Developer BioWare's anti-piracy measures want the pirates of Mass Effect: Andromeda to face their sins in the most literal kind of way.
The latest patch for Andromeda fixed the game's broken facial animations. However, BioWare made sure that the pirates are locked out from this specific update via an anti-tamper tech. Mass Effect: Andromeda Patch 1.05 also includes improved lip sync, voice acting, improved eye appearances, and increased inventory limits.
Pirates, Keep Out
According to a report, the latest patch for Mass Effect: Andromeda contains an updated version of Denuvo anti-piracy tech. Denuvo was in the game during its launch last March 21. But pirates were able to successfully crack it in just about 10 days after the launch.
However, instead of removing Denuvo altogether, BioWare decided to quietly update it and include it in the patch. Thus, Patch 1.05 contains a fresh, uncracked Denuvo program. While pirates can play the old version of the game, they will be stuck with the ugly, broken faces as the old crack doesn't work on the new Denuvo. BioWare did not mention this on the patch notes, but according to the report, the evidence of this can be found in the game's exe file, which contains strings that can be found in other games with the latest version of Denuvo.
What Is Denuvo?
Denuvo is an anti-tampering technology and digital rights management program developed by Denuvo Software Solutions, an Austrian company. It is one of the most widely used anti-piracy software, with over "350 million software licenses issued and revalidated," according to the company's claims.
Denuvo's anti-piracy technology platform includes:
Anti-Tamper. Prevents debugging, reverse engineering, and changing the application without any limitation on the legitimate user.
Application License Management. An access control technology that restricts usage of copyrighted works such as video games, videos, and e-books.
Optical Media Protection. Disc copy protection solutions based on advanced code encryption.
Denuvo is widely used in many video games, with Mass Effect: Andromeda as an example. Other big titles protected by Denuvo are Sniper Elite 4, For Honor, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, Resident Evil 7, and Dead Rising 4.
The company's anti-tampering technology mechanism remains a secret, but it didn't stop hackers and pirates from cracking Denuvo's encryption. In December, a Chinese anti-DRM group called 3DM was able to crack the Denuvo encryption in the game Dragon Age: Inquisition. But it took nearly a month after the game's release, which is a far cry from earlier games pirated a day or two after their releases.
