I was gonna buy it until I saw it has Denuvo malware in it. So close, Capcom. So close.
Capcom is so odd. They put out old Dino Crises games on Steam recently with their Enigma DRM.
At the same time, it’s also being sold on GOG without DRM…??? What. Not that it hasn’t been easy to emulate for decades. Wtf are they doing?
You’re talking about a company run by executives that, when asked for permission to re-sell their old catalog, told GOG staff:
“Okay, but we have all of those remakes. It’s already the superior experience to those games.”
Developers wouldn’t share their profit with Denuvo if not for pirates.
Afaik Denuvo doesn’t stop pirates. It only negatively affects the game for people who paid good money for it.
If anything, it’s a reason to pirate.
It stops them for a certain time though. For a time long enough to be economically justifiable.
And, I repeat, piracy is the cause of Denuvo.
As far as I know piracy has never been correlated with a loss of profit from a company, in fact I believe studies have shown piracy boosts visibility and actually slightly positively affects sales.
My understanding is that those who would pirate the game are unlikely to buy the game regardless and those who would buy the game are likely to follow the path of least resistance, eg buying the game from the store.
Also denuvo is very hacked and many of the games released with it now have day 1 cracks.
My understanding is that those who would pirate the game are unlikely to buy the game regardless and those who would buy the game are likely to follow the path of least resistance, eg buying the game from the store.
Why do developers pay for Denuvo then?
I can’t think of any reason why Capitalist corporations would actively block people from owning or controlling the things they purchase. Does anyone else have an idea?
If that was the reason, then no developer would disable denuvo after some time, like some of them do now.
Ill conceived notions and fear tactics. How else do you implement a useless technology? You convince people it’s necessary.
It does not. Denuvo is often cracked within hours.
And, I repeat, piracy is the cause of Denuvo.
It’s also often the cause of piracy. If your two options are 1. Spend a bunch of money for a worse experience or 2. Spend 0 money for a better experience, there’s no practical reason to choose option 1.
Denuvo is often cracked within hours.
Very recently - maybe.
It’s also often the cause of piracy.
And what was first?
Very recently - maybe.
No for nearly 10 years now. There was a stint of a year or two where cracks took a little longer, but truth be told that was around when COVID happened and there were just fewer big ticket games for people to put effort into it. Several groups just got out of the game. These days the only thing protecting games from piracy isn’t Denuvo, it’s the lack of interest of scene groups in doing the cracking. Since it’s picked back up though we’re seeing games cracked within hours of release or in some cases prior to release. At most a few days to a week. The days of it taking three months are gone
And what was first?
For an increasing number of people, Denuvo. With the hardware crisis and all, people aren’t upgrading hardware as much as they used to. People have to do more with less. Games with Denuvo removed run better on the same hardware, so people who have had no financial interest in pirating have turned to it as a means of making their games run better.
We’ve seen this all before with streaming. When Netflix got big, tv/movie piracy nearly died out because it was so convenient to pay for streaming.
There was a stint of a year or two where cracks took a little longer
I guess I must have entered some utopian parallel universe when I clicked into this thread because I see all these people commenting things like this but I look over to the other sites like crackwatch and cs-rin and literally see that there were 3 legitimate denuvo cracks TOTAL between the between empress’s 2023 crashout and voices38’s public 2026 entry. (Dragon’s Dogma 2 was a debug build leak). Or maybe the excitement of the hypervisor bypass got people hallucinating some revisionist history.
These days the only thing protecting games from piracy isn’t Denuvo, it’s the lack of interest of scene groups in doing the cracking
So when RE4 got cracked once in 2023 by empress, no other patches get cracked for the next 3 years, then denuvo gets removed in 2026, and RUNE cracks the latest version on that very same day, it wasn’t because of denuvo, it was because RUNE suddenly gained interest? as a total coincidence or what?
These days the only thing protecting games from piracy isn’t Denuvo, it’s the lack of interest of scene groups in doing the cracking.
So Denuvo keeps working then?
Denuvo has a 0-day bypass. It isn’t stopping pirates from playing the game. If you can follow a 5 minute YouTube tutorial, you can bypass Denuvo.
Up until recently that wasn’t the case.
You can pirate this game, like pretty much any denuvo title, due to the new Hypervisor bypass.
You can now. Before that wasn’t the case for a long long time.
you keep saying that and you keep having to be told that this is untrue. at this point you really can’t claim ignorance
Apply simple reasoning: if Denuvo doesn’t work (and actively frowned upon by gamers), why have developers been paying for it?
same reason “PUBLISHERS” try to make a MVP battle royal 5 years after the genera hit its peak, or say that npc’s controlled by an llm is the future, or that single player games are dead.
publishers are stupid and greedy, and fall for denuvo sales tactics like people fall for time shares.
after following what the gaming industry has been up to for the last 2 decades you really can’t argue for publisher intelligence
Anyone that pays for a game infected with Denuvo malware is part of the problem.
