Shadow of War’s Piracy Protection Was Cracked in One Day

[Len]

Warner Bros. and Monolith Productions’ Middle-earth: Shadow of War was protected from piracy by Denuvo’s popular anti-tampering software when it released on Tuesday. By Wednesday, however, hackers had already cracked the game’s Denuvo protections, according to DSO Gaming.

Denuvo itself has readily admitted in the past that its software is not intended to permanently protect games it covers, as every protection is cracked sooner or later. Rather, Denuvo is meant to delay that inevitability, protecting games as long as possible after their launch.

Prior to 2017, it seemed like Denuvo was doing a good job of fulfilling that goal, vague though it may be. Denuvo-protected games usually took months or even years to crack. But 2017 has seen a very different trend developing, one that’s likely got Denuvo and the developers and publishers who’ve used it feeling none-too-happy.

Resident Evil 7’s Denuvo protection was cracked less than a week after its January 24 release. Games like Rime and Tekken 7 were also cracked in just a few days. The situation seemed to have hit its nadir last month when Total War: Warhammer 2 and FIFA 18 were cracked in just hours. Now Shadow of War, a big-budget licensed game, has joined them on the list of games that had their Denuvo protections beaten in less than a day.