Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of video games players around the world obtain their fix from pirate sources. It’s been that way for more than 30 years, only the numbers have grown over time.
However, in the ‘old days’ people could do most of their copying at home, with a couple of cassette decks or software to shift data between 5.25″ floppy disks. But times have changed and although piracy still exists, people now largely rely on a tiny number of so-called ‘cracking’ experts to break copy protection for them.
One of those groups is Chinese outfit 3DM who in recent years have delighted pirate gamers with free copies of some of the world’s greatest titles. Technology companies have always done their best to thwart groups like 3DM and earlier this year came the most promising news to date.
Out of the blue, 3DM announced that the latest iteration of the infamous Denuvo anti-tamper technology had proven so resistant that in a couple of years PC games piracy might become non-existent.
Then, just a couple of weeks later, 3DM put the icing on the cake when they announced that in order to let the official games market breathe, they would be taking a year off from cracking games.
With games producers everywhere super excited at the prospect of a market free from the nuisance of 3DM, optimism of a boosted-revenue future was high. However, while it seems 3DM can deliver surprise gifts with one hand, apparently they can just as easily take them away with the other.
According to a new announcement by the group’s almost rock-star-famous leader, 3DM have decided they are not quite done. Apparently, growing speculation that the group aren’t up to the job of cracking Denuvo has provided them with new inspiration to prove the masses wrong.
“3DM will soon announce that we have a solution to the latest Denuvo encryption used on games including ‘FIFA 16’, ‘Just Cause 3’, and ‘Tomb Raider: The Rise’,” 3DM leader Bird Sister just announced.
“We [made this announcement] because a lot of players believe we have abandoned cracking due to technical problems, but we will prove it is not the case,” Bird Sister continues.
“We have not yet been stumped [by protection measures].”
Although this announcement flies in the face of some of 3DM’s earlier comments, the news will be received with disappointment by games developers and publishers, not to mention the team at Denuvo. 3DM had been leading the charge on Denuvo-protected titles so a break could’ve given valuable breathing space.
But that said, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and until pirates have tasted the joys of a fully cracked Just Cause 3, their appetites will remain in full force. In other words they’ll believe this game has been cracked when they actually play it at home – thus far there is no sign of a release.
Interestingly, should cracked copies eventually arrive at the hands of 3DM, the group won’t be taking the credit. A somewhat counter-productive comment by Bird Sister indicates that 3DM will not take the usual path on release since they don’t want to attract too much attention.
“Of course, this will not be a high-profile or official 3DM release,” she concludes.