Surprise update breathes new life into Just Cause 3, proving the chaotic sandbox still has tricks up its sleeve

Whilst it likely needs no introduction, especially if you grew up with the franchise during the Xbox 360 era, Just Cause 3 is an open-world sandbox game developed by Avalanche Studios. It launched back in 2015, and the franchise was well known for its wingsuit traversal, over-the-top destruction, and a still surprisingly active PC modding scene (one of which just received the biggest mod to date).

What makes this interesting is that Avalanche Studios, the same studio that was working on the now-cancelled Contraband for Xbox, appears to have quietly updated Just Cause 3 almost ten years after release.

On PC, Just Cause 3 was always held back by one persistent frustration. Its use of Denuvo, an anti-piracy and anti-tamper system, was a long-standing sore point for players and modders alike. However, Denuvo has now seemingly been removed from Just Cause 3 entirely.

Denuvo no more

Denuvo is an anti-piracy system used by developers to prevent games from being cracked and redistributed illegally. It is deeply integrated into a game’s executable, which makes it difficult to bypass and is tightly linked to how the game runs on PC.

While preventing piracy is generally seen as a positive, Denuvo has long come with trade-offs. Across multiple PC titles, it has been associated with performance issues and complications for modders, making it a frequent point of criticism.

Nearly ten years after Just Cause 3 first launched, the game has quietly received an update on Steam. Following that update, all mentions of Denuvo have seemingly been removed from the store page, strongly suggesting the anti-piracy system is no longer in use. As well as this, users on Reddit have mentioned that the game's executable has seen a significant reduction in size.

In the short term, this change has likely broken several mods and tools that rely on the game’s executable. Those issues are expected to be resolved over time, and for many players, the removal of Denuvo may prove to be a worthwhile trade for a cleaner and potentially more stable PC experience.

Do you think surprise updates like this breathe new life into older games, or would you rather see studios focus on new titles? Drop your thoughts below — are you diving back into Rico’s chaos, or leaving it in the past?

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