PC gamers should be familiar with the word Denuvo, the latest anti-piracy tech created in 2014 in order to prevent pirates from cracking PC games on release. For a while, it seemed that hacking teams were defeated, unable to crack the software which had gained notoriety for supposedly causing high levels of CPU and hard drive usage, making games run worse than normal. Then came along Voksi, one of the first to reliably understand how Denuvo worked and be able to remove the software from pirated copies of games. He made a name for himself by cracking high profile games very shortly after launch, and gained popularity in the cracking scene. However, that streak appears to have ended today.

On July 25, Voksi went radio silent on all communication, and then had the website to his hacking group, REVOLT, removed by the Bulgarian government. Later that day, Voksi reappeared and claimed that police had raided his home, arresting him and taking away both his computers.

It finally happened, I can't say it wasn't expected, Denuvo filed a case against me to the bulgarian authorities. Police came yesterday and took the server pc and my personal PC. I had to go to the police afterwards and explain myself. Later that day I contacted Denuvo themselves and offered them a peacful resolution to this problem. They can't say anything for sure yet, but they said the final word is by the prosecutor of my case.

Sadly, I won't be able to do what I did anymore. I did what I did for you guys and of course because bloated software in our games shouldn't be allowed at all. Maybe someone else can continue my fight.

Denuvo's parent company, Irdeto, filed a suit with Bulgarian government, on the charges of "cybercrimes", and now, it appears Voksi will no longer be removing Denuvo from new game releases.

 

[Tailsun]

I don't know anything about Voski but a full-on raid with all of its trappings seems extremely heavy handed. I have to imagine Denuvo is looking to get a lot of press and make an example of this guy. A smarter company would be trying to hire him. Hopefully he makes it out alright once the show is over.

 

[the_randomizer]

this comes a week after voksi proved that denuvo was making sonic mania plus run worse :/

Denuvo, the pusillanimous way to make legit users suffer because "piracy"

 

[osaka35]

Pirate their games? I'm not actually condoning this, but if the whole point is "we include DRM so you can't pirate it" then paying them only encourages the notion that the DRM works. Actually pirating the DRM game does the precise opposite. The only real major recourse would be to start [yet another] "boycott DRM" list and try to get as many people to sign up. The reality of that, of course, is that except for short-lived PR, basically that's entirely ignored by most everyone because it means having to actually give up playing games you want to

I feel bad for developers who put their heart into creating a game, then publishers slap DRM onto the thing (I know the process can vary, but this is the one I dislike the most). I know some DRM was aimed at reducing the sale of "used" games, but that went away rather quickly I think. Lots of different types of DRM with varying goals and varying results. I honestly have less experience with this particular DRM, but I'm always on the lookout for difficulties to historical digital preservation of games. DRM is usually antithetical to preservation.

 

[the_randomizer]

I feel bad for developers who put their heart into creating a game, then publishers slap DRM onto the thing (I know the process can vary, but this is the one I dislike the most). I know some DRM was aimed at reducing the sale of "used" games, but that went away rather quickly I think. Lots of different types of DRM with varying goals and varying results. I honestly have less experience with this particular DRM, but I'm always on the lookout for difficulties to historical digital preservation of games. DRM is usually antithetical to preservation.

I can only assume that in the grand scheme of things, DRM has barely, if at all, helped to curtail piracy and used game sales. I could be wrong, but the fact it does the opposite, it drives people to pirate the game rather than having some crippling piece of garbage DRM (i.e all of them). The only decent DRM is Steam's rudimentary one, it's noninvasive, it can be run offline, it doesn't screw up performance, it's the only DRM I tolerate. Denuvo is the opposite, it is invasive, it can't be used offline, it is only implemented to placate investors to help them sleep better at night. DRM never benefits the user, it has driven me to crack my legit copy of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory as the DRM in that game is a known rootkit, yeah, real smart there, Starforce.

TL;DR - Aggressive DRM is unnecessary, benefits only the investors, and only drives people to crack the game. As far as I'm concerned, if you spend money on a game, you should be able to crack it and not have the devs bitch and moan.

 

[guily6669]

He is\was my gaming GOD, I hope he doesnt get a job on Denuvo too, hope he gets out in a good solution.

