On May 26, developer Tequila Works released the adventure-puzzle game RiME for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. For the PC version, Denuvo DRM was used in an attempt to stop the game being pirated. However, just one week on and RiME's DRM has been rendered useless, triggering a positive response from Tequila.
Last week, Tequila Works posted on the Steam forums for the game stating that if RiME ended up being cracked then a version of the game without Denuvo attached would be released. Sure enough, the game got cracked a few days later.
According to Engadget, the crack became available thanks to the work of Baldman, a member of the Skidrow Games Reloaded game-cracking site. Tequila remained true to their word and have since removed Denuvo protection from the PC version of the game. It makes perfect sense to do so because Denuvo ceased to do the job it was intended to, so why continue to ship it?
Posting on the Rime website yesterday, community manager Tim Slager explained that the team had heard about the existence of a crack, taken the time to test it worked, and set about honoring their promise. A patch for the game is now available that removes the DRM completely, which should automatically get applied through Steam. A further patch is now being worked on to fix bugs.
For Denuvo, it's clearly a blow to the reputation of its DRM offering. If it can only protect a game for a week, why would developers choose to pay to use it? That's not to say improvements won't be made to stengthen the DRM, but this is a cat and mouse game the crackers usually end up winning.