As always, DRM continues to be a controversial subject in the realm of PC gaming. We recently saw GOG take a rather vocal stance against competitors that use DRM. Denuvo, the largest source of ire in regards to the situation, had an interview with media site gamesindustry.biz at this year's Gamescom. Elmar Fischer, the sales director at Denuvo made some statements, reflecting on the past issues that the company had in 2017, and admitting that there's really no "uncrackable" PC game in the industry, as there will always be people there to crack the DRM of games.

According to the interview, the main goal of implementing Denuvo is to secure launch sales for a given title. Even if only a small percentage of those who pirate the game would have purchased it if it wasn't cracked, Fischer says it's still worth it, in terms of sale revenue. Lucas Catranis, director of piracy management at Iredeto, Denuvo's parent company, says it's difficult to gauge how many people actually buy the games when there's no other option, as he monitors r/crackwatch to keep updated on the pirate situation.

Our goal, and it's still the goal, is to protect initial sales. Of course we would like to have it uncracked forever, but that just doesn't happen in the games industry.

It's a really tough one for us to answer straight," says Fischer. "For the games we protect, I think we have a huge impact, especially if we secure the initial sales window then we see a dramatic on the game and also the revenue when you compare it to other games that have been cracked immediately, but for the industry as a whole, it's very tough to answer.

Denuvo's effect on the industry has seen AAA games take far longer to crack as opposed to games with little to no anti-piracy protection. This isn't always the case, however, with some games like Resident Evil 7, and Final Fantasy XV being cracked near instantly after release. A positive effect could be argued for more niche games that lasted longer against cracks and managing to sell well, like Nier: Automata and Injustice 2.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

 

[Ericthegreat]

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As always, DRM continues to be a controversial subject in the realm of PC gaming. We recently saw GOG take a rather vocal stance against competitors that use DRM. Denuvo, the largest source of ire in regards to the situation, had an interview with media site gamesindustry.biz at this year's Gamescom. Elmar Fischer, the sales director at Denuvo made some statements, reflecting on the past issues that the company had in 2017, and admitting that there's really no "uncrackable" PC game in the industry, as there will always be people there to crack the DRM of games.

According to the interview, the main goal of implementing Denuvo is to secure launch sales for a given title. Even if only a small percentage of those who pirate the game would have purchased it if it wasn't cracked, Fischer says it's still worth it, in terms of sale revenue. Lucas Catranis, director of piracy management at Iredeto, Denuvo's parent company, says it's difficult to gauge how many people actually buy the games when there's no other option, as he monitors r/crackwatch to keep updated on the pirate situation.





Denuvo's effect on the industry has seen AAA games take far longer to crack as opposed to games with little to no anti-piracy protection. This isn't always the case, however, with some games like Resident Evil 7, and Final Fantasy XV being cracked near instantly after release. A positive effect could be argued for more niche games that lasted longer against cracks and managing to sell well, like Nier: Automata and Injustice 2.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

Final Fantasy XV was cracked because they were able to bypass denuvo using a demo of the game that came out. Not really denuvos problem.

 

[brunocar]

DRM is the justice that the piracy community deserves. DRM like Denuvo has so many downsides and we can all sympathize for customers who pay the price in full but at the same time we shouldn't be blind to the cause of it all, people who pirate games.

If there was no need for DRM then it wouldn't exist in the first place.

right, because piracy should be treated just like stealing is

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Final Fantasy XV was cracked because they were able to bypass denuvo using a demo of the game that came out. Not really denuvos problem.

they do the implementation, so yeah, it is their problem

 

[Ericthegreat]

right, because piracy should be treated just like stealing is

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


they do the implementation, so yeah, it is their problem

They didnt release the demo tho. I dunno was "right, because piracy should be treated just like stealing is" sacasm, because the mpaa and riaa already tried that lol.

 

[brunocar]

They didnt release the demo tho. I dunno was "right, because piracy should be treated just like stealing is" sacasm, because the mpaa and riaa already tried that lol.

of course it was sarcasm, no one is that stupid, well, at least thats what i want to think.

as for the demo, well, that is square's hard on for denuvo coming back to bite them in the ass just like it did with mankind divided's linux port

 

[Ericthegreat]

of course it was sarcasm, no one is that stupid, well, at least thats what i want to think.

as for the demo, well, that is square's hard on for denuvo coming back to bite them in the ass just like it did with mankind divided's linux port

I dunno if the denuvo was ever cracked (maybe for a update), so they mightve had to pay them in full. (tho they are probably one of denuvos biggest clients so maybe they let them go), also you have to remember the companys dont usually actully care, its just to show shareholers at meetings....

