Bethesda is opting out from using Denuvo on their games

Denuvo is best known for its anti-piracy technology and the performance issues that usually come with it. It doesn't happen every time, but when it happens, people notice, and when comparing the affected games with Denuvo free versions, the performance is comparatively better.

First of all, it was known that Starfield does not have Denuvo, so the game is without this kind of protection, but who knows, they might use some other sort of countermeasure since adding Denuvo after launch would make little sense.

But more recently, it was discovered that the same technology has been removed from Doom Eternal, as seen in SteamDB. This change came out of nowhere, as no one was notified that this was happening, although no one is lamenting this decision, and currently, there are no signs of any performance changes to the game.

Bethesda removing the Denuvo technology and opting not to use it on their most recent game might not mean anything. Still, it could also mean that they have finally seen how Denuvo has a pretty bad reputation and chose to start distancing themselves from them.

So far, neither Bethesda nor Denuvo has said anything about the decision not to use their technology in Starfield or the decision to remove it from Doom Eternal. They could be two different reasons, and coincidentally both happened recently, or Bethesda chose to stop using Denuvo.