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[Alexander DeLarge]

1.) Last week, Final Fantasy XV was reported to not have Denuvo last week because the EULA didn't mention it
2.) They update the store page today to confirm it's using Denuvo
3.) 3DM replaces the DRM-free .exe from the demo using the unencrypted Origin pre-load
4.) Uploaded to torrent sites 4 days before the game even comes out

The packaged files for the official version of the full file using the unencrypted patch is based on the demo version of the existing players can test successfully hit the second chapter Chapter 3 whether the entire customs clearance yet to continue testing

The official version has confirmed D encryption, non-genuine players can use this version to play the official version of the content. Pre-order DLC temporarily unable to enable. After the official version based on the unencrypted version of the release, we will also extract the first time based on the official version of the unencrypted patch.

Source: (no link to warez, just discussion)

Don't have much sympathy for a company that puts a game's longevity at risk for legitimate customers. Good, get fucked Square Enix/Denuvo. It sucks because now illegitimate users are getting treated better than paying customers and like every other Denuvo game that has been bypassed, the game's longevity is threatened by mandatory online authentication that serves no purpose.

 

[Horsemama1956]

So what's worse. This or playing the game at lower fps and resolution .

 

[lifa-cobex]

Denuvo has become somewhat of a complete joke.
It cost the devs, hurts the game and is getting cracked with each game faster and faster.

Perhaps more devs should take the CD-project Red approach to piracy.

 

[Avaris]

This is a shame, because they've really made an effort making a true PC version. I can get XV cheaper on console but was (and still am) holding out for the PC release.

I don't particularly like Denuvo and a cracker's gon' crack regardless, I'd just like to see PC be offered more rather than less, without piracy being a reason (or scapegoat).

 

[Trogdor1123]

So what's worse. This or playing the game at lower fps and resolution .

I don't follow

 

[Blam]

Not exactly sure why they'd release a working demo version that loads whatever is thrown at it. that was beyond stupid on their part.

 

[DonJimbo]

They have to change their drm asap
Denovo is a joke at this point

 

[Gamegeneral]

W O W.
As much as I'd love to save fifty or so bucks, I'm still gonna actually buy this.

 

[jshackles]

Not exactly sure why they'd release a working demo version that loads whatever is thrown at it. that was beyond stupid on their part.

That's what I was thinking. This is ineptitude, plain and simple.

 

[GTR R35_Supra RZ]

It's a sin to even lol at this...let that sink in..Prior to release, aa....mazin.

 

[Battlechili]

Square Enix has been doing so many screwups lately.
I'm glad it got cracked though. Hopefully they'll actually remove Denuvo from it now, seeing as its not even protecting the game day one. Literally only paying customers are affected now.

Pirates get to play it while this sits in my library

 

[Blam]

That's what I was thinking. This is ineptitude, plain and simple.

I mean like great job for having a modular and swappable engine, but you probably should have hardcoded some shit in it so it didn't work. Modding potential is probably insane now that people know you can easily run whatever shit you want at it.

 

[E.T. Waifu]

Jesus.

 

[TheDuskwalker]

Denuvo has become somewhat of a complete joke.
It cost the devs, hurts the game and is getting cracked with each game faster and faster.

Perhaps more devs should take the CD-project Red approach to piracy.

I honestly love how even companies like Ubisoft have admitted years ago DRM does jack shit, yet they keep on.
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/ubisoft-admits-that-drm-doesnt-stop-piracy/
Although it's a perfect example of the game industry. Doing the same shit that doesn't work expecting different results....

Wait, that sounds familiar.....

 

[lifa-cobex]

Square Enix has been doing so many screwups lately.
I'm glad it got cracked though. Hopefully they'll actually remove Denuvo from it now, seeing as its not even protecting the game day one. Literally only paying customers are affected now.

Pirates get to play it while this sits in my library

They won't.
They never do.

I honestly love how even companies like Ubisoft have admitted years ago DRM does jack shit, yet they keep on.
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/ubisoft-admits-that-drm-doesnt-stop-piracy/
Although it's a perfect example of the game industry. Doing the same shit that doesn't work expecting different results....

I wonder if older company's will realise that it probably encourages people to pirate it instead of prevent.