But he was kinda bad doing bad stuff on the open .

RIP my friend.

I can only assume that in the grand scheme of things, DRM has barely, if at all, helped to curtail piracy and used game sales. I could be wrong, but the fact it does the opposite, it drives people to pirate the game rather than having some crippling piece of garbage DRM (i.e all of them). The only decent DRM is Steam's rudimentary one, it's noninvasive, it can be run offline, it doesn't screw up performance, it's the only DRM I tolerate. Denuvo is the opposite, it is invasive, it can't be used offline, it is only implemented to placate investors to help them sleep better at night. DRM never benefits the user, it has driven me to crack my legit copy of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory as the DRM in that game is a known rootkit, yeah, real smart there, Starforce.

TL;DR - Aggressive DRM is unnecessary, benefits only the investors, and only drives people to crack the game. As far as I'm concerned, if you spend money on a game, you should be able to crack it and not have the devs bitch and moan.

Starfuck still holds the record for uncracked game for more than a year.

But as companies said Denuvo was like GOD for their billionaire pockets as they only care is mostly the 1st months of sale for their pre-order piece of shit 100€ full games nowadays with premiums and shitz, they make more money on the first weeks then sales drop a lot (lots see no crack for a month or 2 and they go run buy the game, the rest waiting more than that either would not buy the game or have no cash like me and maybe could buy in a big promotion only).

And yeah Denuvo, making your kinda old but capable PC slower than you think so you can run and buy a new one to run their BULLSHIT MINING LIKE protections that eat up the whole CPU. Its so nice having a nice CPU to then have like 30% game usage and the rest for a stupid F* ass DRM garbage that no one wants.

ps: Whos in favour of Denuvo? Yeah, Intel, Nvidia, AMD (this ones will want less gaming performance 4 everyone to buy new hardware from them), then EA, Ubilolosoft......... ppl with money that can buy the entire island where I live if they could...

 

[kuwanger]

I feel bad for developers who put their heart into creating a game, then publishers slap DRM onto the thing (I know the process can vary, but this is the one I dislike the most).

I feel bad for them, but when you lie down with dogs you get fleas.

I know some DRM was aimed at reducing the sale of "used" games, but that went away rather quickly I think.

Fuck 'em. If I were a lawyer i'd be tempted to pro bono class action lawsuit as many companies as I could for all the economic harm of removing resale. Being digital and/or being copyright does not and should not grant you the power to undermine First Sale Doctrine.

Lots of different types of DRM with varying goals and varying results. I honestly have less experience with this particular DRM, but I'm always on the lookout for difficulties to historical digital preservation of games. DRM is usually antithetical to preservation.

They may all state various goals, but they all are fundamentally about [controlling the] Digital Rights [of copyright holders by] Management [that prohibits use in some way]. Not only is this antithetical to preservation, it's really antithetical to the concept of contractual or consensual agreement because it grants unilateral power over one party for an indefinite time (since DRM doesn't magically expire when the copyright runs out*). The most you get is some statement of "contains DRM" without little limit on what they can do, when they can do it, how they can do it, how long they can do it, etc.

* Right after I invent DRM that magically expires after a time limit, I'll also invent encryption backdoors that only work with law enforcement with a valid warrant. Oh, and one could argue that one can legally break the DRM (however difficult that might be) once the copyright runs out, but that only holds so long as the DRM isn't used with any other copyrighted work or you're breaking the law indirectly for that work. Ergo, companies can keep works legally protected so long as they keep using a DRM. Maybe we'll get lucky and in 2000+ years (or whenever copyright really-and-honestly-expire-this-time) they'll grant an exemption.

 

[brickmii82]

Legit users complain about denuvo bullshit too, look at the reviews on many games on Steam. Sonic Mania uses this DRM, Star Ocean 3 uses this DRM, Tales of Symphonia uses this DRM? How the hell are pirates the only ones complaining about this? Surely, you're not a DRM warrior? Sad.

I'm not bro, I'm just saying that it's ironic. It sucks that this is where things stand with devs and publishers, but this is what they feel is necessary to protect their investments. I don't believe piracy is as bank breaking as some claim, but I also believe that no one will pay for what's easily obtained for free. There will have to be some measures of security involved. Forgive me for my lack of faith in the goodwill of humanity ...

