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Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

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Re: Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

#21

Post by wnevets »

wincy wrote: post #3
jsheard wrote: post #2

For the curious, there's a running tally of which Denuvo games have or haven't been cracked over on Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/CrackWatch/comments/p9ak4n/crack_wa... Currently not a single Denuvo game released during 2024 has been cracked, and more games released during 2023 remain uncracked than those that were. It's actually pretty effective unlike most other PC DRM schemes.

I was going to say Lies of P was cracked, but turns out they just removed it from their game. It was up on piracy sites the same day. I wonder why this happens? Does Denuvo cost a lot of ongoing subscription money for a developer or something? I’ve noticed this happens a decent amount.

A side effect of temporary DRM is the decreased incentive to crack it. Sure the "street cred" is still important to some people but if you just wait a few months it will be gone.

Re: Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

#23

Post by viraptor »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #13
codetrotter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every graph I’ve ever seen of video game sales from people who distribute via Steam etc typically has an initial spike if they caught on and got featured, and then a few spikes for things like holiday sales. Maybe the devs of the game you mentioned decided that after the initial spike had passed, and they are in a long tail period, it is cheaper to remove Denuvo. Or they just used Denuvo to protect the game during ea…

Also "X removes DRM" is an opportunity for a news cycle that could result in new sales.

I'm not sure how common that is, but I've definitely bought 2 games after the "removed DRM" event. (Basically allowing me to play on Linux in pre-steamdeck times) I'm aware that lots of people don't care.

Re: Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

#24

Post by metalcrow »

I'm really disappointed this doesn't include technical details, especially the bit about "The game can not run without the token, as it is used to e.g. decrypt certain values at runtime and similar things."

Is the game installed encrypted? What encryption schema allows you to decrypt the same set of data using multiple different keys in this way?

If the game isn't installed encrypted it seems easiest just to not allow it to encrypt itself before running.

Re: Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

#26

Post by jsheard »

metalcrow wrote: post #24

I'm really disappointed this doesn't include technical details, especially the bit about "The game can not run without the token, as it is used to e.g. decrypt certain values at runtime and similar things." Is the game installed encrypted? What encryption schema allows you to decrypt the same set of data using multiple different keys in this way? If the game isn't installed encrypted it seems easiest just to not allo…

My vague understanding is that Denuvo generates many redundant diverging paths through the executable, which are chosen at runtime based on pieces of the users hardware signature. The keys you get from the server only work for the paths your hardware is supposed to follow, so if you take those keys to a different machine it will branch in different ways and crash when it's not able to decrypt that path. That redundancy is probably why the protected executables are so large.

Re: Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

#27

Post by redder23 »

wincy wrote: post #3
jsheard wrote: post #2

For the curious, there's a running tally of which Denuvo games have or haven't been cracked over on Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/CrackWatch/comments/p9ak4n/crack_wa... Currently not a single Denuvo game released during 2024 has been cracked, and more games released during 2023 remain uncracked than those that were. It's actually pretty effective unlike most other PC DRM schemes.

I was going to say Lies of P was cracked, but turns out they just removed it from their game. It was up on piracy sites the same day. I wonder why this happens? Does Denuvo cost a lot of ongoing subscription money for a developer or something? I’ve noticed this happens a decent amount.

The devs removed Denuvo from Lies of P because they accidentally leaked an unprotected version. Basically the same is if it was cracked. No point to bug customers with longer loading times and the bloat that comes from D.

Re: Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

#29

Post by fbdab103 »

kiririn wrote: post #10

The performance impact Denuvo is known for is not due to the license checks, it is due to running parts of the game in a custom vm. Hogwarts Legacy is new enough that they might be taking a different approach entirely after the whole vmprotect controversy

I thought the latest Doom was released "accidentally" without the DRM[0]. Not the first time the studio forgot to properly bake the DRM into the final product.

[0] https://www.pcgamer.com/bethesda-accidentally-left-a-denuvo-...

Re: Bypassing Denuvo in Hogwarts Legacy

#30

Post by metalcrow »

jsheard wrote: post #26
metalcrow wrote: post #24

I'm really disappointed this doesn't include technical details, especially the bit about "The game can not run without the token, as it is used to e.g. decrypt certain values at runtime and similar things." Is the game installed encrypted? What encryption schema allows you to decrypt the same set of data using multiple different keys in this way? If the game isn't installed encrypted it seems easiest just to not allo…

My vague understanding is that Denuvo generates many redundant diverging paths through the executable, which are chosen at runtime based on pieces of the users hardware signature. The keys you get from the server only work for the paths your hardware is supposed to follow, so if you take those keys to a different machine it will branch in different ways and crash when it's not able to decrypt that path. That redundan…

That makes sense, but how are these paths encrypted? If it's at runtime, you should be able to just not encrypt them. If it's at install time, do they generate a custom encrypted exe just for you per-download?
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