Capcom’s crack down on mods is destroying games on Steam Deck

Capcom titles like Monster Hunter: Rise are unable to load on the Steam Deck since the publisher’s decision to include Enigma DRM in its Steam catalog of games.

Capcom has been in the process of updating the DRM on its catalog of games across Steam. Over the past few months, games like Resident Evil Revelations, which previously came equipped with Denuvo DRM are having it seeing it swapped out with Engima DRM, which is invertedly causing problems for the Steam Deck.

Popular Capcom titles that are currently listed as being fully “verified” for the handheld, and so expect that they perform well on the go, aren’t booting at all since they received their Enigma update. Monster Hunter Rise, is the most recent game to be affected, which has gone from being one of the best Steam Deck games, to being unable to run since being integrated with the new DRM.

Twitter/X user DakaR:FT was able to confirm that Capcom had integrated Enigma into Monster Hunter Rise for its 16.0.2.0 update. By running the .exe files for the game, DakaR:FT discovered the addition of the Enigma Protector DRM and shared a screenshot of their findings.

While Capcom has yet to confirm its reasoning behind its use of Enigma DRM, its addition is likely an ongoing effort to crack down on the use of mods. Last year, an X-rated Chun Li mod for Street Fighter 6 caused a stir, and the publisher has been on record during an ‘Anti-cheat and Anti-Piracy’ presentation, to state that mods can create “reputational damage” to games.

Capcom is working on a fix

Since its implementation with Enigma DRM Monster Hunter Rise has been review bombed, with its Steam page now bombarded with an array of negative posts. Steam user silversnake left a ‘not recommended’ review stating that, “this review will stay negative until capcom comes forward and retracts trying to use DRM for games that we already own and damage performance and mod use.”

Monster Hunter Rise isn’t the only game in Capcom’s back catalog to be integrated with Enigma DRM. Monster Hunter World, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Volume 1 and 2, and Resident Evil 7 are just a few of the Capcom-published titles that are likely to also have their DRM swapped out if the reviews are anything to go by.

While Capcom has yet to make a statement on its official social media channels, it is aware of the ongoing issue. On a brand-new event post for Monster Hunter Rise, the publisher stated that “there have been reports of the game not running on Steam Deck after updating to Ver.16.0.2.0. The dev team is currently investigating this issue.”