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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

#51

Post by stiray »

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…

Yes.

"The European Commission paid €360,000 (about $428,000) for a study on how piracy impacts the sales of copyrighted music, books, video games, and movies. But the EU never shared the report—possibly because it determined that there is no evidence that piracy is a major problem."

TLDR: https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-...

Study: https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_s...

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#52

Post by dageshi »

novok wrote: post #34
dageshi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really only to protect the launch window. Most games will be discounted later on to the point where they're more or less affordable to everyone. But if someone pirates on release they'll never be inclined to buy at that lower price later on.

This is the reason why I've mostly heard. TBH it would probably be a good ideas for vendors to remove DRM after a game has been out for a few years and has stopped getting patches for a year+.

I think a lot of them do. It's not uncommon to hear of devs removing DRM after a certain number of months. Especially nowadays where after a certain point they just want people to play the game ready for when the sequel comes out.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#53

Post by toxik »

Izkata wrote: post #36
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…

This is just one point, but I started pirating games during college because of DRM, after whatever they used in Spore destroyed Windows so badly I had to do a full reinstall and lost a bunch of stuff. Before that I reliably bought all my games. I don't pirate games anymore, but that's only because I stopped playing computer games entirely and stick to consoles, to avoid DRM screwing with my stuff.

I’m not trying to be rude here but going from PC gaming to consoles because you dislike DRM is like buying a sports car because you think trucks pollute too much.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#54

Post by arcticbull »

Izkata wrote: post #36
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…

This is just one point, but I started pirating games during college because of DRM, after whatever they used in Spore destroyed Windows so badly I had to do a full reinstall and lost a bunch of stuff. Before that I reliably bought all my games. I don't pirate games anymore, but that's only because I stopped playing computer games entirely and stick to consoles, to avoid DRM screwing with my stuff.

Consoles are all about DRM aren't they?

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#55

Post by actually_a_dog »

stiray wrote: post #51
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…

Yes. "The European Commission paid €360,000 (about $428,000) for a study on how piracy impacts the sales of copyrighted music, books, video games, and movies. But the EU never shared the report—possibly because it determined that there is no evidence that piracy is a major problem." TLDR: https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-... Study: https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_…

You left out the money quote from the Gizmodo article:

> The report found that illegal downloads and streams can actually boost legal sales of games, according to the report. The only negative link the report found was with major blockbuster films:“The results show a displacement rate of 40 percent which means that for every ten recent top films watched illegally, four fewer films are consumed legally.”

(Emphasis added.)

So, if anything, game companies should literally be putting their stuff up on torrent sites themselves!

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#56

Post by fxtentacle »

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.

It works to boost preorders and the crucial first week to get into sales charts.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#57

Post by jimbob45 »

dageshi wrote: post #24
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…

It's really only to protect the launch window. Most games will be discounted later on to the point where they're more or less affordable to everyone. But if someone pirates on release they'll never be inclined to buy at that lower price later on.

Not only this but for some games, the launch window is all they’ll have because the game is terrible. This works as insurance to make sure they make some money.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#58

Post by GuB-42 »

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…

Denuvo, like most game DRM engines have libraries that can be called from anywhere inside the game code and perform a variety of checks. If the developers are overzealous and make frequent, complex checks, it will result in stuttering. If I remember well, RE8 has a check when a zombie spawns, resulting in mid-gameplay slowdown. They could have put checks only in naturally slow events, like loading a map, and no one would have noticed.

And I kind of agree about pirates never buying games, I don't remember buying a single game during all my student days. And I have now mostly stopped piracy, DRM or not, mostly because I earn enough money, play less, and platforms like Steam are really convenient.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#59

Post by agilob »

stiray wrote: post #51
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…

Yes. "The European Commission paid €360,000 (about $428,000) for a study on how piracy impacts the sales of copyrighted music, books, video games, and movies. But the EU never shared the report—possibly because it determined that there is no evidence that piracy is a major problem." TLDR: https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-... Study: https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_…

>But the EU never shared the report

I remember the day it was published, it hit some news, I made a backup of that PDF from EC domain (still have it!), 2 or 3 hours later the PDF was 404.

Re: Denuvo-Protected Games Rendered Unplayable After Domain Expires

#60

Post by vimda »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #55
stiray wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. "The European Commission paid €360,000 (about $428,000) for a study on how piracy impacts the sales of copyrighted music, books, video games, and movies. But the EU never shared the report—possibly because it determined that there is no evidence that piracy is a major problem." TLDR: https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-... Study: https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_…

You left out the money quote from the Gizmodo article: > The report found that illegal downloads and streams can actually boost legal sales of games , according to the report. The only negative link the report found was with major blockbuster films:“The results show a displacement rate of 40 percent which means that for every ten recent top films watched illegally, four fewer films are consumed legally.” (Emphasis ad…

I suspect that a lot of that 40% are people who pirate it to try it out before purchasing. What ever happens to demo disks and the like? I miss that
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