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Major Blow to Denuvo Because Pirates Just Ran Out of Games to Bypass as of April 2026
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this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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I certainly hope Denuvo steps on something pointy, but there's no way I'm installing an HV bypass on any machine.
That shit does not run on Linux, so I guess I'm in luck. I bet Denuvo is doubling down and adding kernel level DRM to all games. Bit worried about what that means for Linux gaming, but I will survive. I've been on Linux for like a decade now, I won't install windows to play some silly games.
Do you mean Denuvo games in general? Because that's not true
they mean the hypervisor bypass, which at the moment requires windows and turning off basically every security feature
Playing it on a Windows VM on Linux with your GPU passed through is probably the safest way to play these hypervisor bypass games.
So, an OS that runs a HV that runs a HV that runs an OS that runs a translator that translates a windows-game to the original OS.
If you had told me that absurd shit 30yrs ago I would have laughed at you.
Yes, and all that to bypass, not remove, a protection mechanism that runs 100% in user space with no additional privileges. It really would be impressive if it wasn't so horrible for consumer rights and preservation.
It is...I always trusted pirates more than companies (I was a big player back in the days) but this is way too much. I just don't play these games now (thanks denuvo) and I surely won't play those hv-"cracks".
But...the worse thing is what denuvo will do now. Either they'll vanish or they'll step up by getting absolute total control kernel-side. I'd prefer vanishing. Why would anyone buy denuvo now if they don't react fast...
Agreed. I expect some money shifting where Denuvo goes down and another rises with kernel level. Ovuned. Kind of like how airlines and banks rename themselves.
Well, let's just hope that we're wrong on this.
I've just about finished moving over from windows now. It's been nice once I got things behaving.
That may be, but using Denuvo is not free, and the more invasive implementations affect performance more, and by extension reviews and system requirements. I don't believe you will see a huge uptick for those reasons alone.
What is hv bypass?
It's the bypass in question that falsifies validation data to the Denuvo DRM. It runs under the OS (Windows in this case), which gives it more permissions than your operating system itself. You have to disable a significant amount of your security, reboot, run your game with the HV bypass, reenable your security, reboot, and then you can use your PC normally again. Even if you trust the HV bypass software (and I don't personally think that's a good idea), you are still opening your machine up to attack. If you are perfect in your actions and very cautious you can minimize the risk, but slipping up could leave your PC compromised. It's just too much risk.
On my last computer I downloaded the Harry Potter game and it was cracked by Empress, a vicious anti-trans right-wing Russian woman. I just hung out in a telegram when the game was released and man the toxic shit she spewed was nasty. Proper fking nasty.
And I purposefully disabled the security on my PC and installed something she made.
Yes it was stupid, but I was lonely and really nostalgic for Hogwarts and felt less like donating actual money to a billionaire trans-hater than possibly giving a Russian trans-hater access to my machine.
In real life, she is probably a gay male accountant from Ohio. I feel like people in these situations go out of their way to create alternate identities.
Probably not in the US but yes...
Everyone who does this kind of shit in the 'land of the free' gets to find out just how much freedom corporations have.
Idk man, should've seen the shit she was writing. Also she's a pretty big deal in the cracking circles afaik.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_(cracker)
But yeah nothing there to disprove your hypothesis though, but the way it's been going in the world, there's definitely more Russians pretending to be Americans online than the other way around. Lemmy is chock full of Davels (davel@lemmy.ml)
and people would probably still offer to buy the panties they wear.
I thought fitgirl was the crazy one. I could never bring myself to install them. I only put software thats foss and discussed so its difficult to allow their stuff on my pc.
I think it is fine if you install the games on a PC that
Doesnt contain any personal data and is only for playing PC games
Is never connected to a network, public or private (always offline)
Otherwise I wouldn't recommend ever installing HyperVisor, and if you do, wipe the drive and reinstall the OS. Maybe even better, wipe the drive, destroy it, and then replace it with a new drive. That is the best way to know for certain there is no security compromise on the drive.
99% of all modern games won't even start
In simpler terms you need to have an entirely dedicated isolated system to play these games on, at which point the economical option is undoubtedly just to buy the damn game...
Computers not connected to the internet are almost entirely useless for anything else, and computers that are connected to the internet are inevitably logged into to services, and being logged in to something automatically means there's personal data on it. If only credentials and authentication cookies.
Just stay away from this. Get a console of Denuvo freaks you out, or just stay away from these games untill they patch denuvo out, like you should anyway. The only reason they keep using Denuvo is that they aren't adequately punished for doing so. Gamers are notoriously bad at voting with their wallet.
This. I happen to have a second system cobbled together out of my older PC parts, and it's kind of oxymoronic to use for HV-bypass because it's hooked up to a 4k TV and struggles to keep up with these new releases.
The main function of this secondary PC has become to test improvements to upscaling and frame generation (i.e. 1080p 30Hz upscaled/framegenned to 4k 60Hz), which has been fun in its own right, but is faaar from ideal.
That being said, the FSR4 INT8 modded dll running on RDNA2 + Lossless Scaling variable FG is incredibly impressive for this task. Pragmata can be played on this TV relatively smoothly, and with passable amounts of artifacting. I certainly can't suggest this setup as a good experience for anyone, though.
You can just renable it after you are done playing
The HV bypass is a blow to both the industry and piracy. All games are easy to pirate now, but aint no way I'm messing with my machine so much just to pirate those games.
Games are already a security nightmare. Apex had an RCE in a game with fucking kernel level anticheat.
Fucking think about that.
If you care about privacy or security you should've started playing games in a VM with pass through years ago.
If it doesn't run in a VM it doesn't get played.
98% of gamers dont even understand what you saod here
I don't think the situation is practically any worse than before for piracy if you just ignore these bypasses. It's not like there was a huge crowd of crackers ready to take on denuvo before they were pushed out by these bypasses. Proper cracks still depend on basically just that one guy.
It just seems to me, that because it is trivial to crack them with HV, there's less effort to crack them properly.