 

[ItsKipz]

I'm not bro, I'm just saying that it's ironic. It sucks that this is where things stand with devs and publishers, but this is what they feel is necessary to protect their investments. I don't believe piracy is as bank breaking as some claim, but I also believe that no one will pay for what's easily obtained for free. There will have to be some measures of security involved. Forgive me for my lack of faith in the goodwill of humanity ...

If the free version offers multiple benefits over the paid version (besides price), the devs have failed. Denuvo-free / denuvo bypassed versions of games have

-less lag
-no online requirement
-easier mod support
-sometimes added anti-cheat where the original game had none (something this guy's team, REVOLT, did a while back)
-faster loading times

 

[guily6669]

Yep, some games have been tested and had quite a massive FPS drops or stuttering or lot more loading time with denuvo, depends on the game as off course heavy games by them self already will suffer the most.

 

[Kioku]

Denuvo is shit. Period.

 

[brickmii82]

If the free version offers multiple benefits over the paid version (besides price), the devs have failed. Denuvo-free / denuvo bypassed versions of games have

-less lag
-no online requirement
-easier mod support
-sometimes added anti-cheat where the original game had none (something this guy's team, REVOLT, did a while back)
-faster loading times

The point is that the game was created with the expectation of returning a profit. When it's cracked on release day, it's chances of profits dwindle. Why? Because again, no one will pay for what they can get for free. Why would they?.

 

[guily6669]

Thats very dependant on the game if its a MP only game you really need to buy it as most on the Voksi no one plays and mostly were only working with cracked servers... He only made a few games that could actually join on official steam servers and play with who bought the game, but very rare and they got custom security a few time after so it stop working...

I barely have money but I ended up buying almost all MP games I played cracked, but my list is big and sadly I can't buy or even test a lot of games I really want for months and to buy a game I even start thinking if its really worth it for like a god damn month before I can decide to buy or not .

 

[Youkai]

Lastly, basically all tests point to Denuvo being a complete non-factor in how it affects game performance. When properly implemented like it is in basically every game, it affects performance to such an absolutely minimal degree I doubt you'd notice it even on a rig from 1998.
Certain games have had issues, but they're the minority and tweaked denuvo to go absolutely nuts and work way harder than it was ever intended to work.
.

Wasn't it actually proven that it does indeed let some games lag like crazy? there were some games where they had to patch denuvo to make it run properly again.

I think I read something about a ridiculous ammount of pointer and lots of cross loading stuff

 

[kuwanger]

The point is that the game was created with the expectation of returning a profit. When it's cracked on release day, it's chances of profits dwindle. Why? Because again, no one will pay for what they can get for free. Why would they?

That explains why the NES Classic, SNES Classic, Wii VC, 3DS VC, etc were all complete market failures. Oh, right, the NES/SNES had unbreakable DRM! That's what stopped the pirates! Seriously, while it's definitely the case that if it's trivially easy to find and download games for free there's a lot of people who will take the opportunity to do so, if a developer makes it virtually as easy* but charges and makes it clear they're the developer, they'll get a majority of the sales.

It's the last part that basically most turns me off from spending a dime on the Google App Store but leaves me wanting to spend money on Steam. People actually feel morally obligated to help out the creator of a work they enjoy. They don't feel obligated to shell out money to possible scammers just reselling someone else's app nor shelling out money on something that seems to be legitimately free. Of course there's also the low bar of "this shouldn't cost money" like if someone is selling a simple task observer, but then that goes back to my loathing of the Google App Store.

* A good example for me. Super Lucky's Tale is just adorable and finding out it's available for Windows (for my Windows gaming PC) made it seem very tantalizing. But AFAIK you can only buy it off the Microsoft Store. That basically immediately nixes me buying it for the foreseeable future--maybe they'll sell it elsewhere in the future. I'm not helping out the abomination that is the Microsoft Store. The same reason I'm not buying from Origin, UPlay, or anywhere else.

 

[ItsKipz]

The point is that the game was created with the expectation of returning a profit. When it's cracked on release day, it's chances of profits dwindle. Why? Because again, no one will pay for what they can get for free. Why would they?.

Logically speaking that's right, but in the real world it's been proven that not only does piracy not harm game sales, piracy can actually help game sales.

