Denuvo's Hitman 2 protection was hacked three days before the release - right after the company announced the importance of protection in the early days
Denuvo - protection against hacking, which is used for video games on the PC - a few years ago was perceived as a technology that can put an end to piracy. It took months for some games to break into it, some remained unbroken. Now the situation seems to be changing. Hitman 2 was released yesterday, but Denuvo’s protection was hacked three days before the official release.
How did that happen?
Hitman 2 fell into the hands of pirates so early, since the publisher Warner Bros released it in two stages. November 9, the game was received by those who pre-ordered it, and on November 13 there was a general global release. But by this day the game lay on the torrents.
The game used the newest version of the protection - Denuvo 5.3. The FCKDRM group was able to crack it. Hackers announced the release on November 9, that is, it took them less than one day to crack. Interestingly, the logo and the name of the group also stole. To the legal rejection of DRM publishers calls digital store GOG.com, which is owned by CD Projekt - the authors of The Witcher. The name FCKDRM they used in one of their marketing campaigns.
The next release of the next big game protected by Denuvo 5.3 will take place on November 20th. This day will be released Battlefield V, which is now also in the early access of the owners of pre-order.
What Denuvo Says
The situation for the owner of Denuvo, Irdeto, is doubly unpleasant, since a few days ago she published a statement about the importance of protection in the early days of release.
Irdeto tracked downloads of a large sports title on P2P networks, which was hacked a day after the release, since no protection against hacking was used there. For the first two weeks, Irdeto tracked 355,664 downloads of illegal copies from torrents. Considering the game’s retail price of $ 60, the potential loss of revenue due to P2P downloads was $ 21,336,283.According to the company, the most important time for release is the first two weeks. During this period, publishers receive up to 80% of revenue. More importantly, the first four days, because, according to the company, these days bring half of the total revenue.
With such a statement, Irdeto is trying to convey that the use of protection is justified, even if it is cracked relatively quickly. Two years ago, Denuvo sought to protect the first three months and, according to rumors, guaranteed compensation to publishers in the event of a hack. Details of specific transactions were not disclosed, and it is still unknown how Denuvo and Warner Bros will resolve the failure of the protection Hitman 2.
As it was before
The last two years around Denuvo have been a lot of high-profile events. In 2016, a group of hackers 3DM, after an unsuccessful fight against Denuvo, said that in the near future, piracy on the PC may become impossible. Then the hacking could not succumb to Just Cause 3 and FIFA 16.
Subsequently, other hackers managed to bypass the protection, albeit after considerable time after the release. So, for example, Doom and Rise of the Tomb Raider were hacked.
Denuvo fought hacks with both improved defense and prosecution. For example, in the summer of 2018, according to Irdeto , a police investigation began in Bulgaria around a hacker Voksi who was involved in several hacks.
But the owners of legal copies of games also had claims to Denuvo. According to some complaints, the defense led to the rapid deterioration of SSD carriers, the fall of the FPS, and in some cases prevented the launch of purchased games on Steam.
Nevertheless, publishers continue to use Denuvo’s services relatively well. For example, one of the main games of the fall - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - was cracked only a month after the release.