 

[kuwanger]

Here's two crazy ideas:

Idea one: don't buy Denuvo games until after the crack is released, thereby entirely undercutting their argument. If enough people do it, it really undercuts their argument because the "initial sales" bubble won't exist.

Idea two: instead of Denuvo, hold the game "hostage" on a pre-order like system. When X maybe people buy the game or n weeks pass, the game is released to all buyers.

Simply put, Denuvo is a shitty technological solution which could be sociologically undermined or marketedly undermined. There's no real need for it if their claim is true.

 

[VitaType]

Oh, that's why the GOTY releases I buy still have annoying copy protection. Good to know /s

 

[Idaho]

They've already said that, it's no big news and I don't care what they have to say, I sincerely hope that their piece of shit of a DRM will one day disappear like all the other shitty invasive DRMs that we've seen in the past...

 

[hamohamo]

Cool, when are you dropping the charges against voksi then?

He's so good at cracking denuvo it's stupid. Codex and others take a month atleast. He takes major shit down in less than two weeks.

 

[kingfrost]

Their goal is to extort money from companies and to punish the people who actually buy games.

I mean if I was going to steal the game anyway I'm not going to mind waiting a month to do so.

 

[Taleweaver]

An interesting interview. I don't agree with denuvo's business practice but you got to admit that Fischer isn't the devil that some make him out to be.

Unfortunately, the interview could've pushed more in the situation of it slowing down the game. The ability to re-release the game without denuvo after its cracked should really be asked (even if that's ultimately the choice of the developers).

Another thing I'm missing is portability. Steam play just sort of enabled hundreds of (sort of) playable games for Linux. It's probably a bit early to draw definite conclusions, but it really seems that antipathy antipiracy measures effectively hinder game execution under Linux.

 

[JoeBloggs777]

He's so good at cracking denuvo it's stupid. Codex and others take a month atleast. He takes major shit down in less than two weeks.

I think Bald man was his mentor

 

[Deleted User]

I know a better form of DRM devs can use which doesn't cause bugs or require to be online.

It's called making a quality product that's worth paying for.

 

[GuyInDogSuit]

It's been said time and time again that Denuvo has negative effects on a game's performance. I believe when DOOM was cracked and Denuvo was removed from it, there was reportedly a slight performance increase. Don't really know if all that is true, but I definitely agree, that Denuvo should just be removed from a game once it's cracked as it no longer serves its purpose.

 

[jt_1258]

ffxv getting cracked near launch
HAAAA XD
that shit got cracked pre launch, ya can't top that

 

[Freqman]

this is so annoying. I guarantee you those companies that use denuvo did not see a major increase in sales since they implemented that type of DRM on their game, theres a misconception that there is an insanely huge amount of people who go about pirating pc games. The best incentive a developer can use against piracy is to offer some type of online content, maybe a coop mode or whatever. The worst thing they can do is to FORCE people to be online in order to even start up the game.

 

[chrisrlink]

people in power get away with stealing shit (elections,bribery) it's just a power game if Donald trump Jr was a kid and stole a game or 2 whould they care probably not cause his father sleezebag trump could afford a suit or 2 or even bribe with money then they'll turn the other way it's all about power it's sickening but the truth

 

[TheZander]

This all makes perfect sense, denuvo is a private firm it seems that work drm games for companies. They must want to keep clientele and promote usage of their product despite it's inherent worthlessness ( i had a blockbuster app permanently installed on my phone till 2010) . As long as piracy exist and denuvo can show charts and pie graphs to these companies and convince them to hire their services to save profits and whatever else that suffers from piracy.

No one likes denuvo, but they are not there to be liked. They offer nothing of sustenance and only exist to screw everything up for everyone. They are doing exactly what they are being hired to do. Which is not prevent game piracy, but jumble up video games and make them trickier to run. Installing games should be mildly difficult. Things today are way too easy now when it comes to technology. This drm stuff that makes games not run properly is a nice piece of computer pass.

 

[Mark McDonut]

So are we just ignoring that Denuvo sent the police to Voksi's house like a bunch of fucking thugs?

Fuck the asshole who runs this company. Fucking Mob tactics. Brag about how good your product is, then cry like a baby when it gets cracked, then send cops to intimidate instead of hiring better programmers then backpedal about your mission.

 

[Viri]

This thread made me think of Sonic Mania. The DRM on that was cracked ages ago, and I was curious if Sega removed it by now. NOOOOOOOPE! The pirates get a better experience than the legit users, lol.