# V2 DRM Decision

V2 launches on PC with Denuvo or an equivalent anti-tamper provider, subject to
publisher security sign-off and platform certification. The game relies on
anti-cheat, entitlement, progression, and live balance hotfix services even for
single-player profiles, so a DRM-free single-player SKU is excluded for launch.

## Trade-Off

The launch DRM protects first-window revenue, licensed roster obligations,
competitive asset integrity, and anti-cheat trust. The trade-off is startup
overhead, compatibility risk, support burden, and player sentiment. Engineering
must keep the DRM integration isolated from deterministic simulation and
rollback code paths, and QA must include low-end CPU, handheld PC, offline boot,
sleep/wake, and crash-recovery coverage.

## Removal Plan

The release plan includes a 6-12 month removal review. Removal can proceed only
after publishing, security, platform, legal, and fair-play sign-off confirms
that launch-window piracy risk, licensed-content exposure, and anti-cheat
coupling no longer require PC anti-tamper at boot.

## Measurement Guardrail

DRM A/B testing for sales/piracy impact can proceed only with aggregate
storefront sales cohorts, privacy-safe piracy-rate proxy telemetry, legal
privacy review, publishing approval, security review, and a rollback runbook.
Raw account identifiers, raw PII export, and automated penalties are forbidden.

## Safe-Boot Behavior

Cooked assets are integrity-checked at boot. A failed integrity check enters
safe-boot mode: offline-only, no ranked access, no online progression grants,
and a reinstall or verified repair is required before normal online play
resumes. Console builds rely on platform-native anti-piracy in addition to the
same cooked-asset integrity gate.