Denuvo's DRM Now Being Cracked Within Hours of Release (arstechnica.com)

Denuvo, an anti-tamper technology and digital rights management scheme, isn't doing a very good job preventing PC games from being copied. According to Ars Technica, Denuvo releases are being publicly cracked within a day of their launch. From the report: This week's release of South Park: The Fractured but Whole is the latest to see its protections broken less than 24 hours after its release, but it's not alone. Middle Earth: Shadow of War was broken within a day last week, and last month saw cracks for Total War: Warhammer 2 and FIFA 18 the very same day as their public release. Then there's The Evil Within 2, which reportedly used Denuvo in prerelease review copies but then launched without that protection last week, effectively ceding the game to immediate potential piracy. Those nearly instant Denuvo cracks follow summer releases like Sonic Mania, Tekken 7, and Prey, all of which saw DRM protection cracked within four to nine days of release. But even that small difference in the "uncracked" protection window can be important for game publishers, who usually see a large proportion of their legitimate sales in those first few days of availability. The presence of an easy-to-find cracked version in that launch window (or lack thereof) could have a significant effect on the initial sales momentum for a big release. If Denuvo can no longer provide even a single full day of protection from cracks, though, that protection is going to look a lot less valuable to publishers.

Comments

The Gambler's Delusion

[Anonymous Coward]

DRM is like the delusional gambler. No matter how much money he loses he refuses to quit, because quitting would be and admission that he has failed and lost all his money. And, he is convinced that if hes sticks with it long enough he will eventually hit that big jackpot.

And I don't expect the companies using DRM to change their minds any time soon.

Denuvo isn't going to just quit and go away. Next year, Denuvo will will promise the game companies them that they have developed a new and improved DRM. It will be a lie. It will be nothing more than digital snake oil, just like all DRM, and the game companies will buy it, because they are just like the delusional gambler.

Re:The Gambler's Delusion

[Opportunist]

A casual gamer will go to steam, click "buy it", click "finish and install" and play it. Not because it's honest, not because it's the right thing, not because he doesn't know about the crack but simply because it's easier and he doesn't give a shit about the 5 bucks the game costs.

Honestly, the only time I actually notice a game has DRM is when the damn crap keeps me from playing because the "you have to be online all the time" servers are unreachable again. Which is coincidentally also the only time when I have to fire up IDA anymore...