Some old games may not work on new Intel processors due to anti-piracy protections

The next generation of Intel desktop processors should be introduced later this month. It is known that the so-called Alder Lake processors will use a hybrid architecture, ie that they will combine cores that are more efficient in energy consumption and more powerful cores that are in charge of more complex tasks. Such an architecture has already debuted in laptop processors, and will now begin to be used in desktop solutions as well.

Although the hybrid solution is expected to bring significant leaps in performance and energy savings, Intel warns that its 12th-generation processors could "confuse" DRM solutions used in games, ie anti-piracy protection for them.

In translation, there is a chance that some old games may not work on new Intel processors without the user looking for solutions to bypass anti-piracy protection, that is, to "crack" them.

Now, Intel is also saying that they are already working with creators of well-known DRM protections, such as Denuvo, to make the DRMs of future games compatible with the hybrid architecture of the new processors. But the old games are questionable and will need to be subsequently updated or removed with DRM for customers of the new Intel processors to work properly. In case there are no updates or removals because the developers do not plan to return to the old games, users will have to bypass anti-piracy protection themselves.

Anti-piracy protection is often a source of problems with older PC games. For example, old games that use the old SecuROM and SafeDisc protections do not work on Windows 10.