Game Piracy Isn’t Dead, But It Is On Life Support

[skinner49]

Found this article interesting.

 

 

Almost as long as there have been video games, players have been hoping to enjoy those products without paying. For decades, this has resulted in an arms race between publishers and pirates that may finally be reaching an unexpected conclusion.

From arcane code dials and word-hunts in game manuals to serial numbers and oppressive DRM solutions, one thing has been consistent: Anti-piracy has been more onerous for the legitimate customer than those hoping to play illegally. But recently something major has changed that has upended the table, sending the playing pieces scattering across the ground.

Put simply: Cracking groups are at a loss. These loose partnerships are driven by reputation in a race to break copy protection that begins anew with every new game release. They have been stymied on multiple occasions recently, and it’s because of a relatively new player in the space.

It’s Taking Months, Not Hours To Crack Games

Denuvo first stepped on to the piracy battlefield in 2014 with its Anti-Tamper solution. The company’s first deal was with EA, and Denuvo provided the piracy protection for FIFA 15. Since then, the relationship has expanded and the technology company’s network now includes Warner Bros., Square Enix, Konami, and CI Games. 

Mashable reported last week that a member of 3DM, a notorious Chinese cracking group, has issued demoralized statements (translated by TorrentFreak). “Recently, many people have asked about cracks for ‘Just Cause 3′, so here is a centralized answer to this question,” writes 3DM founder “Bird Sister.” “The last stage is too difficult and Jun [cracking guy] nearly gave up, but last Wednesday I encouraged him to continue.”

It used to be that crackers could break into software and distribute pirated versions within hours of a game’s release (and in some cases prior to retail distribution). That window has suddenly expanded to months. 

It took five weeks for the first Dragon Age: Inquisition crack in 2014, and that only supported certain Intel processors and Windows 7. It took a full 10 months and an entirely different group to enable the game for all Windows operating systems and processor makes. Just Cause 3, which has been available for six weeks, is still entirely secure with no viable cracks for any users circulating.

Denuvo has also led cracking groups to release imperfect pirated versions. For instance, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s illegal copies crash to desktop after the prologue, requiring a copied game save to continue. A Mad Max crack circulated, but if users accessed the minimap, the game would boot them out.

An anti-piracy code-wheel that was packaged with games.

Understand Piracy To Build A Better Mouse Trap

One of the reasons that Denuvo says it has been so successful is that it is transparent to buying customers on platforms that already have DRM in place, like Origin and Steam. “In the past, if we look at different protection systems, they were usually really DRM, so some kind of license management, be it serial-based or user-based or even old-school disc-based,” says Denuvo director of sales and marketing Thomas Goebl. “The security was built around protecting the DRM. It was mainly focused on the license management and the DRM, and not so much on the security.”

According to Goebl, games that use Denuvo’s solution see no negative impact to frame rate and there are no additional drivers installed. In order to create a system that balanced ease of use for customers and protection for developers, the company spent time analyzing how crackers get through security.

“Usually we talk about really cracking and removing the DRM,” Goebl told me. “The second approach is to keep the game completely untouched and try to emulate the game platform, so that the game thinks you are entitled to that game. It actually launches without even touching the executable. We had both under consideration that neither removing the DRM or just emulating the game platform is feasible.”

Goebl says that all of the active pirated copies of Denuvo-protected software use the platform emulation approach. The company uses a variety of techniques to keep crackers on their toes and at bay for as long as possible.

“Most of the stuff we’ve created is proactive, by seeing how the reverse engineering and cracking have worked over the years,” he explains. “It starts with very simple steps and analyzing a game. Usually the executable is analyzed carefully. The very first point is to try and prevent that. Then the second point is that people are trying to attach a debugger as soon as the game starts so it’s in memory. As an anti-tamper solution, you try to prevent being debugged.”

Those steps are only the top level of what Goebl calls an “onion” approach to protection. The company has created a variety of protection methods to ensure that as crackers dig deeper, more things are there to confound them.

