Matrix Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Anti-piracy outfit Denuvo has published figures that suggest huge 'losses' for games not using its anti-tamper technology. The company says that an unnamed AAA sports title was downloaded more than 355,000 times by BitTorrent users in its first two weeks online, with 12% of those shares happening in the first day. A fortnight of protection, it now suggests, is Denuvo's window of opportunity. Ever since computer and video games have been available to the masses, players have been able to pirate them. From the early days of cassettes and floppy disks to today’s digital downloads, games are pirated as quickly as pirates can manage. Over the years, dozens of anti-piracy mechanisms have attempted to stem the tide, with one thing in common – all have eventually failed to prevent piracy. With billions in revenue at stake, it’s a huge and competitive market that games companies wish to protect. In recent years, one particular product has found itself on the frontlines. Denuvo’s anti-tamper technology protects perhaps the most vulnerable of titles – PC games – and for the longest time managed to thwart even the most competent of games ‘crackers’ However, in recent years, the technology has been under attack, mainly because of its deployment on the world’s most popular games but partially because the technology presents such a challenge to those attempting to circumvent it. Slowly but surely, the unstoppable Denuvo has proven to be fallible, with several cracking groups unpicking its digital locks. With the period of Denuvo protection diminishing from many, many months down to a few days in some cases, the company has attempted to position itself not as invulnerable, but the people to turn to if protecting early sales are important. And, according to a new statement by the company, they are very important indeed. In a statement issued by Denuvo owner Irdeto (the latter acquired the former earlier this year), the company states that it tracked pirate downloads of an unnamed ‘AAA’ (big budget, major studio) title during the first few days after its release. Without Denuvo protection it was quickly cracked and made available on P2P networks and from there, pirates did their thing. “Irdeto tracked the downloads of a major sports title on P2P networks after the title, which did not include anti-tamper protection, was cracked on the same day of its release,” the company says. “During the first two weeks, Irdeto detected 355,664 torrent downloads of the illegal copy of the title. Given the retail price of the game, this puts the total potential loss of revenue from P2P downloads at $21,336,283.” Irdeto highlights the first 14 days following release as the most critical for such a game, claiming that up to 80% of sales take place during the period. An impressive 50% of those sales take place within the first four days, the company adds. It’s worth noting that while Denuvo games are often cracked very quickly, it’s definitely not uncommon for protection to stand up to the first two weeks of attacks. Denuvo can usually hold off crackers for the first four days, so these figures are obvious marketing tools for a technology that has been somewhat diminished after various cracking groups began taking its challenge personally. But just in case Denuvo only manages a single day of protection, owner Irdeto suggests that the effort is worth it – even dropping down to the importance of standing firm for an hour. “The research also found that the first day of release alone is crucial for the protection of a AAA title, as 12% of the illegal P2P downloads occurred within the first day of the cracked copy appearing on the P2P networks (and a substantial number of these in the first hour),” the company adds. During the past couple of years, with many Denuvo-protected games finding themselves cracked within days and weeks, the company has positioned itself as a necessary speedbump, one that can make a difference straight after launch. With Denuvo limiting the above statistics to the first two weeks, there’s a suggestion that’s where its confidence lies. “Piracy is a threat that is firmly established in the games industry and, as our research suggests, it can result in potentially huge revenue losses for publishers if their games are compromised within the 14-day window following release,” said Reinhard Blaukovitsch, Managing Director of Denuvo, Irdeto. “With this in mind, it is crucial for publishers to implement security strategies that make their games as difficult as possible to crack and reverse engineer. This way they will be able to better protect the revenues that allow them to continue to create such compelling games.” While the challenge presented by Denuvo protection has never proven popular with pirates, many hoped that the technology would prove unpopular with developers and publishers too. However, as a sarcastic graphic posted by a Reddit user yesterday shows, there doesn’t appear to be much lack of uptake. New game contains Denuvo? We know….. All that said, it appears that no variant of Denuvo is invulnerable. Even since the company managed to shut down Bulgarian cracker Voksi earlier this year, new and old players have been taking the company’s protection apart. According to a useful table published by /r/crackwatch, cracking group CODEX recently defeated the protection on Dragon Quest XI in 13 days while Soul Caliber 6 took them just four. (Note: There’s that four-day period mentioned by Irdeto above) A previously unheard of group ‘FCKDRM’ appeared on the scene in November, defeating Mega Man 11 in just over a month and Football Manager 2019 in just four days (there it is again). Notably, these two latter titles used Denuvo’s latest technology, labeled as 5.1 and 5.2. