Maybe you’ve heard the name, and it may be in your game. But what is Denuvo? Denuvo may be a new one for gamers or those who use a variety of software, but it’s a name that’s to be trusted when it comes to safety. Denuvo is a product provided by digital cybersecurity company Irdeto, to help prevent piracy and promote safety in-game.
What is Denuvo?
Denuvo is cross-platform anti-piracy and games protection solution. It works to protect titles against hackers and piracy without impacting title performance and gamer experiences. That means it can be found in titles for PC, console, and mobile. And Irdeto has partnered with the likes of Oculus, Steam, Epic Games, Origin, Google Play and many more. In fact, Denuvo may be being used in Dead Island 2
What does it do?
Denuvo works in seven different ways to help protect platforms and games from bad influences: be those hackers, those who would attempt to pirate a game, or those who want to otherwise breach restrictions placed on titles by the game developers. There are seven elements to its protection:
- Mobile protection
- Anti-tamper
- Anti-cheat
- Cyber Services
- License Management
- Denuvo SecureDLC
- Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection
Ultimately, Denuvo is in place in games to help protect the players and game owners from those who look to exploit. Be that for their own in-game benefit, or to crack and illegally distribute titles.
Why is Denuvo hard to crack?
Denuvo is hard to crack because of the way it constantly communicates on both the server and client side to ensure the authenticity of .exe files in a way that likely isn’t made public…for obvious reasons. By its very nature, it should be hard to crack, given it is designed to protect games from exactly that.
Is Denuvo bad for SSDs?
There is no clear evidence we have seen that this is the case. There have been criticisms leveled at it due to ‘excessive’ access to SSDs and HDD as it consistently looks to authenticate games and client connections to servers. However, we do not have any data to suggest Denuvo is especially bad for the lifespan of SSDs or other storage components. Denuvo itself has denied any such claims that it does have an adverse effect.
Final thoughts
Denuvo’s reason for existing is to protect game developers’ work and game players from those who would exploit or illegally distribute titles. The solution is used widely across gaming platforms, and is reportedly hard to get around – so it appears it does its job well. This explains why it is partnered with top recognizable gaming companies and platforms.
