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Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

torrentfreak.com

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Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#41

Post by shmde »

bluesign wrote: post #37
shmde wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well used, Denuvo is not that bad. Ubisoft admitting that Denuvo ( idk why they used the term third party lol ) causes PC stuttering. https://gamerant.com/ubisoft-third-party-software-pc-stutter... Resident evil 8 runs better when it is stripped off its denuvo protection. As confirmed by Digital foundry's video. https://youtu.be/UXZGCwAJpbM https://www.pcgamer.com/resident-evil-village-drm-denuvo-stu... You will no…

> Trust me when I say people who pirate are usually the ones who never ever buy video games. It is not like black and white. There are a lot of people in between pirate and pre-order player.

> It is not like black and white. There are a lot of people in between pirate and pre-order player.

I can tell with confidence its not the case with my country. People who are well off, who are desperate enough to play it do pre-order vidya. And the other half don't spend money on video games because they think its a waste of money, why ? because its gonna get cracked anyway why pay for it now ? People are willing to wait for a few months for it to get cracked if it means that they can save that money. I know it sounds strange but when it comes to piracy its quite black and white over here.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#42

Post by kmeisthax »

csnover wrote: post #10
raxxorrax wrote: post #2

This should immediately make it legal to apply a crack in my opinion. I hope this is the case.

In the United States, the 2021 DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions do include this case[0]: > (17)(i) Video games in the form of computer programs embodied in physical or downloaded formats that have been lawfully acquired as complete games, when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable g…

Furthermore, the DMCA 1201 exemption process only applies to the act of applying a crack to a game, not the act of distributing it. So if a game's DRM fails the only legal way to make use of the exemption is to figure out how to break the DRM yourself - you can't distribute the resulting cracking tool to anyone without violating DMCA 1201, even if it has a lawful use.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#43

Post by chaostheory »

shmde wrote: post #35
GuB-42 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well used, Denuvo is not that bad. It is misuse that cause games to become slow or unplayable. And generally, it only serves to protect the first few months of sales, it is not uncommon to strip out DRM after that. Indie games often don't need it (and don't do it). AAA games are a different story. Including DRM is a significant expense in a low budget game, these games are usually cheaper, and people are often more s…

> Well used, Denuvo is not that bad. Ubisoft admitting that Denuvo ( idk why they used the term third party lol ) causes PC stuttering. https://gamerant.com/ubisoft-third-party-software-pc-stutter... Resident evil 8 runs better when it is stripped off its denuvo protection. As confirmed by Digital foundry's video. https://youtu.be/UXZGCwAJpbM https://www.pcgamer.com/resident-evil-village-drm-denuvo-stu... You will no…

Ubisoft is notorious for misuse of DRM. I believe you have to disable virtualization from the BIOS to even be able to play some of their games. They also reverted back to needing an always on connection for some of their games. What confuses me is that their use of DRM seems really inconsistent, and they keep it on even for old games.

Stay away from Ubisoft on PC.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#44

Post by HWR_14 »

bool3max wrote: post #15
kayson wrote: post #12

Has anyone ever done an a analysis on whether Denuvo (or DRM in general) is actually a wise investment of capital? I imagine it probably does have some impact on early sales in that it will prevent early customers from pirating to try it rather than buying it. But at the same time, you have things like Steam's return policy, the general dislike of DRM, and the publicity/image cost when something happens preventing ev…

If it wasn't a vise investment, publishers and developers of AAA titles wouldn't invest in it. But they do.

Do you want to risk your job by saying DRM isn't worth it? If you report to the board, do you think the shareholders think it's meaningless? If you report up, do you think your bosses want to stick their necks out?

Fundamentally, they're spending other people's money as insurance to avoid losing their job following a flop that can be spun as due to piracy.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#45

Post by lostcolony »

tialaramex wrote: post #28
MauranKilom wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As phrased, that's a weak argument. Whoever is calling the shots will have some bias and weigh different conceivable outcomes in a subjective manner that an outside observer may consider unsound. I mean, "publishers and developers of AAA titles" also somehow brought us the disastrous releases of No Man's Sky or Cyberpunk 2077. Or any of the PR disasters of $random_AAA_game. I agree that it's overwhelmingly likely tha…

> I agree that it's overwhelmingly likely that someone ran the numbers about using DRM at these companies. I wouldn't even go that far. It's very rare for anybody to run the numbers. Humans are too lazy. At most they'll eyeball it. Unless somebody requires hard numbers and they start digging up your process so that it's easier to actually do it than to fake it, no "running the numbers" will happen.

I'd go one further (in the other direction). If someone "ran the numbers", I'm quite sure they would have made them public. Because no consumer wants DRM (some are ambivalent, some hate it, but no one is like "oh, thank goodness, DRM"), and the inclusion of DRM by other companies does not threaten your market share, a company has nothing to lose, and only to gain (good will) if they were to release those figures and explain to their customers with cold hard data why DRM is included.

None have done so. Ergo, I am quite sure no one has "run the numbers"; they have, as mentioned, eyeballed them and used them to justify their own biases, as humans are wont to do. And either do not have enough of an analysis to release, or realize it is so easy to poke holes in that they shouldn't.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#47

Post by Finnucane »

mschuster91 wrote: post #6

> After sending a set of questions to two of our usual contacts at the company, we received a pair of automated emails stating that our correspondence was “undeliverable”, that the messages had been “bounced by administrator” and as a result had permanently failed. Wtf? What ever happened to journalistic principles like protecting your sources?!

"we tried to contact the company and couldn't for technical reasons" isn't revealing any big secrets.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#48

Post by recursive »

kuroguro wrote: post #13
JCWasmx86 wrote: post #4

If I understand correctly: If I had been fast enough to buy this domain, I would be able to break Denuvo for a long time?

Most registrars have a grace period of 30-40 days, where the original owner can still reclaim it IIRC.

So if I buy the domain, and give it the original DNS records for 45 days, then I could take control?

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#49

Post by kevinh »

WmyEE0UsWAwC2i wrote: post #25

DRM doesn't work in games, go to a torrent site to see all the failed attempts. 1. It costs money 2. It makes the product worse(slower, less portable,etc...) for your _ paying _ customers. 3. It doesn't work if the game is good. Just add a copyright note on the corner and make sure to have good distribution.

Denuvo has been very successful at protecting games in the launch window the past couple years. Last I heard there was only one person willing and/or able to crack it and their throughput wasn't high.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#50

Post by breakingcups »

csnover wrote: post #10
raxxorrax wrote: post #2

This should immediately make it legal to apply a crack in my opinion. I hope this is the case.

In the United States, the 2021 DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions do include this case[0]: > (17)(i) Video games in the form of computer programs embodied in physical or downloaded formats that have been lawfully acquired as complete games, when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable g…

> However, these rules are currently renewed every three years, instead of being permanent, so it could not be the case in the future.

That's a lovely meta-commentary on this situation. Not just the DRM domains expire, so do the laws that allow their circumvention when they do!

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