Denuvo

Denuvo Anti-Tamper, more commonly known as Denuvo, is an anti-tamper technology and digital rights management (DRM) scheme developed by Austrian software company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, a subsidiary of Irdeto.

Denuvo
Developer(s)Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH
Initial release2014 (2014)
PlatformMicrosoft Windows
TypeDigital rights management
LicenseProprietary
Websiteirdeto.com/denuvo/

History

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] It originally employed 45 people.[3] In January 2018, the company was acquired by larger software company Irdeto.[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 may 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]

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 2 and FIFA 18, all being cracked on their release dates.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

By 2019, several products 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 first week of release, with Ace Combat 7 taking thirteen days.[13][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]

A sister product, Denuvo Anti-Cheat, was announced in March 2019,[18] and first used with Doom Eternal following a patch on 14 May 2020.[19] However, less than a week later Doom developer id Software announced they would be removing it from the game following negative response from players.[20]

Technology

Games protected by Denuvo require an online activation.[21] The software uses a "64-bit encryption machine".[22] Denuvo's marketing director, Thomas Goebl, stated that some console-exclusive games get PC releases due to this technology.[23]

Criticism

Denuvo has been criticised for high central processing unit (CPU) usage and excessive writing operations on storage components, the latter causing significant life-span reductions for solid-state drives (SSDs). Denuvo Software Solutions has denied both claims.[24] In the case of Tekken 7 and Sonic Mania Plus, Denuvo caused a significant decrease in performance in several parts of these games.[25][26] Sam Machkovech of Ars Technica reviewed in-depth how Denuvo was causing performance penalties, releasing an article on the matter in December 2018.[27] In December 2018, Joel Hruska of ExtremeTech compared the performance of multiple games with Denuvo enabled and disabled, and found that the games tested had significantly higher frame rates and lower loading times when Denuvo was not used.[28]

In July 2018, Denuvo Software Solutions filed a lawsuit against Voksi, a 21-year-old Bulgarian hacker who had cracked several Denuvo-protected games.[29] Voksi was arrested by Bulgarian authorities, and his website, Revolt, was taken offline.[29]

References
  1. Dietrich, Martin (2 August 2017). "Kopierschutz im Faktencheck – Wie schlimm ist Denuvo wirklich?" [Copy Protection under Fact Check – How Bad Is Denuvo Really?]. GameStar (in German). Archived from the original on 30 December 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  2. 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 (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.
  4. 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.
  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. 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. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. Thubron, Rob (15 May 2019). "Denuvo-protected games are being cracked faster than ever". Techspot. 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. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  20. Lee, Julia (20 May 2020). "id Software will remove Denuvo anti-cheat from PC version of Doom Eternal". Polygon. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  21. 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.
  22. Leack, Jonathan (6 January 2016). "Notorious Game Pirate Warns Imminent Death of Game Piracy As Encryption Succeeds". GameRevolution.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. Cito, Arne (26 July 2018). "Denuvo files lawsuit against DRM Hacker "Voksi"". GameZone. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
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