Home / Software & Gaming / Denuvo may have lost the battle, but it wants to win the war

Denuvo may have lost the battle, but it wants to win the war

Anti-tamper digital management system, Denuvo, may have faced a couple of set backs as of late, but the executives at the developer aren't concerned. In fact they still see the company at the forefront of protecting games and suggested that no DRM system was fullproof, but that its was still the best.

Denuvo is different than your average DRM, in that it works in conjunction with existing copy protection. It makes it harder to tamper with the DRM, which inhibits the intrepid game cracker from being able to complete their task, but doesn't interfere with legitimate buyers. It's been very successful, but as of late has shown some weaknesses and was even bypassed in just six weeks following the release of one recent game.

Other games followed suit shortly after, so the question is now being asked: is Denuovo's time as the best copy protection system done?

“There is no such thing as unbreakable protection,” said Denuovo's marketing director, Thomas Goebl in a chat with MCVUK. “That’s something we always tell our clients to help manage their expectations. Our scope is to prevent early cracks for every title. We want to allow an initial window when a game is released to have an uncracked version and thus guarantee sales.”

jc3

Nearly a year on from release and Just Cause 3 still hasn't been cracked

That has been part of the big success of Denuvo. While in many instances it has remained uncracked for months, its main challenge has been in preventing cracks from appearing for games within the first few weeks of release. That's when traditionally the highest rates of piracy have occurred, so preventing it allows developers/publishers to sell the majority of their game to those who would pay. After that it's not so important whether the game is pirated or not.

This is where Denuvo has proved extremely successful. In years gone past, most big games were available to play for free within hours or at most days, of launch. DRM seemed like a complete waste of time – but not with Denuvo.

While Denuvo has faced some stiff competition from pirates in recent months, it has shored up holes in its defences and continues to protect a number of solutions out in the wild. It will continue to do so and looks likely to be successful, since no set back has seen it completely invalidated yet.

Of course we could see a big crack that breaks Denuvo wide open appear, but if it takes more than a few weeks to develop, it's already too late to prevent Denovo's successes.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The best part about Denuvo is it doesn't worsen the experience for the user. That's incredibly important for any DRM system. 

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18 comments

  1. was the ‘denuvo stresses SSDs’ thing an actual issue with early versions or just a myth?

  2. Doesn’t affect users? Beth to differ. A few times I’ve been kicked from a SP game for losing connection to the servers.

  3. “After that it’s not so important whether the game is pirated or not.”

    If the industry really does think like this, why not release every game DRM-free after, say, a year?

  4. Just Cause 3 is/was cracked. Same as Tomb Raider, Doom, TW:W…

  5. CPY-Codex and very soon Reloaded will compromise their anti-tamper for good.Intrusive DRMs and anti-tampers’ registration schemes only harm legitimate users not pirates.

  6. Not even a cent for denuvo games, you can bitch around but the crackers will kill you if you like it or not.

  7. Agreed!

  8. If they stop with this proteccions people will have the guts to buy it all over the game to help them. They just try to pissing off the crackers that’s all.
    They have all their life to win money.

  9. “Doesn’t worse the usrr experience”…. Hahahaha, ok good joke, XD!

  10. People pirate DRM-free games too.

  11. Well, they did stop pirates for quite a while, so obviously they do the job.

  12. man
    I am tired of all these copyright trolls, I will summarize the
    situation very simply put. some video game developers like the flappy
    fish can even survive on donations and crowd funding. so all these
    companies are trying to do is get richer are no worse off from piracy
    anyways, just check their quarterly revenue. so all it is basically
    human greed. The end

  13. I Said games without DRM inside like GOG!

  14. Popular DRM-free games get pirated. Witcher 3 get pirated, and it’s been available on GOG day one. Pirates don’t suddenly go “ooh, we’ll now pay $60 for a game because it’s DRM-free”. They don’t even go “we’ll pay $5 for a game because it’s DRM-free”. There have been several articles about DRM-free indie games and the amount of piracy they get (which is a lot).

    It’s possible that piracy doesn’t have a negative effect on sales, but thinking that lack of DRM will reduce piracy is terribly naive.

  15. Okay, whatever. They can win more money with multiplayer.

  16. That’s worse than DRM.

  17. ok and rockstar is profit as fuck.

  18. I see Denuvo as a good thing. If it succeeds in creating an initial sales window for the games developer, allowing them to experience sales unhindered by piracy during and immediately after a game’s launch.

    Developers spend a lot of time and money producing these AAA titles, they deserve to be compensated adequately. If the profit for these projects were to fall too low we would see a lot less of these AAA titles being produced. So giving a game some time to earn it’s money and be profitable ensures that these developers and studios will continue to produce quality titles.

    My views on piracy are rather liberal, as I believe that the “warez” scene has been a starting point for many people working in the tech sector today, youngsters learning more and more about their computers, and the things it can, and can’t do, is a good thing. It does not supersede a developers right to make a profit though.

    The window that Denuvo creates ensures that those willing and able to purchase games will, and that by the time a working crack for said title is released, it is released mostly to people that would not have purchased the game anyway.

    It’s like a bakery that bakes 1000 donuts in the morning, and sells say 750 of them… should those remaining donuts be destroyed and put into the trash to ensure that nobody gets a free donut, or should they be offered to less fortunate so as not to go to waste?

    I know people that will pirate a game, but purchase it when they can, on sale or whatever. Services like Steam are great for people with massive gaming libraries, storage becomes an issue.

    The best anti piracy is quality, engaging online multiplayer… games like Left 4 Dead are only so so until you go online and experience the “versus” mode… that is the REAL game. Even hardcore pirates cough up the loot for online multiplayer.