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Denuvo

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Denuvo Anti-Tamper
Developer(s)Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH
Initial release2014; 10 years ago (2014)
PlatformWindows
TypeDigital rights management
LicenseProprietary
Websiteirdeto.com/denuvo/

Denuvo Anti-Tamper is an anti-tamper and digital rights management (DRM) system developed by the Austrian company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH. The company was formed from a management buyout of DigitalWorks, the developer of SecuROM, and began developing the software in 2014. It was introduced with FIFA 15 in September. In addition to Denuvo Anti-Tamper, Denuvo Software Solutions has developed the anti-cheat system Denuvo Anti-Cheat and Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, which attempts to prevent Nintendo Switch games from being emulated. The company was acquired by Irdeto in January 2018.

History

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Denuvo is developed by Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, a software company based in Salzburg, Austria.[1] The company was formed through a management buyout of DigitalWorks, the arm of the Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation that developed the SecuROM DRM technology.[2] In January 2018, the company and its 45 employees were acquired by the software company Irdeto.[3][4] Development of the Denuvo software started in 2014.[1] FIFA 15, released in September 2014, was the first game to use Denuvo.[5]

3DM, a Chinese warez group, first claimed to have breached Denuvo's technology in a blog post published on 1 December 2014, wherein they announced that they would release cracked versions of Denuvo-protected games FIFA 15, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Lords of the Fallen.[6] Following onto this, 3DM released the version of Dragon Age: Inquisition about two weeks after that game had shipped.[6] The overall cracking progress took about a month, an unusually long time in the game cracking scene.[2][7] When asked about this development, Denuvo Software Solutions acknowledged that "every protected game eventually gets cracked".[2] However, technology website Ars Technica noted that most sales for major games happen within 30 days of release, and so publishers might consider Denuvo a success if it meant a game took significantly longer to be cracked.[8] In January 2016, 3DM's founder, Bird Sister, revealed that they were to give up on trying to break the Denuvo implementation for Just Cause 3, and warned that, due to the ongoing trend for the implementation, there would be "no free games to play in the world" in the near future.[9] Subsequently, 3DM opted to not crack any games for one year to examine whether such a move would have any influence on game sales.[10] Denuvo's marketing director, Thomas Goebl, claimed that some console-exclusive games get PC releases due to this technology.[11]

By October 2017, crackers were able to bypass Denuvo's protection within hours of a game's release, with notable examples being South Park: The Fractured but Whole, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Total War: Warhammer II and FIFA 18, all being cracked on their release dates.[12] In another notable case, Assassin's Creed Origins, which wrapped Denuvo within security tool VMProtect as well as Ubisoft's proprietary DRM used for their Uplay distribution software, had its security features bypassed by Italian collective CPY in February 2018, three months after the game's release.[13] In December 2018, Hitman 2's protection was bypassed three days before its official release date, due to exclusive pre-order access, drawing comparisons to Final Fantasy XV, which had its protection removed four days before release.[14]

By 2019, games like Devil May Cry 5, Metro Exodus, Resident Evil 2, Far Cry New Dawn, Football Manager 2019, and Soul Calibur 6 were cracked within their week of release.[14][15] In the case of Rage 2, which was released on Steam as well as Bethesda Softworks' own Bethesda Launcher, the Steam version was protected by Denuvo, whereas the Bethesda Launcher version was not, leading to the game being cracked immediately, and Denuvo being removed from the Steam release two days later.[16][17]

An anti-cheat sister product, Denuvo Anti-Cheat, was announced in March 2019.[18] It was first used by Doom Eternal following an update in May 2020, although this change was reverted within a week after negative player feedback.[19][20] In August 2022, Irdeto announced Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection, a DRM system for Nintendo Switch games that aims to prevent them from being emulated with programmes like Yuzu. Nintendo Switch owners widely criticised the announcement on social media, expressing concerns that it would decrease game performance.[21][22] In response, Denuvo stated that the system would cause no performance impact on genuine hardware.[23][24] The system was released in August 2023.[25]

