If a DRM model actually works and can protect day/week/quarter/year one sales, plenty of indie devs and the like will pay for a license to insure their profits for that period.

And, regardless of what the internet claims, implemented correctly (so not checking on every frame update like some games do…), denuvo is completely transparent to the end user (maybe less so now that steam decks are a thing…). And the issues with authentication servers going down or licenses not refreshing mostly go way if it is removed with a patch a day/week/quarter/year in to the life cycle of the game. Which I would assume devs want to do anyway to stop paying for denuvo licenses?

The lesson we failed to learn from The DRM Wars of the 2000s is that piracy and “boycotts” don’t make DRM go away. Because it just takes one uncrackable game (I remember Mass Effect PC being a great example of this) to send ALL the pirates to the store. Because if you haven’t been buying your other games, getting the one you want for full price from the kid at Best Buy is easy.

The reality is that, much like what CDP/GoG said back in the day, it is about convenience. Steam put the fear of god into people (get caught pirating and you lose all your games!) and provided a(n honestly pretty invasive) DRM solution while encouraging consumers to “just buy it”. But, over time, that has proven to not be enough as more people realize how easy it is to bypass steam DRM and third party solutions are desired again.

And we are going to see the third party solutions as well as regional restrictions (which DRM also helps with) as more and more people shift back to piracy and exploiting cdkeys and the like for regional pricing exploits.