Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, the team-based fighting game featuring superhero characters from Marvel, has fared reasonably well since its launch, but it could have been much better had the PC version been up to scratch. It very quickly received 'Mixed' reviews on Steam and, although the developers have promised to improve the situation, the initial buzz is rapidly fading.
Whilst it will surely come as no surprise to anyone, part of this poor performance appears to be linked to DRM - the anti-piracy security mechanism that has for years been criticised for seriously affecting gaming performance. The curious thing about this case is that the group of users who have proven this to be true are the very same pirates who have cracked the game.
According to Polygon, users on Reddit and ResetEra who have accessed the game via this cracked version report that they have been able to run the game at 60 fps and with the highest quality settings. They also discovered that they did not need to preload the game's shaders for a smooth experience, which is a prerequisite in the official version. One user noted that they still experienced some stuttering when performing super attacks and in the game menus, but that the overall experience was much better.
Nor is it all down to the DRM. SDK requests (essentially, constant connection requests between the game and the PlayStation Network, a Sony requirement) also appear to be slowing the game down, as does the additional Easy Anti-Cheat software.
With the main issues identified and its usefulness as anti-piracy software (for this particular title) proven to be pointless, Sony should take action and offer its PC players a much more optimised version, removing these obstacles that it has itself imposed on the game.