Tag Archives: drm

For years now, there has been more scrutiny over DRM in PC games and the performance impact that these protections can have. Resident Evil Village is the latest game to enter this conversation, as it has now been proven that the cracked, pirated version of the game runs better than …

Back in 2015, Personalised Media Communications (PMC) accused Apple of infringing on seven of its patents. After years of back and forth legal filings, a judge has finally ruled on the case, ordering Apple to pay $308.5 million in damages.  Out of the seven patents, a jury found that Apple …

Bringing 4K Netflix streaming to PC has been quite the ordeal, with Windows systems only just getting wide support in the last couple of years thanks to new CPUs and GPUs. On the Mac side of things, gaining access to Netflix's highest streaming quality is even more of a chore, …

At this point in time, Metro Exodus is essentially complete, with the base game now available across consoles and PC, in addition to two DLC expansions being released. With that in mind, there is not much sense in keeping Denuvo in the game for much longer, so 4A Games is …

Denuvo has been the number one choice of DRM for major publishers for quite some time now. Occasionally though, a studio will screw up its implementation and pave the way for swift piracy despite intentions to protect at least the first week of sale. We saw this happen with Mass Effect …

Earlier this week, GOG announced a change to its refund policy, giving customers of the DRM-free games store a 30-day refund window. Refunds can be obtained at any point within those 30 days, whether the game has been downloaded and played or not. It is the most generous refund policy …

The Epic Games Store is often in the news, primarily due to various store-exclusive deals for big games. This time around, EGS is making headlines for two reasons, the first is criticism over a perceived flaw with the launcher, allowing users to play games they don't own. The other is …

Last week, immediately following the launch of Rage 2, it came to light that Denuvo DRM was included on the Steam version of the game but was left absent on the version sold through Bethesda.net. This ultimately made having the DRM on either version pointless, as pirates had already began …

Denuvo has been the number one choice of DRM for major publishers for quite some time now. Occasionally though, a studio will screw up its implementation and pave the way for swift piracy despite intentions to protect at least the first week of sale. We saw this happen with Mass …

Square Enix found itself at the mercy of players after an update to the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster gave it an online-only requirement. While some suspected that this was the doing of an intrusive always-online digital rights management (DRM) system, Square Enix has assured that it is just a …

Discord expanded into video game sales earlier this month, launching its Store’s global beta test. Currently, Discord offers developers the ability to opt-in to its digital rights management (DRM), however enabled games will currently require players to be connected to the internet in order to boot. Currently, very few of …

With controversial DRM like Denuvo constantly slipping throughout the latter half of 2017, many thought this spelled the end of current anti-piracy measures as we knew it. It seems that news of its death has been greatly exaggerated, however, as Denuvo the added layer of VMProtect has made life much …

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War launched earlier this week and while Warner Bros attempted to keep it locked down with Denuvo's DRM system, it seems crackers have managed to figure out a way around it. Over the last year, game cracking groups have gotten a lot quicker at removing Denuvo, with …

Sonic Mania got off to a great start on consoles earlier this month, with fans and critics alike praising the game as a love letter to classic Sonic with some unique twists. Unfortunately, the game isn’t getting quite as warm a reception on PC, as it appears always online DRM …

Kodi is widely considered to be an excellent media streaming platform but over the years, it has also been used as a convenient tool for piracy. Plenty of add-on packs have been made for Kodi over the years which grant access to pirated streaming services and the popularity of ‘fully …

Netflix has been streaming Ultra-HD/4K content since way back in 2013 but over the years, this higher quality level has been limited to newer Smart TVs and some other specific devices, like the Nvidia Shield TV and now PS4 Pro/Xbox One S. It has been a long time coming but …

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 …

Denuvo is a name that sends shudders down the spines of pirates the world over, as it has meant that some games, no matter how hard people tried, have remained uncracked and unplayable for those not willing to pay for them. But there are whispers that that mightiest of foes …

Oculus might be changing its often criticised approach to keeping Rift games on the Rift as the latest Oculus Home update removed hardware DRM checks, meaning the software is no longer checking you actually have a Rift headset plugged in before launching any software. This is good news specifically for those …

Over the years, developers have come up with plenty of clever ways to mess with gamers playing pirated copies of titles and Quantum Break is just the latest example as the PC version of the game will give the main character an eye-patch if you did not buy it. The eye-patch …

Earlier this week we learned that cracking group 3DM would be taking a year off to see if there would be any effect on game sales. However, many took this to mean that the group just couldn't break Denuvo protection, which is found on many new games including Just Cause …

If you haven't heard of Denuvo, you're probably a law abiding game purchaser and deserve to pat yourself on the back – as long as you aren't pre-ordering too many titles. If you have though, you'll no doubt be aware of how frustrating it's proved for various piracy groups as …

Earlier this year, a Harvard Law School student launched a petition to the US Copyright Office to allow for abandoned online games to become exempt to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This would mean that games abandoned by publishers with dead DRM servers could legally be cracked and played again. …

Disc-based DRM has been huge in the entertainment industry, with most DVD's and Blu-rays coming region locked to specific devices. However, we are moving in to a new realm of 4K/UHD content at the moment, which means new Blu-ray disc technology, which just had region coding removed from its specification sheet. …

Earlier this year, it was discovered that Windows 10 doesn't support SafeDisc or SecuROM DRM software, which also means that games or software using those forms of DRM won't run without some tinkering. Microsoft did this for security purposes as these forms of DRM aren't entirely secure. Now, a similar …

Microsoft recently updated its EULA for Windows 10, noting that the operating system can seek out and potentially disable any pirated software, like games, running on your PC. The new clause in question is found under section 7b of the EULA, which says that Microsoft may check your software at …

Mozilla has launched Firefox version 38, bring digital rights management to the web browser for the first time. This change currently only affects Windows Vista or later users and has not yet been brought over to the Linux or Mac OS X versions of the browser. Mozilla has managed to …

Earlier this week, a games blogger was locked out of Battlefield Hardline on Origin after benchmarking a number of graphics cards. At the time, people pointed the finger at some form of ‘ghastly DRM’. People were convinced that Battlefield Hardline contained some form of DRM, that would lock you out …

Every game developer and publisher knows that at least a portion of their player base is going to be composed of people that didn't pay. In the past, they've tried to stop this with CD keys, code wheels and invincible scorpions that chase you around the map, but Paradox does …

Earlier this week, Far Cry 4 mysteriously vanished from the Xbox store, locking out those who bought the game digitally. The issue has since been fixed and Far Cry 4 is back on the Xbox store but this did raise questions on Microsoft's DRM policy. Since many Far Cry 4 …