The rise and fall of Denuvo

[Len]

With the security guardian no longer on the gaming landscape, the industry stares at an uncertain future

Denuvo, the Austrian company which took utmost care in fabricating its software licenses, was established in September 2014. Its development came as a big relief for major video game and industrial sectors ever since the fall of SecuROM, as now there was finally a company that could encrypt their confidential information. The company rose to fame when it introduced the infamous ‘anti-tamper’ technology. Some claim that the software was uncrackable and could be safely used to protect video games from piracy.

It posed a difficult challenge for a lot of crackers. A simple Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution takes about two to five days to crack. However, the anti-tamper software was unlike any other DRM solution. It was genuinely hard to crack. The company strives to protect a video game during the first 30 days of its release, the time period in which the gaming company encounters maximum sales. What is the anti-tamper technology and how was it different from the existing methods? Was the company successful in achieving its objectives?

What is a DRM software?

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. A set of control technologies, the use of DRM disables a person from accessing copyrighted works and propriety software. In simple terms, DRM removes the usage control from the user in sequestering of digital content. There have been various claims and speculations regarding the use of DRM. Some support the idea of DRM to maintain the security of the site, while many argue about the degrading authenticity of the site. DRM has an endless number of applications.

What is the Denuvo anti-tamper technology?

The anti-tamper technology averts debugging, reverse engineering and changing of executable files. By doing so, the security of video games and digital media can be strengthened. It’s not just any other DRM solution. DRM solutions such as Origin Online Access and Steam License Management can be safeguarded with Denuvo’s anti-tamper technology to prevent them from being circumvented. The above solutions only give access to legitimate users and the anti-tamper technology prevents the DRM solution from being bypassed.

The advantage of using Denuvo’s software is that it does not degrade the quality of the video game or the media. As there is no modification in the original digital media, the user enjoys a seamless experience without any hindrance.

The difference between DRM and anti-tamper technology

A DRM solution binds the contents of the video game to a legitimate user account. The user can download the contents of the game whenever and wherever he or she wants to. This mechanism is similar to accessing social media accounts on various systems. Once an account has been created for a particular user, he or she can access it from any location and on any system.

On the other hand, the anti-tamper technology works on a totally different principle. It inhibits the reverse engineering and debugging of the DRM solution. It is completely transparent and has no negative impact on the legitimate user.

The role of companies like 3DM and CPY

The Chinese company 3DM consists of a panel of individuals who are specialists in cracking DRM solutions of commercialised PC video games. According to the reports of the popular gaming website ‘Kotaku’, the company was one of the largest of its kind in 2016. Guided by a mysterious woman who uses the alias ‘Bird Sister’, the group rose to fame in 2016 when the former made it to the front-page headlines. In less than two years, the ‘Bird Sister’ anticipated that cracked games would be made available online. In 2017, the company was fined $245,000 by a Chinese court for all the damage they had caused.

Other companies like CPY, Centropy, CODEX also work on the above-mentioned principle. Like 3DM, most of them have been extensively penalised for causing heavy damages and infringement of digital security.

The domino effect: Fall of Denuvo

As the saying goes, “All good things come to an end”, the uncrackable anti-tamper technology was decrypted in August 2016 by a cracker named ‘Voksi’ on the famous game, Doom, two months after its release. The news spread like wildfire and sent the company into a state of denial. The group CPY, better known as ‘CONSPIR4CY’, announced that it had completely bypassed the Denuvo technology. Even though Denuvo had reconstructed its technology within three days of the outbreak, the company was still subjected to inevitable blows.

Popular video games like Doom, Rise of the Tomb Rider, Mad Max and Pro Evolution Soccer were easily cracked by CPY. The company faced another blow in the month of January 2017, when Resident Evil 7 fell victim to CPY within five days of its release. Thus, most of the ‘Triple-A’ rated games which were previously secured by Denuvo are now commercially available in the markets, in their pirated forms.

Several gaming companies questioned the functioning of Denuvo, while high-profile games like Doom and Inside removed the anti-piracy software from their titles altogether. Rumours pertaining to the company giving the video game developers a refund in case of a bypass also crept up during this period.

“The simple reason why Denuvo’s anti-tamper technology was removed from Doom was that it had accomplished its purpose by keeping the game safe from piracy during the initial sales window. The protection of Doom held up for nearly four months, which is an impressive accomplishment for such a high-profile game,” said Denuvo’s Robert Hernandez.

The potential after-effects

The fall of Denuvo seems to be a dual-edged sword. While some might enjoy free pirated games, others still feel that the absence of Denuvo won’t be beneficial for gaming in the long run. The fall of Denuvo can lead to drastic circumstances such as the introduction of licenses similar to those of Windows operating system. Once a user is registered to a particular machine, a unique key is attached. On changing the motherboard of the system, the user needs to get a new key altogether and the whole process needs to be repeated.

Another effect could be complete encryption of video games. This would have an adverse effect on the installation and download timings of the video games and could also potentially make it impossible for players to play the game on more than one computer.