The Dark Ages were broken by pirates

It's been a while since we last had a major piracy-related development in the gaming world. Denuvo is still a thing, and most of the games that have been released so far in 2026 have all taken it into account. Even Crimson Desert, which was set on not having Denuvo, making it a prime target for pirates, decided to implement the anti-tampering software ahead of launch.

But in another massive achievement in the ongoing battle against Denuvo, last year's Doom: The Dark Ages, a title protected by Denuvo, has been cracked by pirates.

What stands out most from this performance is the fact that it is a 2025 game that has been cracked. Previous titles that had Denuvo that were cracked weren't nearly as notable or new. These titles included things like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered and Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

They showed the potential of a toolset that is seemingly catching up with modern titles, one that could eventually crack titles on a daily basis.

“The next one might surprise you,” the cracker, voices38, wrote on Reddit.

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Some believe it's the recently released Resident Evil Requiem, which along with several other titles has been the focus of a new piracy method, albeit one that has major security concerns.

Of course, Denuvo is likely working in the background with its own technology. But whatever updates it has can't prevent the spread of what's already out there.

Normally, pirates sit and wait for Denuvo to be removed

As Denuvo is a paid service by video game publishers, the protection is eventually removed for titles, and the game is then immediately pirated. That removal usually happens after it has become financially impossible to keep paying for it, or if the company has already extracted all the value it can out of buyers, it's OK with the potential for piracy.

Such was the case recently with the recent Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remake, and the game was cracked on the same day. But as these tools become even more sophisticated, pirates don't even have to wait for that moment.

There's a real possibility that we'll see our first day-and-date crack of a game in 2026 that features Denuvo, if not cracks of multiple titles released in 2026. At that point, it will almost certainly make publishers wonder what the purpose of Denuvo is if it can't prevent the kind of piracy it's intended to.