“A level down, you need to create black boxes where you can hide something from the reverse engineer or cracker, so it’s hard for him to analyze what’s happening,” he says. “Using virtual machine, code obfuscation, or other security techniques that can make it very hard to understand what’s actually going on and ultimately preventing patching of those areas to circumvent any kind of a system. We have fundamental tools around those security features, like checksumming to ensure that if someone tries to patch something later, it can detect that something has been patched.”

In the case of Dragon Age: Inquisition, DLC set crackers back weeks, forcing them to restart their efforts. Randomization features in the protection mean that Denuvo doesn’t even need to update the security most of the time. When they do though, Goebl says the process can occur quickly.

Piracy On The Ropes

While the scales have certainly tipped in favor of the publishers, it would be premature to suggest that this is the end of piracy as we know it. Crackers will continue to attempt to circumvent protection, and Denuvo is aware that it won’t be able to stop every effort. But Goebl also says that isn’t the company’s goal.

“Our goal is to secure the initial sales window,” he says. “People have been wondering, ‘Is this really the end of piracy?’ Actually, it’s important to secure the first weeks after release of the game. Potentially at some point, someone will come up with a bypass or crack for each game. At some point some piracy group will always come up with a crack.”

Protecting games during the crucial early days matters because that’s when publishers are making their big sales pushes. In 2015, Denuvo protected approximately 10 games, according to Goebl. He anticipates that number to grow with the success against piracy of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the ongoing consternation with Just Cause 3’s security. 

Unfortunately, no straight line can be drawn between game protection and revenue. Goebl believes that the evidence is there anecdotally to support the value of it, though.

“I’m sure the return on investment is made quickly when converting pirates to paid consumers,” he says. “If we look at some of the shady forums and torrent sites, people are posting there that they couldn’t wait for the crack and bought the game.”

Realistically, as long as there are people who don’t want to pay for software, piracy will continue. It might get harder, but that simply means that those working against companies like Denuvo will have to get craftier. For now though, publishers have the upper hand, and crackers are feeling more pressure than ever.

 

What are your thoughts?

[R25CCE]

Watched Funhaus discuss this very topic. Like they say in the video there will always be piracy as smaller indie developers wont be able to put the Denovo piracy blocking stuff in their games and they are the developers that' suffer the most anyway. A few illegal downloads doesn't really affect big publishers.

 

[Lance_87]

This whiny story is still spreading after all this time? It's already centuries old for Internet standards. It's just StarForce/SecuROM all over again.

 

ps: stay away from The Know.

[damon8r351]

Whole article sounds like an ad for Denuvo.

[ExHaseo]

Piracy is dying, just like how the PS4 is unhackable.

http://kotaku.com/hackers-get-pokemon-running-on-a-ps4-1750463668

 

It's just taking longer. That doesn't really mean anything.

Edited January 17, 2016 by ExHaseo

[Satoshi Ookami]

Would be nice if it happened.

PC mustard race would have to really start buying games

[Macross_Mark-1]

ooo i'm shaking in my boots 

 

i guess ill have no choice but to be ripped off every time i buy a new game at full price from now on. guess i wont be buying any new games and the market will still be where it would of been regardless of my actions.

 

because I only buy used games, I would rather spend a weekend at a resort with the wife with the money I save from going used.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Macross_Mark-1

[DaivRules]

I went from spending about $400-500 a year on pc games through the late 90's and early 00's to spending $0 since 2002. Intrusive, restrictive drm has cut me off as a consumer. I went from spending about $150 on PlayStation games every year since 1999 to spending... About $150 a year. After inflation, gaming is getting less money from me than ever, thanks to drm!

[SRS_77_Awesum]

I've always bought my games. I really don't like piracy especially when it comes to games. Over here in Zambia where I live, we don't really have a viable market for games (3rd world country) so I guess it's understandable. What used to pain me the most was those using jailbroken PS3s (and play online) could have the game even before release. It as annoying as I was a paying customer and I regarded it as against the rules so to say. But then again each to their own. Gaming is for everyone. Some simply can't afford it. And in my case I have to order from abroad to get my lovely Physical Copies.

