Forza Horizon 6 launches on Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 19 (or May 15 for Premium Edition buyers), and in the case of the latter, one big question keeps cropping up.

Does Forza Horizon 6 have Denuvo DRM?

The good news is that Forza Horizon 6 does not utilize Denuvo DRM. Which is good news.

As the game is listed on Steam, if it were using Denuvo, it would be listed as such on the store page.

Take Star Wars: Galactic Racer as an example. It's not releasing until October, but already we know it'll be utilizing Denuvo, which in itself is enough to put many prospective buyers off.

I reached out to Xbox for confirmation, and they have responded with a categorial no, Forza Horizon 6 does not use Denuvo. That's not to say there is no DRM; after all, if you play it on Game Pass through the Xbox app, it's pretty well locked down.

Why is Denuvo DRM so controversial?

There are examples in the past of poor implementations of Denuvo affecting a game's performance, which certainly made sure its reputation would be blighted for all eternity.

It doesn't always happen, but it has happened, and that's enough to make it a concern.

There are other issues, too, such as any problems with the Denuvo service just blocking you from playing a game that you spent your hard-earned money on.

Denuvo also requires online connectivity in order to authenticate, which can cause issues if you want to play offline.

In any case, Denuvo has done enough in its time to smear its own name, and gamers rarely forget these things. In the case of Forza Horizon 6, at least, it looks like we don't have to worry.

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Richard Devine is the Managing Editor at Windows Central, where he combines a deep love for the open-source community with expert-level technical coverage. Whether he’s hunting for the next big project on GitHub, fine-tuning a WSL workflow, or breaking down the latest meta in Call of Duty, Forza, and The Division 2, Richard focuses on making complex tech accessible to every kind of user. If it’s happening in the world of Windows or PC gaming, he’s probably already knee-deep in the code (or the lobbies). Follow him on X and Mastodon.