That Was Fast: Denuvo's Version 3 Update Has Been Cracked

It's seems like just yesterday that I was writing about how Denuvo's DRM, the once-vaunted but since defeated DRM unicorn, had been patched to Version 4 with the company proclaiming that it was once again out ahead of the pirate groups that had cracked its previous versions. Oh, wait. That actually was yesterday.

Anywho, the latest version of Denuvo is being used on several recently released games, out since January, with much made about how those games were once again taking quite a bit of time before cracks for them appeared in the wild. With the company pushing the narrative that protecting the first few weeks of a game's release was where the value of Denuvo really stood, companies using the DRM likely cheered. This week, however, things took a familiar turn for the DRM unicorn.

The same cracking group that has pained Denuvo these past several months managed to crack a game using the updated version of Denuvo, 2Dark.

With all eyes primed for a release of a game using the new technology (the cracking scene has labeled it Denuvo v4), earlier this month Mass Effect Andromeda was cracked by CPY, the group behind most of Denuvo's recent pain. Despite some early claims, the title was actually protected by v3, so the big test was yet to arrive.

Yesterday it did so, in some style.

With its usual fanfare, cracking group CPY announced that it had defeated Denuvo v4 protection on 2Dark, a lesser-known stealth adventure game from the creator of Alone in the Dark.

Now, it isn't just those looking to pirate the game that looked favorably on this crack of 2Dark. In fact, the game itself hasn't received a great deal of attention, compared with other games using Denuvo v4, such as the latest release in the Mass Effect franchise. No, 2Dark had a special target painted on its back for breaking its word. The developers of the game had insisted during the crowdfunding process that the game would be released sans DRM, before going back on that promise and using Denuvo at the request of its publisher.

On the game's Steam page, the truth later emerged with a note confirming that the title would incorporate "3rd-party DRM: Denuvo Antitamper." According to a subsequent interview with Techraptor, that was a result of Gloomywood having to team up with publisher Bigben Interactive who insisted on the protection.

It makes it hard to garner that much sympathy, even among those that see piracy as the evil of all evils. After all, all the crack did was keep Gloomywood's promise for them.