[Daniel_Shadow170]

I don't think they get that it's still just as fast. Also just cause 3 is taking awhile because the top groups said F the game they wanted to focus on fallout.

[Lance_87]

I don't think they get that it's still just as fast. Also just cause 3 is taking awhile because the top groups said F the game they wanted to focus on fallout.

 

Duh, i'm fairly certain JC3 was released a whole month after Fallout 4. Anyway, certain games took a lot more time, with or without silly DRM. I still remember H.A.W.X. 2 that took more than two years for whatever reason. Some said "because it was a crappy game" yet certain overrated titles were pirated in no time... oh well, whatever, i don't have anything to play JC3 with anyway, not even a current-gen system. Would like to try it someday though because JC2 was nice.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Lance_87

[Happy]

That's cool and all, but making pirating harder isn't gonna help that much in the long run. Fight the problem at its core and switch to a more affordable business model that people are happy with paying for. Controlling the supply of free games isn't gonna change the demand for free games, it'll probably just increase it. Lower the demand for free games by increasing the demand for paid games.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Happy

[rgeGeo]

Hmmm I'd love to know the amount of people that condemn people for stealing games, but then go ahead and steal music and films/series.

[Arkthur]

Not really news, my PS2 was hacked but when I made the jump to PS3 I had to turn legit, too much trouble to get/use a hacked PS3, and since I was working, I could actually afford paying for games.

[Pavani_]

I only pirated stuff when i didn't had a  job, from the moment i got my first job, i sold my 360 and got a legit ps3, much better this way.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Pavani_

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

In the day, like every other kid I knew, I had a chipped PS2 and an R4 and there was a guy I'd go meet and he'd burn me any game for 5 bucks a pop onto a blank DVD.

 

Performance wise, I don't remember a single issue, and I had a bunch of games from him, probably in the 3 digit numbers at least. Shit like 24 The Game, I knew it would suck, but for 5 bucks I'd give it a go. Anywho, if memory serves, the PS2's laser got burned out which is apparently a risk with those mod chips and we ended up just buying a replacement PS2 on sale at K-Mart a while longer, that one, with no mod chip, still gets used frequently and runs great. 

 

I did stumble into (what I thought was just) an American copy of Spyro 3 for PS1 (but what turned out to be a burned version of an American version) at a market when I had a modchip though and it worked but it had one of those really long PSX Paradox crack group logo things at the start and sometimes Sparx or whatever that shitty little fairy fly thing that follows you was called, wait, no, not that asshole, Zoe, the tinkerbell knock off who zaps you when you save, every now and then she'd be like "You're playing a bad version of the game, you're bad" or something. To this day I still listen to that Paradox jingle sometimes, I don't know if it's so bad it's good or if it's genuinely not horrible. 

 

Anywho, after the PS2 chip died, which would have been, what, 2009ish? PS2 games were getting pretty cheap so I just started buying my games. At that point though I would have only been 12/13 so I still didn't have a lot of money to work with.

 

There's no real story with the R4, they were decently unreliable and I'd strongly recommend a TTDS if you were going to go that route, but it's the same as it was with the PS2 really, I gave up on a DS long ago but then bought a 3DS early last year and have just been stacking up all the cheap DS games. Think the most I paid for a DS game was like 12 bucks for Lego Star Wars, and I fucking really wanted that game.

 

Anyway, I also pirated Android games for a little bit when I got my first Android phone just because it was SO DAMN EASY MY GOD YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE, but then when you realize most of the games are a dollar or have adsupported versions or at most are like 5 bucks anyway, and that way you get all the updates and shit, you realize piracy on Android is just ridiculous. However, I do have 2 "pirated" apps on my phone at the moment. One is Hotline Miami 2, solely because you can't actually buy it in Australia on Android or PSN or anything, and when I hook that game up to my Moga controller it runs a treat, plug it into the TV and you're set #DylanPromotingBluetoothControllersAgain ... The other "pirated" app is a cracked version of Sony's Remote Play app that's designed to run on any Android phone, since I'm on a Nexus 5, and thus, not on a Sony phone, I can't otherwise get Remote Play on my phone. Also, if you want that Remote Play app but can't be bothered Googling, I still have the APK on an old flash drive somewhere around here.

