Denuvo by Irdeto has unveiled at GDC (Game Developers Conference) this past March 18th their brand new anti-piracy technology named "TraceMark", specifically tailored to make "leakers think twice".

This new technology is aimed towards the never-ending problem in the gaming industry of pre-release videogame leaks, be it press releases, distributed review copies or broken street dates. The watermark technology which Denuvo unveiled is apparently already trusted by Hollywood, paid-TV and sports leagues. Quoting Denuvo's own blogpost about the technology:

It introduces a deterrent effect by enabling the precise tracing of leaked content back to its source. This capability makes potential leakers think twice, knowing that any unauthorized distribution can be directly linked to them.

This brand new technology will be platform-agnostic, meaning it can be implemented in different systems as long as the game has the technology integrated into it, and so far it seems to be compatible with Xbox, iOS, Windows and Nintendo Switch . It aims to "incorporate both invisible and visible watermarking techniques".

Currently there's no set date on when this new technology will begin to be rolled out, but it's most likely that game developers will start getting access to this implementation soon.

Source

 

[urbanman2004]

Ah shit, here we go again (in my CJ voice)... Greedy POS opportunists who offer nothing more than to ruin legitimate consumers' gameplay experience in the name of DRM... Fuck Denuvo!

 

[DuoForce]

The workaround: Upload the leaked game at a public library in a state you don't even live in

 

[subcon959]

What's so special about a frigging watermark that you would need to pay someone else for it?

Every closed beta test I've done already has this, and people still leak gameplay videos online.

They can't possibly think this will stop full game leaks either as those are done once the final product ships (assuming Denuvo is still trying to diddle Nintendo).

 

[Viri]

Spoiler

 

[Snintendog]

Now if they use this when sending out review copies and such then I say it's a good thing. However I do not want to see this in my final builds of games.

Kotaku Sweating as they uploaded a copy of TotK and tend to be a hater of vidya.

 

[yoyoyo69]

Now if they use this when sending out review copies and such then I say it's a good thing. However I do not want to see this in my final builds of games.

This is 100% what is going to happen. Has this already been used?

"The watermark technology which Denuvo unveiled is apparently already trusted by Hollywood, paid-TV and sports leagues. "

 

[LokeYourLord]

Maybe a semi off-topic tangent on this topic, but I think way too many people are overlooking the intense over surveillance of video games in the name of copywrite law and integrity. We're giving so much to these developers and hoping cheating will stop, and hoping they won't sell our data. Like kernel level anticheats are being exploited, making you, the user vulnerable and at the mercy of someone who has no good intentions. Were that to progress and potentially effect your own purchased video games through an evolution of a tech like this would be a disgusting breach of privacy and security. I'd rather have someone cheat in a game and ruin my experience, or have someone steal a copy of a game from a AAA dev then allow myself to be potentially targeted with an actually serious hack or have my legally purchased item used against me to steal my data, constantly verifying if the game is real, and even possibly being an entry point to someone who knows what they're doing. I sincerely do not think that any amount of company profit loss due to piracy or in game cheating is worth the trade off we've been slowly experiencing and subserviently taking. Especially if your personal data is being siphoned and sold, or your actual personal life is at risk.

But I know at the end of the day, some Nintendo freak is going to cope on why this is a good idea and that we need more anti consumer practices in our media.

Couldn't have said it better myself, and I see it the exact same way, which is why I absolutely detest any sort of intrusive anti-cheat and DRM system in a game at any level for any reason.

Even in the game I am currently helping to bring to the market, I am absolutely against ANY inclusion of such systems because it ends up alienating gamers and customers more than it makes them want to play your/our game. And speaking from a consumer, investor, cheater, cracker, pirate, developer and partially publisher-sided perspective: Fuck Denuvo, fuck DRM, fuck EAC, and may Irdeto be the first company to burn down in an agonizingly slow, scorching and blazing fire.

 

[linuxares]

Could you elaborate how it violates the GDPR ?

I just go from this paragraph here "
precise tracing of leaked content back to its source."

To me it sounds like it calls home with information example IP which is counted as a personal identification under the GDPR. Also possible it might call home with more information.

 

[LokeYourLord]

I just go from this paragraph here "
precise tracing of leaked content back to its source."

To me it sounds like it calls home with information example IP which is counted as a personal identification under the GDPR. Also possible it might call home with more information.