Technology

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Games protected by Denuvo require an online activation.[26] According to Empress, a notable Denuvo cracker, the software assigns a unique authentication token to each copy of a game, depending on factors like the user's hardware. The DRM is integrated with the game's code, which makes it especially hard to circumvent.[27]

Criticism

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Denuvo has been criticised for high CPU usage and excessive writing operations on storage components, the latter potentially causing significant life-span reductions for solid-state drives (SSDs). Denuvo Software Solutions has denied both claims.[28] In the case of Tekken 7 and Sonic Mania Plus, Denuvo caused a significant decrease in performance in several parts of these games.[29][30] Sam Machkovech of Ars Technica reviewed in-depth how Denuvo was causing performance penalties, releasing an article on the matter in December 2018.[31] In December 2018, Joel Hruska of ExtremeTech compared the performance of multiple games that use Denuvo and found that the games had significantly higher frame rates and lower loading times when the DRM system was disabled.[32] Richard Leadbetter of Digital Foundry found that a pirated version of Resident Evil Village that removed all DRM performed significantly better than the retail version.[33] Capcom later released a patch for Village that, among other changes, altered how the game used Denuvo.[34] Leadbetter noted that the patch improved performance, running equivalent to the pirated version.[35]

In November 2021, several recent games using Denuvo were rendered unplayable, reportedly due to a Denuvo-owned domain name expiring.[36] In the same month, it was reported that Denuvo Anti-Tamper was incompatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems running on CPUs in the Alder Lake series.[37] This was fixed by January 2022.[38]

On October 18, 2024, Denuvo launched its official Discord server as part of a PR campaign, which they claim is an important step toward building stronger connections with game developers, publishers, and players.[39][40] Later, Denuvo's Product manager Andreas Ullmann claimed, "moderating a group of users who dislike DRM is proving to be challenging, so the admins are shutting down and reopening Discord discussions day by day instead of keeping the server active always".[41]