I don’t mind buying something like that on a dedicated gaming machine, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch. I would not buy that for my computer
But wouldn’t a locked-down platform like Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo have much, much less need to devote system resources to kernel-level anti cheat?
If its a well made or artistically nice game sure I would pay. It sure sucks for preservation tho. Although choosing GOG when possible is already pretty helpful I think for the right direction
Piefed.social has 29 comments under this thread, 21 of those comments are about Denuvo with over half of them being a variation of the “Denuvo bad”. I get it, I don’t like Denuvo either, but do we really need a “This game has Denuvo so I’m not going to buy it” comment whenever a game with Denuvo is in the news. At this point it’s become another circlejerk. I thought we’re here because we love gaming but it feels like some people are just looking for an excuse to complain.
I can already see this not being well received (considering how popular hating on Denuvo is) so I’m going to save everyone some trouble. I don’t care about your need to defend your circlejerk in front of me. I know where I stand on Denuvo and to me that topic is a dead horse, I’m not going to beat it so I’m not going to respond. I might respond if the comment is about how it impacts the community here, but my stance on that is very simple. We’re intelligent people here, we know how to check whether a game has Denuvo or not, lettings others to the game has Denuvo is not some PSA and calling people the problem for buying a game with Denuvo hurts the community more than it helps.
do we really need a “This game has Denuvo so I’m not going to buy it” comment whenever a game with Denuvo is in the news
Yes. As with all social injustice and corruption, we are ethically obligated to draw attention to it every time. Allowing corporate theft against consumers to be quietly accepted because you are more annoyed by the backlash than rampant corporate theft makes you an accomplice.
Don’t be an accomplice.
I refuse to buy into the lie that EVERY minor inconvenience is an assault on social justice. That kind of absolutism is designed to waste social energy in a world where far more visible and important harms are frequent. Ending the feeding of gambling addictions, addressing memory hoarding, and encouraging fresh IPs are all to me far more important issues.
You need to accept there’s a large population of people in this community that have not, and will not, be convinced by the Denuvo arguments. I even tried to engage others on the subject to dissect their views and potentially further the discussion, and all it got was multiple paragraphs about what they were NOT going to say, and refused to talk about. The debate is over, and not by my choice. It is literally just annoying now.
There is one thing you are right about. If you think that corporations should be allowed the ability to deprive their customers of their purchases, then you are complicit and we have nothing else to discuss.
But we haven’t even started yet. Why aren’t you expanding your maximalist position to oppose capitalism? After all you’re the one who said you’re obligated to draw attention to all social injustice and corruption every time. Is capitalism not unjust? Is it not corrupt? You’d think someone who is so absolute in their ethics, to the point of accusing their otherwise allies of being an accomplice or complicit for not being 100% in opposition to the injustice, they’d have no problem taking a similar stand against capitalism. Surely someone like that, who believes they’re obligated to draw attention to the injustice every single time, would let their coworkers know with every single paycheck that some of their wage is being stolen. So why did you ignore my comment the first time around?
My guess is that you understand how weird it would be if you constantly told your coworkers they’re getting ripped off by the system. Not just weird, but I’m pretty sure your coworkers would find it pretty annoying even if they agreed on principle. But for whatever reason you think such behavior is not only acceptable online but anyone not doing that is essentially the enemy. Somehow that’s not weird? That’s not annoying everyone else? I personally don’t think so. Just like it would be weird and annoying IRL it’s weird and annoying online. And for clarification, calling Denuvo bad isn’t weird, constantly going around and calling it bad is weird. There’s a time and a place for that discussion but that time and place isn’t under every thread of a game that has Denuvo.
And before you duck again from this conversation I’ll remind you that you’re the on who started this. I preemptively said I don’t care about your defense of this little circejerk you’re doing and you still felt you’re important enough to let me know how I’m an accomplice to a supposed corporate theft. So for your own sake don’t be a bitch and stand your ground. Otherwise whatever credibility you have left goes straight out the window because you’re all bark and no bite. Come on, explain why you’d take such an absolutist stand against Denuvo but not do the same thing when it comes to opposing capitalism. Why aren’t you constantly annoying your coworkers about how their wage is being stolen?
Before typing up that wall of false equivalence, you should have checked my comment history, comrade.
And once again, complaining about people trying to stop others from falling for the thieving tricks of late stage capitalism makes you an accomplice. If you’re not a neofeudal capitalist bootlicker and really do think that capitalism is unjust, then don’t complain when others are trying to educate the masses about the ways they can opt out, fight back, and make a difference.
DRM is theft. It infects games, cars, farm equipment, dishwashers, refrigerators, televisions, and every aspect of our lives. We will own nothing and be bled dry for it. That’s not a prediction, we’re already there. Stop defending it. Stop trying to silence opposition. Either own your opposition or own your bootlicking. You can’t have it both ways.