 

[synce]

And they still won't patch out this trash. I'll never buy Denuvo and it pains me because some of the games are actually worth buying otherwise and I'm sure the devs have no say in the matter.

 

[FtsH]

I feel bad for Square Enix....very few companies are willing to offer a quality demo nowadays. And for the one who offered, it didn't end up well....

 

[WaterAstro]

I wonder which Denuvo version? Denuvo 5 hasn't been cracked yet, and they have yet to crack anything past the version AssCreed was on.

Edit: Oh, so they just bypass Denuvo with the demo? lol

 

[luca_29_bg]

They used the exe from the demo ahahaha smart move!

 

[Social]

I feel bad for Square Enix....very few companies are willing to offer a quality demo nowadays. And for the one who offered, it didn't end up well....

But is it fair to offer a demo without Denuvo which gives you your performance indication to then releasing a full version with Denuvo with less performance?

 

[Dacon]

I cant imagine that a whole lot of people are pirating this game at that ridiculous filesize.

 

[A.Romero]

But is it fair to offer a demo without Denuvo which gives you your performance indication to then releasing a full version with Denuvo with less performance?

That's a very fair point.

On the other side I think it wouldn't make sense to pay for Denuvo licensing for a demo.

The worst part of all of these is that we lose as gamers as demos are almost a thing of the past. With stuff like this and what happened with Yakuza 6 maybe they won't even bother next time.

 

[Alexander DeLarge]

I feel bad for Square Enix....very few companies are willing to offer a quality demo nowadays. And for the one who offered, it didn't end up well....

As much as it sucks for them, this is a win for the consumer. Either they remove the DRM prior to release (hopefully what happens, they'll see a spike in sales and people will probably stop refunding their purchases out of spite) or we'll have something to rely on when those servers do crash and legitimate customers are expected to crack the games they own as usual.

They did everything right.... Until they did something incredibly shitty and that something was what mattered most. Something that inherently threatens the shelf life of their products knowing fully well that it doesn't increase sales and I think that's really scummy of them considering how much they've benefited from the "backwards compatibility" of the PC platform during the early days of Steam. They were one of the first publishers to put out a huge catalog of older games and we bought them even though we could pirate every single one of those games. The convenience outweighed the money in our pockets.

We have reliable sales data. We have CEOs of massive companies admitting it doesn't work and that it's only to stop shareholders from screaming about "not protecting their investments" during those quarterly earning calls. We have studies showing that piracy helps sales and we have world governments (including the US where our consumer rights laws are laughable) ruling that it is legal to circumvent DRM and authentication servers when it inevitably fails.

Seriously, look at the SteamSpy data. Denuvo games rarely outsell their Steamworks counterparts. Square Enix should be aware of this far more than any other publisher. https://steamspy.com/dev/Square+Enix

 

[Graven]

Insisting with Denuvo is silly, in my understanding, the majority of people who pirate games, won't buy a game if the pirate version is unavailable, they will either wait till it's finally cracked or go for something else. Just concentrate in delivering a good product and making people see it's worth it.

 

[Vallen]

Is it too late for SE to opt out from using it prior to launch?

 

[WaterAstro]

Is it too late for SE to opt out from using it prior to launch?

Well, it was used to stop pirates, so opting is pretty much being already hacked lol.

 

[Spukc]

Insisting with Denuvo is silly, in my understanding, the majority of people who pirate games, won't buy a game if the pirate version is unavailable, they will either wait till it's finally cracked or go for something else. Just concentrate in delivering a good product and making people see it's worth it.

Huh?

 

[lifa-cobex]

Huh?

What I think Graven is saying is, pirates don't want to purchase the game in the first place. They pirate it as to try it but aren't that financially interested in the first place (or can't afford it).
So this is leading around the debate where developers say they use anti piracy software because they don't want to loose sales.
The twist on that is they won't be loosing money in the first place as the people who are pirating were not going to purchase in the first place.

Denuvo is actually worse than your standard anti piracy setup. It punishes legit buyers by slowing down the game.
So if anything, Denuvo actually encourages buyers to pirate as they would get a better version of the game.

What devs should be doing (imo) is actually reward buyers instead of penalising buyers.
Hence my post about CD project red. A company that actually gets how the market works.

