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Denuvo responds to lightning quick Resident Evil 7 PC crack

Not so impervious any more?

Austrian company Denuvo has enjoyed unprecedented success against PC game piracy with games going uncracked for months - a feat seemingly impossible a few years ago. Notorious hacking group 3DM even predicted the end of PC game piracy altogether.

Denuvo's secret weapon is its Anti-Tamper technology, which shields a game's DRM and stops it being tampered with.

But there's been an upset: Resident Evil 7 has been cracked on PC and within only a week of launch. Are, um, cracks in Denuvo's impervious armour beginning to show?

"Please note that we always position our Anti-Tamper solution as hard to crack, not as uncrackable," Denuvo marketing director Thomas Goebl told me. "So far only one piracy group has been able to bypass it.

"As always, we continue working to improve our solution to create security updates for upcoming Anti-Tamper versions. We will do the same with the learning from this bypass. It's correct that the title in question was cracked some days after release. Given the fact that every unprotected title is cracked on the day of release - as well as every update of games - our solution made a difference for this title."

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Given the Resident Evil 7 breach there is speculation Capcom could now remove Denuvo Anti-Tamper from the game altogether, and perhaps even seek a refund. Goebl said he couldn't comment on individual customers but told me "we do not have any deals in place that offer refunds if a game is cracked within a specific time frame".

Denuvo really began making a name for itself in 2014, when Dragon Age: Inquisition went uncracked for a month - aeons at the time. There is recurring concern among players that the Anti-Tamper technology affects a game's performance, although Denuvo has consistently said this is not the case. We tested Dragon Age: Inquisition performance and found no correlation between the two.

Resident Evil 7 was released 24th January on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, and is a return to form for the series. And we've written a big fat Resident Evil 7 guide to help you through.