Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > News > Mac News > Game Replay: Chinese piracy forum admits modern games hard to crack

Game Replay: Chinese piracy forum admits modern games hard to crack
Thread Tools
NewsPoster
MacNN Staff
Join Date: Jul 2012
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 13, 2016, 12:39 AM
 
Welcome to the Game Replay, the thrice-weekly look at the wider world of gaming by the staff of MacNN. In today's edition, a Chinese cracking forum founder admits anti-piracy measures are getting tough to beat after failing to pirate Just Cause 3, Sony attempts but fails to register 'Let's Play' as a trademark, and another parent suffers when a child spends excessive amounts on in-game microtransactions.

Chinese cracking forum founder suggests game piracy countermeasures becoming too tough to beat

New pirated games may cease to exist in the next few years, the founder of a Chinese cracking forum has suggested. The anti-piracy measures used in modern games, such as the seemingly uncrackable technology used to protect Just Cause 3, has led to the founder of 3DM to declare that games may not be pirated in as few as two years.

The game in question, Just Cause 3, is protected by Denuvo's security software, reports TorrentFreak. The Avalanche Studios title was released at the start of December and has yet to be cracked, despite its popularity, with the Denuvo software said to be the main stumbling block for crackers. 3DM has a history with previous Denuvo protection systems, with the group eventually bypassing it for Dragon Age: Inquisition after a month-long battle in 2014, but the improved software is apparently too difficult to beat.

A blog post by 3DM founder "Bird Sister" advises "The last stage [of Denuvo] is too difficult," with one core member of the team apparently coming close to giving up on the project. "I still believe that this game can be compromised. But according to current trends in the development of encryption technology, in two years time I'm afraid there will be no free games to play in the world."

While hyperbolic, the admission from 3DM seemingly suggests game developers and publishers are finally turning the tide on pirates, after quite a few years of effort. In previous times, games were known to be cracked within weeks or days of their release, with some being pirated on the day of release itself.



Sony attempts, fails to register 'Let's Play' as a trademark

Sony has attempted to take the unusual step of trying to trademark a term used to identify a genre of online video. The electronics company applied for the trademark of "Let's Play," a title usually attributed to YouTube videos where players record themselves playing through games, on October 31 last year, but it has evidently failed to secure the mark.

Gamasutra reports a listing on Justia Trademarks advises of the attempt at ownership, though it appears the application's refusal doesn't have anything to do with the YouTube video name. A filing for the refusal dated December 29 notes there is a potential for confusion with the existing mark "LP Let'z Play."

It isn't entirely clear why Sony attempted to secure the mark, though considering both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have game streaming and recording capabilities, along with Macs and PCs, Sony could be trying to prevent Microsoft from using the term.

Sony is still potentially able to secure the mark, as it has until June 29 to respond before the ruling becomes final.


Ontario parent complains publicly over son's $7,600 FIFA transaction bill

Yet another parent has become the victim of their children's spending habits in games, with one father receiving a credit card bill for over $7,600. Lance Perkins of Pembroke, Ontario received the bill after his 17-year-old son used the credit card to pay for microtransactions in FIFA, racking up the bill as they made a large number of in-game purchases on his game console.

Perkins told CBC News his son was given the credit card to make purchases for the family's convenience store, and for emergencies. "It floored me. Literally floored me, when I'd seen what I was being charged," tells Perkins. "He thought it was a one-time fee for the game. He's just as sick as I am, because he never believed he was being charged for every transaction, or for every time he went onto the game."

The credit card company advised the father that it could do nothing, unless he wanted his son charged with fraud. After an initial contact with Microsoft advised the charges would stand, a further explanation that the son was a minor had Microsoft claiming it would look further into it, but it has yet to get back to the family. Microsoft told the report in a statement that its consoles had settings to prevent purchases without parental permission, and it encourages parents to investigate the features to prevent unapproved charges.

Perkins has since declared "There will never be another Xbox system – or any gaming system – in my home."
     
ElectroTech
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Nov 2008
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 13, 2016, 03:47 AM
 
Piracy only exists if there are people willing to reward them by paying for the stolen property. We all have it in us to rise above it by paying for what we use to the people who spent their time and money creating it for us.
     
Flying Meat
Senior User
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: SF
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 13, 2016, 01:13 PM
 
"...in two years time I'm afraid there will be no free games to play in the world." A statement that is provably false. On another front, if they stopped putting so much time and energy into trying to crack games, and started making free games, there would be even more free games.

Regarding the parent's reaction to their child using his credit card, it's interesting to see the choice of product to be banished. He wasn't about to banish all credit cards or the internet.
     
Makosuke
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: California
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 13, 2016, 04:27 PM
 
Re: ElectroTech's reason for piracy, the transaction is not always in cash. That is, there are those who are paid for their piracy efforts in intangibles--fame, usually, or on a smaller scale the exchange for other free stuff, or some other sort of notoriety. Sometimes even just self-satisfaction.

That is, with small-scale piracy, people will share things on Bittorrent and the like as part of a community that makes them feel like they're trading one pirated good for another. In larger cases, someone might put in the time to crack software so others online will say "dude, you're a hacker god". And in a few cases, those particularly inclined might just do it as a personal hacking challenge for the satisfaction, although I think the notoriety features into that motivation most of the time (otherwise they wouldn't post the results online).

Point being, it's not all about money, but it is mostly about there being a "market" of some sort, of people who will offer praise (if not cash) for pirated things. The end result is the same, though--if nobody downloaded pirated games, few would bother to crack them.
     
Makosuke
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: California
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Jan 13, 2016, 04:31 PM
 
As for the other story, could we please stop calling them "micro transactions"? If the game has an option for "a bucket of gold" or whatever that costs $99, there is absolutely nothing "Micro" about it. That one tap is more expensive than the full version of any AAA game ever has been, period. And all you get for it is whatever consumables or boosts you can buy in-game.

I think it would be really interesting if Apple limited the amount any app could accept over the lifetime of a user in in-app-purchases to $100. (I'm assuming shopping apps use a different scheme entirely, because they're certainly not giving 30% of gross to Apple.) You wonder how many games designed to fleece the big-spenders in overpriced PvP competition would just close up shop entirely.
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:18 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,