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Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

tomshardware.com

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Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#141

Post by Maxatar »

embedding-shape wrote: post #126
philistine wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denuvo is there to prevent piracy within the first 90 days of release. Something like 60 to 80% of a game’s revenue is during that period. They don’t care that it’s eventually cracked, and they absolutely do not care about performance.

> Denuvo is there to prevent piracy within the first 90 days of release [...] They don’t care that it’s eventually cracked Ah, so Denuvo is always removed after ~90 days after release, as there is no point for them to keep it there?

Not strictly after 90 days, but Denuvo is usually removed after the peak sales period for a game. It's really at a publisher's discretion when to remove it, as the sales model for Denuvo is that you have to continue paying for it on a subscription basis to keep it active.

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#142

Post by Ferret7446 »

pdpi wrote: post #97
Ferret7446 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally any game you can buy on GoG is also DRM free on Steam. I mention since many people have the incorrect notion that all Steam games have DRM

There's still a difference — GOG provides you with downloadable installers you can archive, Steam doesn't.

If you really want an installer, just pack the files into a self extracting archive. But IMO the loose files are easier to work with than an installer.

Or are you misunderstanding the fact that you can just copy/back up the Steam game and play it anywhere. That's why I say many people have that misconception about Steam games

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#143

Post by TiredOfLife »

Daedren wrote: post #6

Wonder what will be the consequences of this. I dislike Denuvo for the performance and stability penalties it gives games, but I do wonder if the "security" it gave publishers wasn't a big part of the reason why we've been getting more and more big name games on PC. This isn't about being right or wrong but about what the publishers will do when they see their games are again getting cracked day one, and if it'll be…

> performance and stability penalties

There are none. Or rather they fall in the margin of error.

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#144

Post by throwawayk7h »

philistine wrote: post #118
lousken wrote: post #41

I would hope publishers would take note and remove it, having hundreds of megabytes of junk in the executable is just wasteful to put it mildly

Denuvo is there to prevent piracy within the first 90 days of release. Something like 60 to 80% of a game’s revenue is during that period. They don’t care that it’s eventually cracked, and they absolutely do not care about performance.

A number of publishers have retroactively added Denuvo to their older games, inexplicably.

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#145

Post by kennethallen »

wilg wrote: post #93
lemoncookiechip wrote: post #82

Support GOG, support no DRM.

What games that are on GOG without DRM have DRM on, say, Steam? (Many Steam games have no DRM.)

These games all released with Denuvo on Steam and DRM-free on GOG. (Some of them have subsequently removed Denuvo on Steam.)

Mad Max Middle-earth: Shadow of War Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#146

Post by TiredOfLife »

everyone wrote: post #75
Jtarii wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cracking refers to all methods of circumventing copy protection. Bypassing is just another way of cracking something.

Ehhh, afaik thats not the case in the community. These hypervisor bypasses are considered a different category. Like look at any scene page, they will 100% say Hypervisor or HV for these.

Last scene release with Denuvo crack was like 6 years ago.

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#147

Post by shooly »

Mindwipe wrote: post #123
Kuraj wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger problem with Denuvo is that it appears to significantly impact game performance as well

The evidence for this supposed performance hit is basically zero.

False. There's lots of side-by-side recordings of Denuvo and non-Denuvo versions of games on YouTube clearly showing that Denuvo does impact performance.

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#148

Post by branon »

ranger_danger wrote: post #29

No, it hasn't: > in late 2025, the MKDev collective and the prolific DenuvOwO came up with a hypervisor-based bypass (HVB) that installs a kernel-level driver to intercept and respond to Denuvo's checks. While that's not an actual crack, it's good enough for piracy work, as the saying goes.

Yeah, the headline is sensational and the body of the article doesn't do enough to distinguish between the bypass and a real crack. They only resemble one another only in the most shortsighted of ways.

One big difference is that the bypass method _requires_ Microsoft Windows in order to function. You cannot use the bypass on Linux.

I don't have a Windows install anywhere, so if I want to play the game I have to either purchase it, or wait for a crack that will remove Denuvo from the executable.

I get this probably doesn't matter to most people because they're on Windows anyway and will happily disable whatever security is required to access free games, but it's disappointing to have the technical distinctions and broader implications glossed over.

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#149

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

lesuorac wrote: post #60
keyringlight wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a long time now I've found it weird that people who like single player games on PC (and to a lesser extent older consoles which had piracy enabling mods) didn't acknowledge the long game consequences of their actions, or at least were willfully ignorant to them because everyone loves getting something for free. It seems to be a variation on Goodhart's law - you get what you reward - if the reward for a company (b…

> For a long time now I've found it weird that people who like single player games on PC (and to a lesser extent older consoles which had piracy enabling mods) didn't acknowledge the long game consequences of their actions Isn't historically piracy positive for sales [1]? That said, I'm pretty sure the real issue is that single / local coop games are just not appealing and so they get weaker sales. Like wtf was with…

[flagged]

Re: Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected

#150

Post by branon »

Jtarii wrote: post #70
everyone wrote: post #68

Fyi, most of them have not been cracked, but bypassed using a hypervisor that operates in ring-1, so it is certainly a security risk.. Personally I've been voting with my wallet and *never* supporting DRM, so there have been some games where I'm just "Well, I guess I'll never play that game." At least I have an ethical option to play certain games now, I'm just gonna use a seperate blank pc cus these bypasses are nov…

Cracking refers to all methods of circumventing copy protection. Bypassing is just another way of cracking something.

Untrue, cracking software necessitates _removing_ the protection from the executable completely. Whereas with a bypass, Denuvo is still running on your computer, albeit ineffectually.

This has implications - the bypasses cannot run on Linux for example where a cracked executable could. They are not the same thing.

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