 

[Graven]

What I think Graven is saying is, pirates don't want to purchase the game in the first place. They pirate it as to try it but aren't that financially interested in the first place (or can't afford it).
So this is leading around the debate where developers say they use anti piracy software because they don't want to loose sales.
The twist on that is they won't be loosing money in the first place as the people who are pirating were not going to purchase in the first place.

Denuvo is actually worse than your standard anti piracy setup. It punishes legit buyers by slowing down the game.
So if anything, Denuvo actually encourages buyers to pirate as they would get a better version of the game.

What devs should be doing (imo) is actually reward buyers instead of penalising buyers.
Hence my post about CD project red. A company that actually gets how the market works.

Thank, you, that's precisely what i meant.

It's "funny" that those who are actually paying for the game, are getting a potential inferior version, given the performance loss. It's not by chance that usually the publishers hide the fact that a game has denuvo on it.

 

[Armorian]

This will be interesting as we can get performance difference of demo area with the same thing in the full game. First Denuvo on and off comparison

 

[GrimDarkDarrel]

I was really looking forward to this, but DRM that relies on third party servers is a hard pass for me. DRM that doesn't rely on third party servers is a soft pass, I'll make exceptions for only the most legendary titles that I just can't miss and FF15 isn't quite there.

 

[ScrapBrain]

All this complaining and it's still be in the Top Sellers list on Steam right now. According to SteamSpy, 77,354 users have already purchased the game as of this writing. At $50 a pop, that 's around 3.8 million bucks earned (about 3.1m when accounting for the 20% that Valve takes off the top), and it'll keep climbing from here. I think we're all preaching to the choir here regarding the DRM - it sucks, impacts performance negatively, and honestly should be removed since the demo .exe workaround pretty much nullifies the purpose of the DRM. The trick is communicating that to the 77,000+ schmucks that put money into it blindly, that's how you change things. Then again, who knows...maybe people that purchased it are the ones that really liked it on PS4 and are going to buy it regardless. I'll be interested to see when the game actually releases to see what the numbers are on refunds

 

[DynamiteCop!]

So what's worse. This or playing the game at lower fps and resolution .

I've yet to see any proof that Denuvo does anything to game performance and I mean anything. I've seen people say this for years as an excuse for poor optimization but no actual intrinsic link to it causing performance issues.

DOOM had Denuvo and it performed insanely well, after it was removed due to being cracked it performed identically.

 

[Zizbuka]

All this complaining and it's still be in the Top Sellers list on Steam right now. According to SteamSpy, 77,354 users have already purchased the game as of this writing. At $50 a pop, that 's around 3.8 million bucks earned (about 3.1m when accounting for the 20% that Valve takes off the top), and it'll keep climbing from here. I think we're all preaching to the choir here regarding the DRM - it sucks, impacts performance negatively, and honestly should be removed since the demo .exe workaround pretty much nullifies the purpose of the DRM. The trick is communicating that to the 77,000+ schmucks that put money into it blindly, that's how you change things. Then again, who knows...maybe people that purchased it are the ones that really liked it on PS4 and are going to buy it regardless. I'll be interested to see when the game actually releases to see what the numbers are on refunds

Doesn't Valve take 30%? And don't forget other licensing fees, including Denuvo. I don't follow the pirate scene, are Steamworks games easy to crack or something? Seems requiring the Steam client is a good way to use DRM without going overboard.

 

[Alexander DeLarge]

I've yet to see any proof that Denuvo does anything to game performance and I mean anything. I've seen people say this for years as an excuse for poor optimization but no actual intrinsic link to it causing performance issues.

DOOM had Denuvo and it performed insanely well, after it was removed due to being cracked it performed identically.

Problem with these sorts of comparisons is that there's only one example of a patch being released where it was the same build but without Denuvo (RiME). Any performance benefit to games like Doom/Hitman/Homefront/Life is Strange would be attributed to other things in the patch.

 

[Koala Driving a Ferrari]

Hopefully Square do the right thing and remove Denuvo completely from the Steam version now.

Pirates get to play it while this sits in my library

Oof, that sucks. I feel your pain mate. On a brighter note, atleast you don't have long to wait now