Denuvo DRM Latest Version Cracked

In the battle between the makers and breakers of piracy protection software, the ball is now on Denuvo Digital Rights Management's (DRM) court as software-cracking groups defeated the latest version of the content protection scheme, a day after "Version 4" of the DRM. What does this mean for game publishers?

A while ago Denuvo's DRM was hailed as a solution that could feasibly withstand the constant efforts of software crackers to break their protection. At first, it took months for new cracks to be released for new versions of the copyright protection scheme, according to Tech Dirt.

This span of time from the release of a new game to the first appearance of pirated copies used to be enough to guarantee some protection of revenue, at least for a time. However, Denuvo's protection began to be breached in a matter of weeks, and then finally, in days.

With the newest version of Denuvo's DRM, called "Version 4" by the cracking community, it took a little over a month, according to Tech Dirt which noted, "That was fast."

Torrent Freak has noted that cracking group CPY's announcement proves that the Denuvo DRM protection can now be defeated faster than ever. "With its usual fanfare, cracking group CPY announced that it had defeated Denuvo v4 protection on 2Dark, a lesser-known stealth adventure game from the creator of Alone in the Dark."

This could mean that other games, including "Mass Effect: Andromeda," "Dead Rising 4," "NieR: Automata" and "Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition" will have pirated versions floating around online sooner rather than later, according to Ars Technica.

Torrent Freak notes that the new crack released for "2Dark" could be a reaction to game publisher Bigben Interactive's inclusion of DRM in their game, despite their promise that the title will not incorporate the content protection technology, as reported by Tech Raptor.