Some games still need a fix for Intel Alder Lake, but Denuvo says it had everything ready ahead of launch

Intel Core i5 12600K CPU pictured up-close
(Image credit: Future)

Intel Alder Lake has some issues with a handful of games, most of which appear to be down to the use of Denuvo DRM. Well, today we found out which games exactly are running into issues on Intel Alder Lake, and a way to get around the issue temporarily, but also that Denuvo itself says it's not who you should be looking to for a patch, because it's already done its part.

Denuvo has sent a statement to me that says that it has already provided the required patches for the affected games, and that it's now down to developers to implement them. In fact, it says it had these patches ready to roll before Alder Lake even launched (which happened yesterday, November 4).

Here's the statement in full from Reinhard Blaukovitsch, managing director of Denuvo:

"Denuvo has been working closely with Intel, as we do with other hardware providers, to verify that all our security features are working as expected and test the compatibility with their newest CPUs. It is essential to highlight that almost all game titles using the Denuvo technology will work out of the box with the Alder Lake CPU.

Black Friday deals

Black Friday deals

Black Friday 2021 deals: the place to go for the all the best Black Friday bargains.

Suppose you are a fan of older games. In that case, a very limited number of affected titles would need to be re-protected and patched to ensure compatibility with Intel’s latest processors. In rare cases, compatibility issues may result in a crash, sometimes hours within the gameplay. Denuvo already contacted each publisher of the affected game titles and provided patches for those titles to be compatible with Alder Lake ahead of its release.

We are confident that publishers of the few affected titles are working on releasing updates that address this incompatibility as soon as possible."

As mentioned in the statement, it's only a handful of games today that aren't working with Alder Lake today, and a good few of those are expected to be fixed en masse in an upcoming Windows 11 update. The others, it seems, will fall to developers to fix as and when they can.

Intel previously confirmed that it is working with developers to get these patches implemented. Hopefully the fact developers have the relevant patches already will mean it isn't too long before all is well for Intel Alder Lake chips. And if you haven't read what the fuss is about already, check out our Intel Core i9 12900K review and Intel Core i5 12600K review for more.

Jacob Ridley
Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.

TOPICS