The launch of Doom: The Dark Ages yesterday should have been a celebration for fans of id Software’s legendary franchise. Instead, thousands of Linux users found themselves staring at lockout screens rather than slaying demons.

The culprit? Denuvo, the controversial DRM system that’s supposed to prevent piracy but is instead preventing legitimate customers from accessing their $70+ purchase.

What makes this situation particularly frustrating is the timing. Many affected users specifically paid for the Premium Edition to gain early access, only to spend that exclusive period fighting with DRM rather than hellspawn.

When DRM becomes your worst nightmare

The core issue plaguing Linux users stems from how Denuvo tracks game installations. When players attempt to troubleshoot performance issues by switching between different versions of Proton (Valve’s compatibility layer for running Windows games on Linux), Denuvo incorrectly flags these actions as multiple hardware activations.

Denuvo locks you from playing...