Doom Eternal's latest update should have been a relatively low-key affair, a new progression system here, a few tweaks there. It's made itself notorious for one reason, the addition of Denuvo Anti-Cheat, and players weren't too happy about it. 

The good news is that id's Marty Stratton has heard the outcries, and has promised to remove the system from the game in a future update. Stratton has promised to go back to the 'drawing board' on the game's anti-cheat system in a post on Reddit today, much to the relief of fans;

Despite our best intentions, feedback from players has made it clear that we must re-evaluate our approach to anti-cheat integration. With that, we will be removing the anti-cheat technology from the game in our next PC update. As we examine any future of anti-cheat in DOOM Eternal, at a minimum we must consider giving campaign-only players the ability to play without anti-cheat software installed, as well as ensure the overall timing of any anti-cheat integration better aligns with player expectations around clear initiatives – like ranked or competitive play – where demand for anti-cheat is far greater.

To be clear, Denuvo Anti-Cheat is not the same as the usual DRM version of Denuvo that gamers have come to know and hate; instead, it's a separate anti-cheating software that, as you'd expect, stops players from cheating in online multiplayer.

It installs a kernel-mode driver onto players' systems, something Valorant has also come under fire for doing, but in this case, it's only active while the game is running. According to the creators of Denuvo, Irdeto, it does not collect any personal information or scan system files. What it does do, however, is collect information on the "interaction" of Doom Eternal and Windows 10, and sends this telemetry back to the developers.

Kernel-mode drivers are controversial because they live at a layer of the operating system that isn't protected by typical user/administrator privileges - as such, any security flaws, if exploited, could cause severe damage to players' operations.

Stratton also noted that the decision to remove the software was entire id's, and that Bethesda weren't the ones behind the decision. Additionally, he promises updates to the code in relation to VRAM that should help PC performance issues.

There's no set date for the update yet, but it's expected to drop within the next week.