 

I was about to say I've pirated a bunch of games for DOSBox, which I have in the past, but now times I mostly just play the shareware versions on the Chromebook, as usually 90s games' best levels are the first few, and I get bored after five minutes unless I'm intent on replaying the whole game. Like, I love Duke 3D, I'll redo the first episode at least once a fortnight, but beyond that and I'm bored.

[MMDE]

Anywho, if memory serves, the PS2's laser got burned out which is apparently a risk with those mod chips and we ended up just buying a replacement PS2 on sale at K-Mart a while longer, that one, with no mod chip, still gets used frequently and runs great. 

 

Poorly burnt DVDs, DVDs of poor quality and DVDs that the laser didn't like all that much was the big issue with burnt games on PS2. If you buy the correct DVDs, it would last just as long as normal PS2 discs. Even more importantly, if you got a fat PS2, with HDD, you could run games from that. You could also just burn games with a certain patch and a memory card that has special software on it, software you could transfer if you had a chipped PS2 or one of these memory cards already.

[ultimate_life_f]

This is pretty pointless, people who pirate those games on the majority dont care about buying it, for years when i was in school i had to pirate games since i couldnt afford them and only bought a few here and there and only cheap ones, now that im a working man i have all my games original and i dont even bother with that, while some of my friends would rather wait half an year then to pay for them or guess what? play other game

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

Poorly burnt DVDs, DVDs of poor quality and DVDs that the laser didn't like all that much was the big issue with burnt games on PS2. If you buy the correct DVDs, it would last just as long as normal PS2 discs. Even more importantly, if you got a fat PS2, with HDD, you could run games from that. You could also just burn games with a certain patch and a memory card that has special software on it, software you could transfer if you had a chipped PS2 or one of these memory cards already.

The idea of a 40gb hard drive shoved into my PS2 with a bunch of games stuck on it is a damn nice one.

 

It actually reminds me of my Wii U which I forgot about, I have a 64gb SD card in the Wii U loaded up with like 50 odd GameCube games, playable through the software Nintendont from the Homebrew Channel. Run sexy as hell too. 

[Paige-ID]

I definitely "pirate" games as a means of trying them first. Developers no longer want to give out demos/trials to showcase their games like they did back in the day, so I develop my own "demo" system. If I like the game, I buy it. If I don't, I uninstall it and never play it again. I personally don't find that immoral, but that could just be me justifying myself. I have never kept a pirated game without purchasing it the moment I found out I liked it.

[CandiBunni]

Would be nice if it happened.

PC mustard race would have to really start buying games

Already do. There's a little something called Steam, and it's quite popular.

[Satoshi Ookami]

Already do. There's a little something called Steam, and it's quite popular.

Of course, but you can't believe 100% of PC gamers buy all their games

[CandiBunni]

Of course, but you can't believe 100% of PC gamers buy all their games

Of course not, but neither do 100% of console gamers.

[Satoshi Ookami]

Of course not, but neither do 100% of console gamers.

As far as I know, Vita isn't jailbroken and PS4 is in early stages

[CandiBunni]

As far as I know, Vita isn't jailbroken and PS4 is in early stages

I'm considering more than just the PS4 and Vita, however. The PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and consoles prior all had a fair bit of piracy. Perhaps not as much as the PC, sure, but that's an entirely different topic. Regardless, it's nice to see more effort being taken to help lessen the negative impact of piracy. It would be nice if indies could get in on this, but for many I don't think it's even something they can consider. Devs should also be putting out more demos of their games as well so that people can get a feel for them on their own. As it stands, not only do you have people pirating that have zero intention of ever supporting the developer, but people who also do it solely just to demo a game to see if they like it, or if it even runs on their rig.

Edited January 18, 2016 by CandiBunni