men's clothes," etc. So regardless of how you feel about nude mods, I hope you can understand how this is going to negatively impact us as well considering one of the most popular mods is Leon in a g-string with a tramp stamp.
And besides that, why would you want to allow a billion dollar company to dictate what you can and can't do with the game you paid for?
Don't buy ANY Capcom game-- do not purchase them. Save your money and use ✨alternative means✨ to download the games. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube and step-by-step guides on Reddit about how to emulate games or otherwise use alternative means. In other words, *ahem* arrg me maties!
Spread the word, and talk shit about Capcom. Since they care about their perceived reputation so much, let it be known that you're unhappy. Talk about how shitty the company is and how this has negatively impacted you.
Review bomb the shit out of Revelations on Steam and cite the reason update as the reason why! There's already a few dozen negative reviews-- keep them coming.
But do NOT harass the staff, especially the developers. Capcom execs have the ultimate power in this situation, not the people in tasked with putting out the updates or working on the games. Harassing people is only going to exacerbate the situation, so be mindful of how you interact with others regarding this situation.
Yes, Capcom being concerned about morals is extremely hypocritical
Now I know I keep saying it, but regardless of how you personally feel about nude mods, you have to admit this is pretty fucking hysterical coming from Capcom of all companies. They're so concerned about people potentially mistaking "immoral" mods as the base game, yet this is the same company who made RE5, which has research essays written about how horrifically racist it is. The same company who was going to put (adult) Sherry in the costume she wore as a child (from RE2) because it was "hot" [a note in her concept art]. The same company who's queer representation only exists in the form of single-appearence characters that were confirmed to be queer retroactively. The same company who waited until 2023 to have a Chinese VA voice a Chinese character-- prior to this, Ada was only ever voiced by white women to my knowledge. And that's just examples from RE I can cite from memory, I'm sure they've probably done some other shit with others IPs. So they're ok with doing all of that, but they draw the line at crop-top mods and other people fixing their broken games. Interesting, isn't it?
Now, I'm not sure what happens next. Hopefully Capcom will see all the disgust and disappointment currently being thrown their way online (especially on Twitter), and realize that they fucked up so they reverse their decision, but it seems too early to tell what will happen or what wide-spread impacts this will have in the future.