I’m sorry but being “a comrade” is not an excuse to be weird and annoying so I reject your dismissal of my wall of text. I’m already doubting your reading comprehension, don’t prove it further by not addressing the very simple questions I’m asking.
As for the rest of your comment, if you read what I’ve written you’d know I’ve already addressed half of what you’ve written and I’m aware and don’t disagree with the other half that you’ve written. Maybe you think it makes you seem smart but to me it just reeks of not listening to anything the other person says.
I’m sure your coworkers really appreciate you telling them on every single payday that the capital owners are stealing their money. You wouldn’t want to be an accomplice to capitalism now would you.
I have to say that it has become almost impossible to discuss anything about Video Games on Lemmy. If you mention a Video Game made by Nintendo, and that you like it -> Stop supporting Nintendo, they are bad. If you mention a Denuvo Game, and that you like it -> Stop supporting them, they are bad. You have a Problem with a game -> switch to Linux and it will fix all your problems.
And you should buy a steam deck, because GabeN and getting people addicted on gambling is cool. We’re not being hypocritical here.
I for one like both Nintendo and Valve, and the few Nintendo game discussions I read had as much obligatory “Nintendo bad” complaints as every Valve thread has obligatory “Valve bad” comments. I’m finding those complainers more obnoxious even, because at least Nintendo criticism usually sticks to posts already criticising Nintendo.
Hell, I’ll admit, I don’t care much for Nintendo now but I’m also not going to invade topics about Tomodachi Life to insist every Nintendo fan boycott it because of what they did to Garry’s Mod.
This game is so fun. Like holy crap, I haven’t found a game this fun in a while. I never knew I needed puzzle mini games while shooting things, but I guess here we are!
The fanfare is interesting to me, because I played the demo and found the exact opposite from my experience! The mini games in the middle of it all was too many subsystems for me to find enjoyable. But that’s clearly the minority opinion based on the sales and reviews.
Ironic that you say that.
I play Bioshock every 3-5 years and finished my latest playthrough today. It has a puzzle mini-game you play often in order to hack into things and lots and lots of shooting.
If you haven’t played Bioshock, you can pick it up for almost nothing now. Savor the first 30 minutes. I wish I could play it again for the very first time.
It says a lot that Bioshock’s hacking minigame was derided though. I can’t fully explain why, but the implementation in Pragmata feels much more engaging. It manages to build it less as an obstacle out-of-combat, and more of a reward in-combat, while also not needing that much thought process to apply it decently.
Also: Denuvo-DRM prevents paying Linux and Steam Deck players from playing
That’s not even tru tho. Played all weekend on Linux
It’s definitely true if you troubleshoot your system and change proton versions more than 5 times. Then you are locked out of the game you purchased and “own” for at least 24 hours.
Why the hell are you changing proton 5x lol?
It literally works out of the box.
Ok so there’s this thing called “other games”, which sometimes require a different version to function. The game prevents you from making these changes to you own PC if you want to play it.
Force compatability per game under preferences. Can pin a version for pragmata and still change things system wide for other games if you are tinkering
Also stop being a smart ass.
Ok, tell that to these people who were not able to play their game https://respawnfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Pragmata-Linux-1920x1920.webp
Nah you tell em
For fellow lazies who don’t like when a third slice of fellow lazies don’t embed the image in the comment:
I hate Denuvo as much as the next guy but it’s literally Steam Deck Verified
Who upvotes this bullshit without even a lazy cursory check to learn it’s completely false?
It’s definitely true if you troubleshoot your system and change proton versions more than 5 times. Then you are locked out of the game you purchased and “own” for at least 24 hours.
Thanks, saved me from reading any further
Except it’s a straight up lie, it works on Linux and runs fine on steam decks
Except that it definitely has denuvo. Which prevents me from being interested at all
It does, and that sucks ass, agreed. But the person saying it doesn’t work on Linux is straight up lying hahaha
I said it prevents people from playing, not that it doesn’t work. See some steam reviews
It’s definitely true if you troubleshoot your system and change proton versions more than 5 times. Then you are locked out of the game you purchased and “own” for at least 24 hours.
Literally just played it on Linux. lol They did something to make it work without Denuvo. Haven’t really investigated how/why but I’m glad they did.
People with ethics might be prevented from playing, but that’s due to the game’s publisher, not the OS.
For some reason, I thought this already came out years ago to little fanfare; I seem to recall a demo or trailer for it from way back …
Ah, development hell and indefinite delays from Capcom. Looks like it’s being recieved well, too.
Ye same, it was a very special and captivating reveal trailer too. That said, these days things are revealed before development even starts soooo
Ye, it can take 6 years between reveal and release
I played the demo to see what it is about, although shooter games are not my thing, and I liked it. But damn Denuvo.
I will wait for them to remove it, game is already cracked though.
Cool.
Thats almost as many as Windrose sold.
Windrose sold 500,000 copies in 48 hours. They sold 1 million copies in 6 days.
