The ongoing fight between crackers and DRM has reached a truly massive moment, as reportedly Denuvo DRM has been fully broken open in all games.
Denuvo DRM is generally pretty hated. Not just because of the limits it places on systems, but because of many reported performance issues that could be as a result of its inclusion in various games. In the past, Denuvo DRM was a pretty strong choice for publishers as it was difficult to crack open so pirates were always playing a long game of catch-up but it seems that's no longer the case. Enabling publishers to feel like they're protecting their initial sales revenue.
I haven't really kept up with the Denuvo fight, mostly because it doesn't usually affect me directly (and I'm generally very busy). I try to steer away from games with Denuvo too, since it's a really big nuisance for Linux / SteamOS gaming and can easily lock you out of playing games.
According to a thread on Reddit "There are no uncracked/unbypassed non-VR denuvo exclusive games as of April 26th 2026", although some require a special hypervisor bypass which is just a bit more involved, but doesn't exactly sound difficult to do. Tom's Hardware (pay-walled) have a breakdown on what that is all about that's worth a read.
To fight back, publisher 2K Games have apparently put in a new form of DRM into multiple games with a forced online check every 14 days. From what has been said this is in NBA 2K25, NBA 2K26 and Marvel's Midnight Suns. Something that once again punishes legitimate players.
Online checks even for single-player are a real nuisance, but it seems that it's here to stay and we may even see more of it if the likes of Denuvo can't keep up with the pirates now.
We've reached out to both Denuvo and 2K to confirm any details, will update if either respond.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
See more from me
You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
PlayingOnLinuxphone a day ago
Quoting: sarmadMultiplayer games should depend on server-side AI based monitoringAgree with "server-side", disagree with "AI based monitoring". I would probably one of the first people getting banned for not hacking, because I play games like games and not guided (as 98% of all players these days do). AI is discriminating based on their trainings data. It is common sense that it should not be used for surveillance and Monitoring to filter cheaters is nothing else.
Classic server-side anti-cheats are totally fine and good enough to create a nice gaming experience for everyone. It is just more expensive to create game specific anti-cheat solutions compared to allrounder tools (where legit players pay the price). The few people that will stay unrecognized by classic server-side anti-cheat will also exist with AI anti-cheat or with KLAC or any other anti-cheat method. How do you want to detect dobbing? The goal is not to reduce cheaters to zero, but to create a gaming experience for every legit player that doesn't feel like there is any cheater and there is no much difference in capability between all these methods. However, AI-anti-cheat also banns legit players and therefor it is even as bad as KLAC.
Anyway, anti-cheat is a different topic, DRM is to prevent piracy, nothing else.
Last edited by PlayingOnLinuxphone on 29 Apr 2026 at 5:53 pm UTC
Kimyrielle a day ago
Quoting: mindedieIf perfect DRM existed,There is. It's called a "offering a good product that's worth its money". People typically don't pirate if they don't think the pirates have the better product.
Quoting: PaldinoXThat's a shame 2K is using Midnight Suns as a testbed for this crap, nobody bought it despite being a genuinely great game and now even less people will bother with it because of this.I got Midnight Suns for free and thought it wasn't good enough to finish (put in 23 hours). There are only a handful of mission types (kill everything, destroy thing, protect thing, etc) that you do over and over. Then the whole "social" aspect was boring to me. It felt like a cozy mini-game, that you are forced to do to get upgrades, in a tactical game.
I think the bones of the combat was good though as I like card and spatial turn-based combat. I think they could have had a much better game if they stripped the social movie bullcrap and focused more on the action. While I'm not anti-cozy, I think this game was like oil/water pulling in two different directions.
Last edited by eggrole on 29 Apr 2026 at 6:04 pm UTC
mr-victory 12 hours ago
Quoting: doragasuUnfortunately there's a growing probability of Denuvo moving to kernel level DRM. And if that happens, it's game over for Linux users. Not a problem specifically for me, I don't buy games with Denuvo DRM, but for the platform itself, it might be a big hit.Do you have a source? Hope this doesn't happen
Patreon
PayPal
How to setup OpenMW for modern Morrowind on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck
How to install Hollow Knight: Silksong mods on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck