this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Very recently - maybe.

No for nearly 10 years now. There was a stint of a year or two where cracks took a little longer, but truth be told that was around when COVID happened and there were just fewer big ticket games for people to put effort into it. Several groups just got out of the game. These days the only thing protecting games from piracy isn’t Denuvo, it’s the lack of interest of scene groups in doing the cracking. Since it’s picked back up though we’re seeing games cracked within hours of release or in some cases prior to release. At most a few days to a week. The days of it taking three months are gone

And what was first?

For an increasing number of people, Denuvo. With the hardware crisis and all, people aren’t upgrading hardware as much as they used to. People have to do more with less. Games with Denuvo removed run better on the same hardware, so people who have had no financial interest in pirating have turned to it as a means of making their games run better.

We’ve seen this all before with streaming. When Netflix got big, tv/movie piracy nearly died out because it was so convenient to pay for streaming.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

There was a stint of a year or two where cracks took a little longer

I guess I must have entered some utopian parallel universe when I clicked into this thread because I see all these people commenting things like this but I look over to the other sites like crackwatch and cs-rin and literally see that there were 3 legitimate denuvo cracks TOTAL between the between empress's 2023 crashout and voices38's public 2026 entry. (Dragon's Dogma 2 was a debug build leak). Or maybe the excitement of the hypervisor bypass got people hallucinating some revisionist history.

These days the only thing protecting games from piracy isn’t Denuvo, it’s the lack of interest of scene groups in doing the cracking

So when RE4 got cracked once in 2023 by empress, no other patches get cracked for the next 3 years, then denuvo gets removed in 2026, and RUNE cracks the latest version on that very same day, it wasn't because of denuvo, it was because RUNE suddenly gained interest? as a total coincidence or what?

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

It’s like I said, the biggest opposition to game pirating isn’t the protection Denuvo actually provides but just the lack of interest in people doing the cracking.

I can see where you’d argue that this means Denuvo is “working” but only in the sense that any old $2 lock you put on your front door is protecting your home from the 0 people attempting to break and enter.

Also in the void EMPRESS left in the scene, there have been newcomers, but they’ve started off by cracking older games.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

And those exact same people suddenly gain an interest as soon as denuvo is removed? Get real man.

any old $2 lock you put on your front door is protecting your home from the 0 people attempting to break and enter.

"well I wasn't even trying anyways!" excuse lol

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

And those exact same people suddenly gain an interest as soon as denuvo is removed?

No the lack of interest is probably there in both cases.

"well I wasn't even trying anyways!" excuse lol

Generational levels of cope on display here. “My lock is so effective that NOBODY* can break it!”

*No one has tried

By that logic the locking mechanism on my old 1998 Ford Taurus I was driving in 2015 had a state of the art security system that protected it that would put modern solutions to shame because for some reason, it was never stolen.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world -1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

So convenient that there is exactly enough interest to crack every non denuvo game in 1 day but every single denuvo game with millions in sales gets left alone for years 😂 because obviously cracking Laundry Store Simulator is more "interesting" than cracking the latest multi million AAA hit 😂

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

What on earth are you talking about? You’re all tied up in knots. I’m not talking about any non-Denuvo games.

every single denuvo game with millions in sales gets left alone for years

I mean if you ignore the ones that don’t, then sure. Most recently RE Requiem just came out and is a AAA hit with millions of sales, has Denuvo, and has already been cracked. That doesn’t sound like it was “left alone for years” to me.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world -1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And the near 3 year long blackout period between empress and voices? Everyone lost "interest" simultaneously for multiple years? They got bored or something? And even now voices38 is the only one "interested" in denuvo?Everyone else is just not "interested"?

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

2 year*.

Everyone lost "interest" simultaneously for multiple years? They got bored or something?

Who is this “everyone” you speak of? You realize pirate scene groups are very niche groups of people right?

I mean yes, people who are not in pirate scene groups are largely so because they’re not interested in being so. I’m not interested, and I’m not in one. I’m not sure what it is that you’re implying is keeping people out of these groups besides a lack of interest. Do you think doing a thankless job like that is fun? I don’t think it would be.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world -1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Who is this “everyone” you speak of? You realize pirate scene groups are very niche groups of people right?

There were no denuvo cracks in that period, and according to you it was only because they're not interested in doing it. Then it must mean nobody was interested no? Otherwise there would have been a crack out in that time?

Do you think doing a thankless job like that is fun? I don’t think it would be.

Other games get cracked day 0 even though it's equally thankless. That obviously isn't the distinguishing factor.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There were several Denuvo cracks in that period actually, just not as many.

Other games get cracked day 0 even though it's equally thankless. That obviously isn't the distinguishing factor.

Denuvo games also get cracked day 0. Not sure what your point is, or at this point if you even have one.

At the end of the day, what I said was correct. There was a period of time where we had less cracks, and now it’s ramping back up again. There doesn’t seem to be anything about Denuvo that stops its games from being cracked fairly quickly other than a lack of people to do the cracking.

These are all verifiably correct and factual statements. Whatever it is you’re whinging and whining about… I don’t know what to tell you.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Fair enough man. I see what you're saying.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

It’s funny we were just talking about this 4 days ago, because as of today the big news is a new hypervisor-based method of circumventing Denuvo was reported and now zero games are uncracked.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world 0 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

I'm aware. I'm of the very reasonable opinion that all legitimate cracks must run in all the environments that the original program runs in (including compatibility layers). I think we just have different viewpoints of what "a little longer" is and what "crack" is, and that's fine.

[–] Viceversa@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

These days the only thing protecting games from piracy isn’t Denuvo, it’s the lack of interest of scene groups in doing the cracking.

So Denuvo keeps working then?

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Viceversa@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

A number of 2K Games titles, including NBA 2K25, NBA 2K26, and Marvel's Midnight Suns, will now require an online check-in every two weeks to continue playing. That's whether you're playing single player offline or online multiplayer modes.

Great. Just great.