A recent data leak offers a peak behind the curtain of German video game developer Crytek’s relationship with Denuvo, the infamous anti-tamper technology. For years, players have noticed that Denuvo-protected games often remove the software from their game files one year after the initial release. This recent development offers some insight as to why, and some of the goings-on behind closed doors regarding the poorly-reviewed Crysis Remastered.
Denuvo is a digital rights management (DRM) software designed for game developers. It isn’t a separate program like typical malware protection, but is instead integrated into the code of the game itself. According to Denuvo, it “stops the reverse engineering and debugging” that result in game “cracks,” hacked versions of the game distributed for free across different back channels. Denuvo is infamous among both those who crack games and those who pay for them the traditional way, the former for being difficult to crack and the latter for allegedly reducing performance on legitimate copies.
The data around Crytek’s relationship with Denuvo was leaked by ransomware gang “Egregor,” obtained from the internal networks of the company back in October. The documents detailed a number of upcoming releases, including a Crysis battle royale, VR, and remastered versions of Crysis 2 and 3. On top of that, the leak alleges that Crytek paid €140000 (around 166,000 USD) in a contract with Denuvo for one year of protection on Crysis Remastered, released back in September.
The contract states that after the first year Crytek will be required to pay €2000 per month for Crysis Remastered, and also includes clauses for fees based on additional storefronts, among other things. Perhaps more interesting, the documents also contain information on the “piracy” support offered by Denuvo; it includes services such as manual piracy monitoring (where it scans for cracked releases of the game) and performance analysis of the game when integrated with the anti-tamper software.
This offers some understanding as to why developers often drop their Denuvo integration a year after release. Common speculation was that Denuvo games, even the most well protected, were often cracked by the 365 day mark — why continue paying for a defense that’s already been broken? The leaked data shows that companies anticipate that its DRM won’t be able to fend off game cracks forever, no matter how well crafted, and so opt for a contract that reflects that fact. The situation around Crisis Remastered is likely indicative of the choices many companies make when choosing to launch their game with Denuvo or not.
Crysis Remastered is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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