Once thought uncrackable by PC hacker groups, the Denuvo DRM protecting the PC version of Resident Evil 7 was easily bypassed this weekend, allowing Capcom’s game to be freely pirated less than a week after launch.
The short time frame for the crack is significant, as Denuvo’s DRM was previously considered to be so difficult to decipher that some cracking groups refused to wrestle with its many intricacies. This weekend’s revelation will likely lead to the quick cracking and distribution of future Denuvo-protected games.
Released worldwide this week, Resident Evil 7 represents a dramatic transformation for Capcom’s long-running survival horror series. After two decades’ worth of action-oriented releases for the series, Resident Evil 7 shifts its gameplay to a first-person perspective, emphasizing its horror-themed narrative over all-out action.
The PC version of Resident Evil 7 was a particular point of pride for Capcom, as the publisher chose to employ Denuvo’s anti-tamper technology and digital rights management scheme in order to protect it from being pirated upon release. Previously featured in high-profile PC games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Watch Dogs 2, Denuvo’s DRM requires hackers to sift through a game’s code in order to remove multiple trigger points before a cracked version can be created.
The location of specific trigger points within Denuvo’s DRM also varies from game to game, making it impossible to remove the protection using automated tools. Up until recently, cracking it required hours of intense, repetitive work on the part of hackers, reducing the likelihood of cracks being released for protected games at launch.
This week’s fast hacking work on Resident Evil 7 makes it very likely that future Denuvo-protected games will be similarly cracked in the months ahead. Ubisoft’s Denuvo-protected For Honor will be a primary target for hackers upon its release next month, as the publisher previously announced that the game will require an always-online connection for paying customers, even in its single-player mode. Players who download a cracked version will not face any such restrictions.
Other Denuvo-protected games premiering in the months ahead include Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Currently, there’s no word as to whether Denuvo’s copy protection will be strengthened for future releases.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.