References

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  1. ^ a b Dietrich, Martin (2 August 2017). "Kopierschutz im Faktencheck – Wie schlimm ist Denuvo wirklich?" [Fact-checking Copy Protection – How Bad Is Denuvo Really?]. GameStar (in German). Archived from the original on 30 December 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Purchese, Robert (19 December 2014). "Don't call it DRM: what's Denuvo Anti-Tamper?". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  3. ^ Taylor, Haydn (23 January 2018). "Irdeto acquires Denuvo in bid to beef up security for the games industry". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 25 February 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  4. ^ Taylor, Haydn (29 August 2018). "Denuvo: "There is no uncrackable game. What we do is protect the initial sales"". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  5. ^ Parkin, Simon (27 April 2016). "Can 'hard to crack' Denuvo win the cat-and-mouse game of PC piracy?". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 12 December 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  6. ^ a b Iwaniuk, Phil (10 February 2016). "We speak to Denuvo, whose Anti-Tamper Tech may have left piracy dead in the water". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  7. ^ Plunkett, Luke (6 January 2016). "Pirates Worried That PC Games Are Becoming Too Hard To Crack". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  8. ^ Orland, Kyle (7 January 2016). "Major piracy group warns games may be crack-proof in two years". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  9. ^ Good, Owen S. (9 January 2016). "Piracy group nearly gives up on cracking Just Cause 3, warns of bleak future". Polygon. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  10. ^ Orland, Kyle (9 February 2016). "Game cracking group takes a year off as a "genuine sales" experiment". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  11. ^ Purchese, Robert (8 January 2016). "Finally, tide turns in war with PC game crackers". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  12. ^ Orland, Kyle (19 October 2017). "Denuvo's DRM now being cracked within hours of release". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  13. ^ Boudreau, Ian (4 February 2018). "Pirates claim to have finally cracked Assassin's Creed Origins". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  14. ^ a b Orland, Kyle (12 November 2018). "Hitman 2's Denuvo DRM cracked days before the game's release". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  15. ^ Fenlon, Wes (15 May 2019). "Denuvo DRM cracks seem to be happening faster and faster". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  16. ^ Jones, Ali (16 May 2019). "Rage 2 devs "saw a few requests" to remove Denuvo, so they did". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 19 May 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  17. ^ Grayson, Nathan (17 May 2019). "Rage 2 Drops Denuvo DRM In Record Time". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  18. ^ O'Connor, Alice (22 March 2019). "Do vu no? Denuvo making Anti-Cheat". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  19. ^ Blaukovitsch, Reinhard (14 May 2020). "Denuvo Anti-Cheat goes LIVE! A message to DOOM Eternal fans and gamers". Irdeto. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  20. ^ Lee, Julia (20 May 2020). "id Software will remove Denuvo anti-cheat from PC version of Doom Eternal". Polygon. Archived from the original on 20 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  21. ^ Shepard, Kenneth (25 August 2022). "Denuvo Launching Switch Emulator Protection at Behest of Publishing Partners". Fanbyte. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  22. ^ Hagues, Alana (24 August 2022). "New Denuvo 'Switch Emulator Protection' Tech Launches, And Players Are Worried". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  23. ^ Gach, Ethan (24 August 2022). "Notorious DRM Company Takes Aim At Switch Piracy [Update]". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  24. ^ Doolan, Liam (26 August 2022). "Nintendo Is Apparently Not Involved In The New Switch DRM Initiative". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  25. ^ Scullion, Chris (23 August 2023). "Denuvo security is now on Switch, including new tech to block PC Switch emulation". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  26. ^ Frank, Allegra (12 October 2017). "It took just 24 hours to crack Shadow of War's DRM". Polygon. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  27. ^ D'Anastasio, Cecilia (22 February 2021). "The Woman Bulldozing Video Games' Toughest DRM". Wired. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  28. ^ Lemon, Marshall (4 September 2018). "Two Point Hospital no longer uses Denuvo DRM". VG247. Archived from the original on 28 October 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  29. ^ Vazquez, Suriel (15 April 2018). "DRM Software Causing Performance Issues In PC Version Of Tekken 7, Says Producer". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  30. ^ Leri, Michael (20 July 2018). "Sonic Mania Plus DRM Protection Slowing Down Legitimate Copies". GameRevolution. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  31. ^ Machkovech, Sam (26 December 2018). "Evidence continues to mount about how bad Denuvo is for PC gaming performance". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  32. ^ Hruska, Joel (26 December 2018). "Denuvo Really Does Cripple PC Gaming Performance". ExtremeTech. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  33. ^ Ivan, Tom (14 July 2021). "A version of Resident Evil Village which reportedly removes DRM runs better, analysis shows". Video Games Chronicle. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  34. ^ Peppiatt, Dom (20 July 2021). "Resident Evil Village patch makes "adjustments" to Denuvo DRM". VG247. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  35. ^ Leadbetter, Richard (26 June 2021). "Resident Evil Village PC is fixed - but players still deserve better". Eurogamer. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  36. ^ Taylor, Mollie (8 November 2021). "A great day for DRM as Denuvo lapse renders tons of games temporarily unplayable". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  37. ^ Archer, James (9 November 2021). "Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs aren't playing nice with DRM in some games". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  38. ^ Blaukovitsch, Reinhard (12 January 2022). "Alder Lake's incompatibility issue fixed". Irdeto. Archived from the original on 17 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  39. ^ Joshua Wolens (18 October 2024). "Denuvo opens its own Discord server to rehabilitate its image, has to shut it down 2 days later after players flood in to bully it". PC Gamer. Retrieved 19 October 2024.
  40. ^ Writer, Nic Reuben Staff; Reuben, Nic (23 October 2024). "Denuvo respond to their rep for tanking games - "I'm a gamer myself, and therefore I know what I'm talking about"". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  41. ^ Dustin Bailey (23 October 2024). "Anti-piracy company Denuvo is tired of gamers saying its DRM is bad for games: "It's super hard to see, as a gamer, what is the immediate benefit"". gamesradar. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
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