The newest version of the infamous DRM package, Dunovo, has been cracked by pirate groups less than a week after the latest high-profile game including the software launched. In this case, Metro Exodus is the game targeted by software pirates for cracking. Ubisoft’s Far Cry New Dawn also made use of the DRM bundle, but has yet to be cracked as of today.
The company behind Denuvo DRM, which is anti-pirate group Irdeto after the firm purchased the rights through a buyout of Denuvo, has been having a rough go of things lately. Denuvo 5.6 is only a few weeks old, with the update being released after the 5.5 variant included in titles like the incredibly popular remake of Resident Evil 2 were cracked at the beginning of the month. As of last week, another 5.5 crack was released for Ace Combat 7, according to CrackWatch.
Although the technical goal of such DRM schemes isn’t to provide ever-lasting protection against piracy, the stated goal of Denuvo is to protect the launch sales of the games it’s included in, the period when sales are usually the highest. 4A Games and Deep Silver seem to have succeeded on that front as the game had a few days of unpirated sales, although we will have to wait and see what impact the controversies surrounding Metro Exodus had on sales. Many fans stated a desire to pirate the game following a string of frustrating decisions and statements from Deep Silver angered gamers.
Wherever you stand in regards to Deep Silver, there is always a case to be made for supporting the developers who pour so much effort into the games we enjoy. If you really want to express your displeasure over the Metro Exodus kerfuffle that Deep Silver caused, don’t play the game at all. There’s a certain sense of entitlement to pirating games to fire back at publishers and developers that just doesn’t make any sense. Many publishers and developers have implemented ways to estimate how many pirated copies of their games are out there. And that desire to play, even if you pirate, is still seen as a monetary incentive by some companies, prompting them to find more subtle ways of exploiting consumers for greed. Piracy doesn’t teach greedy companies not to be greedy, it teaches them to be more clever about it. And in some cases, these companies are even more ruthlessly honest about their greed. If you really want to change the messed up games industry, vote with your wallet and your time.
Also, would-be pirates should keep in mind that these cracks simply prevent Denuvo from “phoning home” and reporting pirated copies, or otherwise stopping the game from running. Cracks like these don’t remove the anti-tamper code, so any performance issues that were already there will likely remain.
What do you think about this recent development? Let us know in the comments.