 

[brickmii82]

That explains why the NES Classic, SNES Classic, Wii VC, 3DS VC, etc were all complete market failures. Oh, right, the NES/SNES had unbreakable DRM! That's what stopped the pirates! Seriously, while it's definitely the case that if it's trivially easy to find and download games for free there's a lot of people who will take the opportunity to do so, if a developer makes it virtually as easy but charges and makes it clear they're the developer, they'll get a majority of the sales.

It's the last part that basically most turns me off from spending a dime on the Google App Store but leaves me wanting to spend money on Steam. People actually feel morally obligated to help out the creator of a work they enjoy. They don't feel obligated to shell out money to possible scammers just reselling someone else's app nor shelling out money on something that seems to be legitimately free. Of course there's also the low bar of "this shouldn't cost money" like if someone is selling a simple task observer, but then that goes back to my loathing of the Google App Store.

You have more faith in people than I do. I highly doubt your proposed scenario would actually happen that way in reality. Let's look at it this way. How many people do you believe would attempt to return a 100$ bill they've found lying on the floor in a market? My bet would be maybe 1 out of 10. If you're that 1, kudos on you brother. I commend you for being a good person. The other 9 I believe are your typical Earthlings that are out for themselves and could care less who they kick off the ladder of life as they climb it.

 

[Deleted User]

when DRM gets so restrictive that you can't play the game if you don't have internet.

online-only DRM has been a thing for years, look at games like sim city 2013 for example

 

[brickmii82]

Logically speaking that's right, but in the real world it's been proven that not only does piracy not harm game sales, piracy can actually help game sales.

But where though? What proof? If it's there then why are publishers and developers forking over money for this technology? On the flip side of the same coin, why spend money unnecessarily? Especially when a necessary profit is involved. Console DRM is different than PC DRM in the aspect that the hardware has an inherent protection by being proprietary. PC doesn't have that luxury, sales were terrible for years (as were the efforts into porting games to PC), and cracks were commonplace on release day. This all alludes to a drastic solution like Denuvo. Frustrations ran high, and they turned to something they felt would help secure their profits but possibly at a cost. I personally haven't run into any issues with Denuvo, but I don't have every Denuvo game and it's entirely possible that some run jank with it, so at the very least these people implementing it into their games view it as a necessary evil.

 

[kuwanger]

You have more faith in people than I do. I highly doubt your proposed scenario would actually happen that way in reality. Let's look at it this way. How many people do you believe would attempt to return a 100$ bill they've found lying on the floor in a market?

The problem is that's a false dichotomy. This isn't a $100 bill you've found in a market--that has $100 of value. It's the cost of effort trying to find a pirated copy of a game and wrestling with all the risks and/or difficulties associated with vs the cost of finding and legitimately paying for a game you're interested in. If it's trivial to Google a free copy and it's hassle free to install, plenty of people will pirate the game who otherwise would have bought it. If Googling leads to an easy way to buy the game, it's worth $20 to you for the convenience and the moral high ground, and it's non-trivial to find and pirate the game, you'll take that route.

If there's 100 good games to play and you're inclined to pirate, unless you can just bulk download them all even the minor effort to find and download the games may well make you only pirate say 10% of them to play; whether you'd buy any of them with or without broken or unbroken DRM is really questionable. Meanwhile, the hoarders will download them all and never play them. To them, I ironically suggest publishers sell the hoarders a copy of the game encrypted with a one time pad so they can't play it and sell them an empty box/case for a heavy discount.

The general point is, it's not that simple to suggest that it's a question of faith. It heavily ties into economic theory, opportunity cost, etc. Clearly DRM free games are bought. Games that have their DRM broken bought. Terrible games are bought. Even when it's true that publishers need the DRM to only last a few days to get the bulk of a highly hyped game launch sales, that says a lot less about the pirates and more about publishers have no faith in their ability to produce something with long-term appeal that'd motivate people to buy their game vs relying upon the hype for sales and the generally unoffensive genericness to prevent too many refunds.

Pirates are going to pirate. Desperate companies are going to DRM. Those are definitely a part of the picture, but I don't think they're the defining aspects.

 

[MrJey]

It’s summer, play outside. Take your waterguns and make some water warfare outside.