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anti-piracy outfit Denuvo has published figures that suggest huge 'losses' for games not using its anti-tamper technology. The company says that an unnamed AAA sports title was downloaded more than 355,000 times by BitTorrent users in its first two weeks online, with 12% of those shares happening in the first day. A fortnight of protection, it now suggests, is Denuvo's window of opportunity. Ever since computer and video games have been available to the masses, players have been able to pirate them. From the early days of cassettes and floppy disks to today’s digital downloads, games are pirated as quickly as pirates can manage. Over the years, dozens of anti-piracy mechanisms have attempted to stem the tide, with one thing in common – all have eventually failed to prevent piracy. With billions in revenue at stake, it’s a huge and competitive market that games companies wish to protect. In recent years, one particular product has found itself on the frontlines. Denuvo’s anti-tamper technology protects perhaps the most vulnerable of titles – PC games – and for the longest time managed to thwart even the most competent of games ‘crackers’ However, in recent years, the technology has been under attack, mainly because of its deployment on the world’s most popular games but partially because the technology presents such a challenge to those attempting to circumvent it. Slowly but surely, the unstoppable Denuvo has proven to be fallible, with several cracking groups unpicking its digital locks. With the period of Denuvo protection diminishing from many, many months down to a few days in some cases, the company has attempted to position itself not as invulnerable, but the people to turn to if protecting early sales are important. And, according to a new statement by the company, they are very important indeed. In a statement issued by Denuvo owner Irdeto (the latter acquired the former earlier this year), the company states that it tracked pirate downloads of an unnamed ‘AAA’ (big budget, major studio) title during the first few days after its release. Without Denuvo protection it was quickly cracked and made available on P2P networks and from there, pirates did their thing. “Irdeto tracked the downloads of a major sports title on P2P networks after the title, which did not include anti-tamper protection, was cracked on the same day of its release,” the company says. “During the first two weeks, Irdeto detected 355,664 torrent downloads of the illegal copy of the title. Given the retail price of the game, this puts the total potential loss of revenue from P2P downloads at $21,336,283.” Irdeto highlights the first 14 days following release as the most critical for such a game, claiming that up to 80% of sales take place during the period. An impressive 50% of those sales take place within the first four days, the company adds. It’s worth noting that while Denuvo games are often cracked very quickly, it’s definitely not uncommon for protection to stand up to the first two weeks of attacks. Denuvo can usually hold off crackers for the first four days, so these figures are obvious marketing tools for a technology that has been somewhat diminished after various cracking groups began taking its challenge personally. But just in case Denuvo only manages a single day of protection, owner Irdeto suggests that the effort is worth it – even dropping down to the importance of standing firm for an hour. “The research also found that the first day of release alone is crucial for the protection of a AAA title, as 12% of the illegal P2P downloads occurred within the first day of the cracked copy appearing on the P2P networks (and a substantial number of these in the first hour),” the company adds. During the past couple of years, with many Denuvo-protected games finding themselves cracked within days and weeks, the company has positioned itself as a necessary speedbump, one that can make a difference straight after launch. With Denuvo limiting the above statistics to the first two weeks, there’s a suggestion that’s where its confidence lies. “Piracy is a threat that is firmly established in the games industry and, as our research suggests, it can result in potentially huge revenue losses for publishers if their games are compromised within the 14-day window following release,” said Reinhard Blaukovitsch, Managing Director of Denuvo, Irdeto. “With this in mind, it is crucial for publishers to implement security strategies that make their games as difficult as possible to crack and reverse engineer. This way they will be able to better protect the revenues that allow them to continue to create such compelling games.” While the challenge presented by Denuvo protection has never proven popular with pirates, many hoped that the technology would prove unpopular with developers and publishers too. However, as a sarcastic graphic posted by a Reddit user yesterday shows, there doesn’t appear to be much lack of uptake. New game contains Denuvo? We know….. All that said, it appears that no variant of Denuvo is invulnerable. Even since the company managed to shut down Bulgarian cracker Voksi earlier this year, new and old players have been taking the company’s protection apart. According to a useful table published by /r/crackwatch, cracking group CODEX recently defeated the protection on Dragon Quest XI in 13 days while Soul Caliber 6 took them just four. (Note: There’s that four-day period mentioned by Irdeto above) A previously unheard of group ‘FCKDRM’ appeared on the scene in November, defeating Mega Man 11 in just over a month and Football Manager 2019 in just four days (there it is again). Notably, these two latter titles used Denuvo’s latest technology, labeled as 5.1 and 5.2.
