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According to TorrentFreak, the long-awaiting stealth game Hitman 2 — which comes 'protected' by the latest variant of Denuvo (v5.3) — leaked online. Aside from having its protection circumvented, this happened three days before the title's official launch on November 13.
It appears that a relatively new cracking group called FCKDRM obtained a version of Hitman 2 that was only available to those who pre-ordered the game. While several groups have been chipping away at Denuvo for some time, FCKDRM is a new entrant (at least by branding) to the cracking scene. (Note: The group is not related to the FCKDRM initiative, an anti-DRM site launched by GOG.com, even though it does use the logo.)
It should be noted that the owners of Denuvo released marketing material a few months ago suggesting that even 4 days of protection (actually even hours according to them) is worth the price of their DRM. (However, no mention of -3 days.)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ledow on Tuesday November 20 2018, @01:13PM (7 children)
Simple solution:
Stop buying games until the DRM is removed from them.
This kills all the first-day sales.
Means they expend all their money on something that actually costs them customers.
And they'll have a clear up-surge in purchases on the date the DRM is removed.
Until that happens, pretty much the average gamer is sending the message "I'm fine with all this DRM, so long as I get my game first".
It's a stupid thing to do, but there it is... that's what the consumers are telling these people.
Until consumers STOP telling them that, with their purchasing habits, it will continue no matter how pointless it all is.
P.S. Same applies to anything "Rare / Limited Edition", "Pre-release", designer-branded, etc.
For all the time I've been alive people have been paying for stupid things - like early access to games that aren't even finished yet. I can't really blame the companies involved for perpetuating it, or capitalising on it, even in the face of evidence that the technical measures are pointless.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday November 20 2018, @04:24PM (1 child)
While I agree with you in principle, it simply will not work.
The vast majority of purchasers are completely ignorant of what DRM is and even those who are aware of it's existance most won't consider it a downside unless they get stung. Even those that get stung will go on to buy the next DRM'ed game/movie/coffee maker. It's not like they advertise their DRM, it's just there, and not a consideration for the vast majority of consumers.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:34PM
While I agree with you on certain points, the simple fact is there is a growing market for DRM free games. Case in point: https://www.gog.com/ [gog.com] DRM is anti-consumer, it's literally treating all of your customers like they are criminals or potential criminals. While, I do use Steam and have quite a collection there and have other DRM protected games. I also, have a nice collection of games through GOG, which I treat as my game archive / vault. I like a game enough, I'm definitely going to be getting it on GOG. You can download your entire collection and back it up on physical media. So, in the event the site goes bust, you're still golden. Also, you're not treated like a parasite, if you don't want to be online while playing your games or for whatever reason can't be online. One system treats you like a normal human being and the other treats you like a criminal. Guess which one I like the best. Oh, and I'm not buying Fallout 76. I'm tired of every publisher wanting their own platform, so they screw the middle man. Guess what, the middle man is Useful, because we don't want to keep track of 50 different publishers and their requisite logins.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Tuesday November 20 2018, @07:24PM
Here's where I plug the wonderful site GoG which used to stand for Good old Games, but they settled on just the acronym for their name GOG. Since, they also host new games. https://www.gog.com/ [gog.com] They are 99.999% DRM free, with the occasional exception of needing to register with a 3rd party for multiplayer, if that counts as DRM. They've got some great classic and/or new games/series like Roller Coaster Tycoon, Ultima, Witcher, Fallout, X-COM, Civilization, Terraria, and Mount and Blade. There's just tons of good stuff there. All generally DRM free. They even resurrected multiplayer support on some titles. One in particular I remember had relied on gamespy and thus no longer worked since gamespy folded.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday November 20 2018, @08:32PM (3 children)
Don't worry about it, DRM is a losing battle. Microtransactions and always-online is the future.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:54PM (2 children)
Always-online for single-player reeks of DRM. Microtransactions are purely out and out a cash grab. It's not a sustainable business model. Eventually, people will wise up, or perhaps my faith in people is largely misplaced. Then again, perhaps it will be like gambling, people know they're 99.999% of the time going to lose, but do it anyway. I can only hope that microtransactions will end up regulated by the government like gambling and unceremoniously killed as the target user base is kids. Sure, you can say there's lots of adults that play video games, but I'll also point to the large number of kids that spout crap in FPS games. Kids are going to be more easily drawn to "F2P" (free-to-play) games than an adult with disposable income. I've been quite happy that indie developers have taken up the slack from big game studios. At this point it seems the big game studios are focusing on pump and dump. In addition to marketing towards the average 12 year old for titles such as Fortnite, PUBG, and Overwatch. I sincerely hope that they crash and burn in their nose dive towards the bottom. Whereas studios that produce gems like Terraria and Mount and Blade, I sincerely hope for the best.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday November 21 2018, @07:21PM (1 child)
> Always-online for single-player reeks of DRM
I consider DRM to be malware that runs on your hardware. Always-online is different; the important bits are on the server. You're not buying the game, you're buying a game client to access the game server. DRM is fundamentally bypassable since you have physical access to the hardware, but you can't exploit a remote game server this way. Worst case, you gain access for a few weeks before getting banned. That's why always-online is the future; eventually AAA companies will fully realize this and start using always-online instead of DRM to fight piracy.
> Microtransactions are purely out and out a cash grab.
No shit, the entire point is to make money.
> It's not a sustainable business model.
It's very sustainable, the mobile game with microtransaction model sector is booming.
> perhaps it will be like gambling
Microtransactions don't have to use the gambling/gacha model. Often it's for cosmetic elements like skins, bought directly. You get what you pay for, as advertised.
> as the target user base is kids
No it's not. I realize there are shady games with this business model (where that business model is relying on kids not realizing that that colorful button is spending real money), but most legitimate games target adults with a lot of spare income.
Most of the profit comes from whales. These are the small proportion of the playerbase that spend hundreds, thousands and up dollars every week/month on the game and make up most of the profit. These are definitely not kids.
Try searching for mobage and whale for some articles.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday November 26 2018, @04:46PM
Generally, always online single-player games just check-in with a server to make sure you're online and that's it. No other reason for the online requirement, thus why I included it as DRM ala Assassins Creed. Yes, the target user base for a lot of games is kids. Including Free to Play games and including microtransactions is a good way to exploit them. It's a scummy business practice in my book. Yes, there are "whales" that spend stupid amounts of money, but there's plenty of counter examples of kids spending their parents money on these things. Microtransactions are anathema to Gaming. They suck the soul out of games and turn the focus from "Fun Gameplay" to "Show Me the Money." In which case, generally a game is doomed from the start. What you'll be left with is paying $$$ of money per month for stupid things that have no meaning and will go poof the moment they stop making money on the "Free to Play" game. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have labors of love like Terraria which has had 0 DLC, with 0 Microtransactions, but to this day is still being updated. The original game was tons of fun. Subsequent updates have introduced so much extra Free content that it's almost a crime that I only paid $10 for 4 copies of the game when it was on a Steam sale. Games like Terraria get the heart and soul of gaming. Games like Overwatch, where you bought the game, then get to pay tons of money, if you want specific cosmetics, are the corruption feeding off the blood life of gamers. I do realize that Overwatch isn't anywhere near as bad as some, but the whole idea of it is horrible. The fact that Blizzard a stupendously rich gaming studio is doing that to their Marks (Not customers), is a travesty, and they are already paying for it. Just look at their recent announcement about the new mobile Diablo game. Blizzard has enjoyed a cult following of fans, they are just barely getting a taste of what it will be like, if they pander after the masses instead of focusing on their loyal fan base. Quality games are hard to come by, but loyal fans are like gold.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"