Bethesda Mistakenly Shipped DOOM Eternal With A DRM-Free Executable On Board

Gamers who purchased Doom Eternal have quickly realized that Bethesda made a mistake in its packaging for the Bethesda Launcher. Everyone knew that Doom Eternal would be using Denuvo DRM to keep the game from being cracked and posted online -- or at least it would slow hackers down for a while. However, the developers mistakenly packaged a complete DRM-free copy of the game executable inside the game download package. The game executable, minus the Denuvo DRM software, sat in a folder inside the Bethesda Launcher version called "Original."

We say the DRM-free "sat" in the folder inside the original download because Bethesda appears to have quickly realized the mistake it made and issued a patch that removed the executable from the folder. The size of the files in the DRM-free folder also highlight how much larger the addition of digital rights management software makes game files. The DRM-free folder was 67 MB while the standard game folder with Denuvo measured in that 370 MB as seen in images posted by Resetera.

Reports indicate that the smaller file in the Original folder could replace the larger DRM laden file in the main game folder with little effort and no impact on gameplay. This mistake is a big deal for Bethesda, as you can imagine; the cracked game community has already taken advantage of the unprotected file. One caveat was that the DRM-free version of the game did still require a Bethesda Account the first time the game is launched.

However, reports indicate that pirates and crackers have found a simple method to patch that check allowing for a completely off-line Doom Eternal experience. Doom Eternal isn't the first time Bethesda has made this type of mistake. When Rage 2 launched, it also had a DRM-free executable within the Bethesda Launcher version. 

In other Doom Eternal news, new game drivers for the title launched this week from AMD and NVIDIA to improve the playing experience.