Major publishers have attempted to curb piracy on the PC platform by implementing various forms of Digital Rights Management including SecuROM, TAGES, Games For Windows Live, Rockstar Social Club and many more! In reality, all this does is negatively impact on the experience for genuine customers as cracking groups usually release a pirated version extremely quickly. The latest creation to try and reduce piracy is Denuvo which acts as an additional protection layer to compliment existing forms of DRM. Apparently, Denuvo is best described as an Anti-Tamper piece of software which “continuously encrypts and decrypts itself so that it is impossible to crack.”.
However, this isn’t entirely true because Dragon Age Inquisition eventually got cracked despite using Denuvo protection. Clearly, the concept revolves around delaying the cracking process long enough to make pirates infuriated and encourage them to purchase the game through legitimate channels. It might surprise you but quite a few modern releases utilize Denuvo including Just Cause 3 and Metal Gear Solid V. Furthermore, according to Far Cry: Primal’s EULA, the game will also use Denuvo and specifically states:
“THE PRODUCT IS PROTECTED BY DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE (“DRM SOFTWARE”) AND DENUVO ANTI-TAMPER PROTECTION TECHNOLOGY”
“CERTAIN FILES OF THE ANTI-TAMPER TECHNOLOGY MAY REMAIN EVEN AFTER THE PRODUCT IS UNINSTALLED FROM YOUR COMPUTER. “
The second clause is very disturbing, and surely a breach of European law. This is because it behaves like spyware, and cannot be removed. Furthermore, the way Denuvo works is only known by a minority of people and hopefully as consumers become more aware of its terrible nature, there should be a greater uproar. On another note, Codefusion’s tech support site indicates that Rise of the Tomb Raider will also implement Denuvo. I really hope there’s a backlash against publishers opting for this piece of terrible software because it’s quite secretive and has some extremely worrying ramifications.
