007 First Light's Denuvo DRM Cracked in 14 days

007: First Light is the latest Denuvo-protected title to fall to pirates. Across Reddit and various gaming forums, people have been actively guessing how long the game’s DRM would hold out, especially as “voices38” emerges as the undisputed leading hacker against Denuvo’s protection.

Holding out for 14 days is a much better outcome for Denuvo compared to the disastrous Day-1 crack that Lego Batman suffered. There is plenty of community chatter regarding why this game took voices38 longer to crack. It is highly likely that Denuvo is working behind the scenes to foolproof its DRM integration and delay these cracks, as their primary claim to fame is protecting the initial sales cycle for game publishers.

As usual, Reddit is filled with funny commentary on the 007 leak thread.

Initial Sales

007: First Light has already sold 3 million copies in less than two weeks. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak shared this milestone in an interview with IGN last week. Hakan also confirmed that 007: First Light is the studio’s fastest-selling game to date. This means it has officially outpaced IO Interactive’s Hitman games, which is an incredible achievement.

Add to this the fact that the game is highly rated on Metacritic, boasting excellent scores from both critics and users alike.

Denuvo: Is this a success or a failure?

At launch, 007: First Light faced threats from hypervisor-based bypasses, but those methods are notoriously complex due to the virtualization layer. It ultimately took 14 days for the game to be fully cracked. By successfully slowing down piracy for two weeks, Denuvo achieved a much better result here than the Lego Batman debacle. Given that IO Interactive is thrilled with their initial sales, this serves as a solid win for Denuvo. However, the age-old debate remains: there is no way to accurately measure how many pirates would have actually paid for the game rather than waiting for a cracked version to arrive.

There is also growing speculation on Reddit that voices38 might be leveraging AI tools to accelerate his cracking process on new releases.

A DRM-Free Release?

IO Interactive has a track record of dropping Denuvo’s DRM from its Hitman titles a few months after release. It is highly likely we will see 007: First Light receive the same DRM-free treatment, though the exact timeframe remains unknown.