Just IP? In order to be able to unquestionably identify a leaker, A LOT more than merely an IP has to be sent and has to "call home" to avoid any false-positives and to avoid even more implications. This would very obviously violate GDPR, but let's be honest here, Denuvo Anti-Tamper and EAC already do pretty much that, and GDPR has yet to kick in and either severely punish them for their data privacy breaches, or at the very least ban them from the EU. And really, the only reason here nothing has happened as of yet, is that none of us can prove without a doubt that all of this really is happening and that they have all of that data and access to our data like that. That, and they added some legalese bullshit about them "not being responsible blablabla, click here/sign here to sign away all your rights, thank you goodbye" basically.

Not that this legalese really holds much ground in reality, Terms of Service and EULAs have often been thrown out in court because they have no right to bypass the law just because the ToS/EULA says so, but you'd first need to even have enough ground to stand on with which you can bring the company to court for GDPR violations. Until that happens, we're stuck in the limbo that we are right now, the companies obviously violating GDPR data privacy laws, but are able to continue doing so because nobody can without a doubt prove it at the moment.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I believe Denuvo has supported the Nintendo Switch for a while and was supposed to stop emulation I believe was the selling point to developers. Do any Switch games actually make use of it?

 

[Skelletonike]

Average American company absolutely violating every other law to ever exist ever

Denuvo is Austrian, and Austria is part of the EU (so they probably know their GDPR).

 

[LokeYourLord]

Denuvo is Austrian, and Austria is part of the EU (so they probably know their GDPR).

You'd be surprised by how many European companies also simply ignore or shit on GDPR and outright pretend as if it doesn't exist until they get slapped in the face with it. Just because Denuvo is Austrian, and are as such bound by the GDPR, doesn't mean they don't grossly overstep their boundaries regardless.

 

[Skelletonike]

You'd be surprised by how many European companies also simply ignore or shit on GDPR and outright pretend as if it doesn't exist until they get slapped in the face with it. Just because Denuvo is Austrian, and are as such bound by the GDPR, doesn't mean they don't grossly overstep their boundaries regardless.

They know better at least. When I was managing the website for my workplace, I had to change a lot of stuff and make things as clear as possible. You can get some seriously heavy fines and big companies would rather avoid it.

 

[ZeroT21]

Seeing how useless ''Denuvo'' has been up to now, I don't feel like it'll ever change in the near future

 

[Sir Tortoise]

how is this even new, other than it being work, why did people not put identifying files in the distributed games from the start?
at least on pc, that'd only make sense.
on consoles, it clearly doesnt work that easily

I imagine some did, but it would have been up to the company how to implement it, and some of those might have been pretty token-efforts that were easy to bypass.

This is just an attempt to market that as an easy universal product that the company doesn't need to put effort into doing properly, just buy this ready-made from them. The publicity alone from this could dissuade leakers.

Post automatically merged: Mar 20, 2024

I just go from this paragraph here "
precise tracing of leaked content back to its source."

To me it sounds like it calls home with information example IP which is counted as a personal identification under the GDPR. Also possible it might call home with more information.

That wouldn't help. Whoever leaks it doesn't need to run the game to do so, nor would they particularly care which internet cafe they uploaded it from or what laptop was used to do so even if they got that information.

This is about identifying the source of the leak - they send out multiple review copies, and each of those has a unique watermark embedded into it. If a leak surfaces, they can check which watermark it has and can see that the corresponding file was sent to IGN or whoever, and then send angry letters to them asking why they failed to keep that copy confidential. They don't need any fancy tracking for that. Just a way of embedding a ID that can't be trivially removed.

 

[Bladexdsl]

whats stopping leakers from using a VPN?

 

[SeventhSon7]

already malware, soon to become spyware, too

 

[HarveyHouston]

I don't think this will stick. IMHO, there is no "one thing to stop all problems" solution for piracy and early leaks; it's just simply not possible.

 

[Quore]

Seeing how useless ''Denuvo'' has been up to now, I don't feel like it'll ever change in the near future

Definitely it won't
Probably forever

Post automatically merged: Mar 20, 2024

already malware, soon to become spyware, too

Hackers invaded Apex lobbies using EAC to do that
What if in a near future they use EAC to transform the user's PC into a cryto miner, screwing up it's performance

 

[Blavla]

Anyway, back to the New Switch game