"It's correct that the title in question was cracked some days after release," Denuvo Marketing Director Thomas Goebl told Eurogamer.
That said, "Given the fact that every unprotected title is cracked on
the day of release—as well as every update of games—our solution made a
difference for this title."
It's definitely true that even a few days of effective post-release copy protection is worth something
to publishers, who see cracked versions of games as a direct threat to
their sales (especially during the crucial first few days after
release). The question is whether that short period of protection is
worth the reportedly high price Denuvo charges publishing partners for
its technology.
Goebl did deny earlier reports
that publishers were being issued refunds after their Denuvo-protected
games had been cracked. "We do not have any deals in place that offer
refunds if a game is cracked within a specific time frame," the company
told Eurogamer. Goebl didn't directly address why games like Inside and Doom
removed their Denuvo protection in December after being cracked earlier
in the year (Denuvo has yet to respond to a request for comment from
Ars Technica).
"Please note that we always position our
Anti-Tamper solution as hard to crack, not as uncrackable," Goebl added
to Eurogamer. "So far only one piracy group has been able to bypass it."
(One could argue that this is one too many for protection to be
considered worthwhile, but we digress...)
"As always, we continue working to improve our
solution to create security updates for upcoming Anti-Tamper versions,"
Goebl promised. "We will do the same with the learning from this
bypass."
Update (2/6, 10:30a ET): In
a statement provided to Ars Technica, Denuvo VP of Sales Robert
Hernandez addressed many of the issues discussed in the story above:
The simple reason why Denuvo Anti Tamper was removed from Doom
was because it had accomplished its purpose by keeping the game safe
from piracy during the initial sales window. The protection on Doom held up for nearly four months, which is an impressive accomplishment for such a high-profile game.
We don't position Denuvo Anti
Tamper as being uncrackable -- no anti piracy solution is. However, our
goal is to keep each title safe from piracy during the crucial initial
sales window when most of the sales are made.
We can't comment on our deals with
specific customers, but we do not have any deals in place that offer
refunds if a game is cracked within a specific time frame. However, each
publisher is of course free to remove our anti tamper tech from their
title once they feel the protection has achieved its purpose in
protecting the initial sales window, or if they have other reasons for
doing so, such as selling the title on DRM-free platforms.
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