An interesting article has appeared this morning on TorrentFreak suggesting that publishers and developers are well on their way to stopping videogame piracy, which is said to cost the industry billions of pounds a year in lost revenue.
In order for users to download pirated games, the software has to be cracked first but the increased security on games is making it very difficult for the crackers, including those who frequent renowned Chinese cracking forum 3DM, who still haven’t managed to crack Just Cause 3 or FIFA 16 due to the Denuvo anti-tamper technology on the disc.
On the 3DM forums, the outlook appears to be bleak. TorrentFreak states that the 3DM forum founder (Bird Sister) thinks that within two years the technology will be so tough to crack that videogame piracy will become a thing of the past.
““I still believe that this game can be compromised. But according to current trends in the development of encryption technology, in two years time I’m afraid there will be no free games to play in the world,” she writes.
On Reddit, a dedicated thread to the status of cracking Just Cause 3 shows that pirates are also concerned that the success of the technology used to prevent piracy will see other publishers using Denuvo to protect their games.
The creator of the post on Reddit states his concerns, though also believes that pirates can still find a way past Denuvo.
“It’s been more than a month now and still no crack, well, we still alive and nothing bad happening to us! But what bothers is that all of Square Enix’s remarkable upcoming games (HITMAN, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Rise of the Tomb Raider) are going to use the same protection due to it’s success, i actually would like to play Just Cause 3 and cause some massive mayhem but I am more mad about the other games.. so if this game isn’t cracked soon, we are all doomed and not only this publisher’s games gonna use Denuvo, but all other publishers that aren’t using it.. we only can do one thing, HOPE! and brace yourselves comrades, victory WILL be achieved soon and the piracy will conquer.. #DEATH_to_DENUVO!”
The piracy community believe that where there’s a will there’s a way, but the advancements in encryption, and the fact that some major recent titles have not been cracked, suggest that the clock is ticking on videogame piracy.
Of course, publishers will have to continue to stay one step ahead of the pirates who don’t give up easily. Though it’s taken over two years for hackers to crack into the PlayStation 4 code, it’s finally been done this week with hacking group Fail0verflow claiming to have installed Linux on the system. The jailbreak could pave the way for other hackers to run exploits on Sony’s console.
For more on this story, visit TorrentFreak.