'Doom' news: Anti-piracy tech Denuvo dropped after game gets cracked

After Bethesda's first-person shooter video game "Doom" gets cracked, the anti-piracy technology Denuvo gets removed from the game's PC version.

It can be recalled that it was only a few weeks ago when Playdead removed Denuvo's anti-piracy technology from the Steam version of their video game "Inside." Now id Software, the game developers behind "Doom," has decided to go in the same direction after the game was relatively easily cracked. The game has since begun appearing on piracy networks by early September this year.

On Dec. 7, Bethesda announced the Free Update 5 for "Doom," which added a new game mode called "Infernal Run" and the bots to Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. It also extended the multiplayer rankings to Echelon 11 and allowed the ability to unlock the Doom Marine armor once a player gets there. New features were also added to the SnapMap.

However, without making a publicized announcement, Kotaku reported that the Denuvo anti-piracy tech was also removed from "Doom." As to why the developers of the game had to subtly drop Denuvo from the PC version, it is speculated that it is due to Denuvo's money back guarantee. If a game is cracked within three months, developers allegedly have to remove the anti-piracy tech first before they could get their money back.

Denuvo was previously known for its un-crackable reputation. However, recently, Denuvo's protection technology came under fire from a group calling itself "CPY." Because of the attacks, more and more Denuvo-protected games have become free-to-play online due to their protections having been circumvented. To protect their games from blatant piracy, it seemed the logical move for games like "Doom" was to remove their "Denuvo" protection altogether.

The 2016 reboot of Bethesda's video game "Doom" has been available since May. The third and final DLC for the game titled "Bloodfall" is set to be released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on Dec. 15.