lurch234 Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 1 hour ago, DonyMach1 said: the company has attempted to position itself not as invulnerable, but the people to turn to if protecting early sales are important. How the mighty have fallen. 1 hour ago, DonyMach1 said: Denuvo can usually hold off crackers for the first four days, so these figures are obvious marketing tools for a technology that has been somewhat diminished after various cracking groups began taking its challenge personally. Maybe they should have "let sleeping dogs to lie" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BimBamSmash Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 These copy protection measures are pointless. The only viable solution for that "problem" is the always-online design, where gameplay is relevant only when played online, and also where some of the game's critical assets are streamed during gameplay from the internet instead of hard disk. It is not going to be easy to do with what I'd like to call legacy franchises - titles that originate long before internet was what it is today; those that have always been known to be played solo, offline, and what not. Still, that didn't stop Blizzard. They had a rocky start for all franchises they moved into this model but in the end they managed to go to through, unhindered I'd say. This is the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclaren85 Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 I've played every Denuvo protected game without paying a penny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karlston Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 More every-pirated-download-is-a-lost-sale bulldust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straycat19 Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 2 hours ago, mclaren85 said: I've played every Denuvo protected game without paying a penny. True, but what Denuvo is saying is you didn't play them the day after release or even the month after release in some cases. Therefore, by their reckoning, and what they are trying to sell the companies on, is that if you really want to play the game you will buy it instead of waiting for it to be cracked. Might be valid in a few cases but not as many as they are trying to project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coromonadalix Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 Was it Denuvo who nagged saying their protection was the best ? and could net be defeated ? loll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ha91 Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 Until CODEX and BLIZZARD (if I am not mistaken) thrashed them up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted November 9, 2018 Administrator Share Posted November 9, 2018 This game might like to have a word with them. I have not played it personally, but I would buy it if I wanted to play it. Also, as the issue is raised, I personally believe scene groups should wait about half a month or more if possible before releasing them. The scene has always been about ethics from what I have heard throughout the years, not sure why they did not consider adding this part to their ethical code. Another issue people time and again talk about that this type of things do indeed slow the games performance, then some people come out and say that it does not - apparently they think every gaming computer in the world has unlimited power and any type of overpowered protection is not going to have any performance impact whatsoever. Also, as the online thing is mentioned, as soon as the online servers stop working or change, the game stops working, that's even worse form of protection I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronY-Man Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 I remember the good ol days when this Denuvo was appeared on fifa, Dragon Age & Lords of the fallen....the trinity !! and then they were thumping their chests lika God'mn Silverback gorilla about this unbeatable BS and now look, they are begging (figuretively) to Game publishers !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BimBamSmash Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 Nothing lasts forever. To be fair they had a good run. The only way to stay afloat in that business is constant, non-stop change of code and methods and there is only so much one can change on a regular basis. Its a daring business to enter or maintain operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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