It took crackers less than 3 weeks to crack the Denuvo copy protection that is used on the PC game Far Cry 5. The game, offered as a whopping 40 GB download, is now making the rounds on pirate websites. Denuvo x64, VMProtect, EAC and Ubisoft's uPlay service weren't sufficient to protect the game against pirates.
Far Cry 5 was launched about 3 weeks ago and Reddit users report the game has been cracked two days ago. Due to the many copy protections used on the game, it was not expected it would be cracked so fast. Especially Denuvo combined with VMProtect appeared to be a solution that at least gave publishers a decent amount of time to make money before the game became available on illegal file sharing websites.
Before that, Denuvo was regarded as a very effective copy protection. Some voices in the cracker scene even feared that the copy protection would be unbeatable and would end the era of pirated game downloads.
For publisher and game developer Ubisoft it's a big blow that the game has already been cracked. The company has to pay Denuvo for using its copy protection. Game publishers know that there is a big chance a copy protection will be cracked someday. However, they hope it will take crackers as long as possible, so they can benefit from the time after the market launch, which is the most lucrative time. The longer it takes before a game is cracked, the larger the number of users that finally decide to buy it.
Far Cry 5 is currently distributed on torrent sites as either the full version (40GB) or as a space-saving repack that is about 15 GB. Pirates can use the game by burning it or by mounting it in a virtual drive. By applying a crack, the game can played without paying for it.
Users who want to play the game legally, can purchase it from Steam.
