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Denuvo's parent company is linked to conversion therapy support, promoting hate speech and has been sued for copyright infringement.

Knurek

Knurek

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,335
So, apparently, the company that developed Denuvo and their corporate overlords are doing some wholesome things, totally appropriate for the white knight of PC DRM they pose themselves to be.
I have no idea why so many people seem to believe Irdeto is a big company...

For perspective, Irdeto's parent company is a South African broadcasting firm currently under investigation and threat of having their assets frozen for $6.6bn of unpaid fiscal dues over the past decade - more than their annual revenue this year. Stocks have been taking a sharp nosedive, of course. This is not helped by the fact they've been under the sights of the International Court of Justice for the broadcast of violent conversion therapies, hate speech and breach of human rights Ironically they also have been sued repeatedly for multiple copyright infringements Denuvo suddenly closing is completely in the realm of possibilities.

Furthermore, despite their boast of being a world leader in digital security Irdeto itself does not seem to be a leader of anything. They don't appear in any software analyst's publications for the 20, 30 or even 150 best cybersecurity firms... they're not even a footnote in lists limited to their home country, the Netherlands. All the awards featured on their product pages are phony vanity awards received in exchange for a 800$ fee... you can even create your own custom category to compete all by yourself for a 1800$ "sponsor" fee. Their main revenue appears to come from designing tv decoder boxes exclusively for the African Market.

So there you go, violence, homophobia, hate speech, scams and fraud. Irdeto? A mere grease stain floating in a sea of manure.
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Link to Steam Forum discussion
Lock if oldagainst MOBA Network rules
 
Finale Fireworker

Finale Fireworker

Love each other or die trying.
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,710
United States
Well that's fucked up. This is a weird situation where I already hated Denuvo and DRM in general for totally unrelated reasons and now I have this big, huge, extra reason. This is some twisted stuff.
 
jelly

jelly

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
33,841
So, it was sort of a con?

Did publisher execs get invited to a dinner event and given the whole spread and signed up to nonsense?
 
tokkun

tokkun

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,399
That steam thread where the user is hoping that Denuvo will suddenly be closed because the parent company is struggling seems like wishful thinking / naive.

If the South African parent company goes bankrupt, it is far more likely that they spin off or sell the Denuvo subsidiary, not close it. As long as the subsidiary is profitable, it's unlikely to go away.
 
Kyuuji

Kyuuji

The Favonius Fox
Member
Nov 8, 2017
32,012
It's not like people needed a reason to hate Denuvo more but, there you are anyway lol.
 
BeI

BeI

Member
Dec 9, 2017
5,974
Is there anything stopping Steam from just making a better (potentially separate from the existing one) DRM that isn't at risk of disappearing and breaking game capability later on? A better 1st party DRM option seems like a better option anyway.
 
Bowl0l

Bowl0l

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,608
BeI said:
Is there anything stopping Steam from just making a better (potentially separate from the existing one) DRM that isn't at risk of disappearing and breaking game capability later on? A better 1st party DRM option seems like a better option anyway.
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Steam does offer DRM but most publishers bought Denuvo marketing
 
Uzzy

Uzzy

Gabe’s little helper
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,086
Hull, UK
Tremorah said:
Wow

Denuvo being used in the biggest IPs in gaming and thats the company?
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Well, they're a wholly owned subsidiary of Irdeto, who in turn are a wholly owned subsidiary of Naspers. That's not nothing, but laying the sins of the grandparent's company at Denuvo's door feels like a stretch to me.
 
Tremorah

Tremorah

Member
Dec 3, 2018
4,948
Uzzy said:
Well, they're a wholly owned subsidiary of Irdeto, who in turn are a wholly owned subsidiary of Naspers. That's not nothing, but laying the sins of the grandparent's company at Denuvo's door feels like a stretch to me.
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So they didnt care what kind of company bought them

Thats the argument?
 

Deleted member 93841

User-requested account closure
Banned
Mar 17, 2021
4,580
Oh wow, I'm South African and I had no idea that Multichoice had any relation to Denuvo.

Multichoice is a company of absolute scumbags. I don't know how they stay around. They offer satellite TV at ridiculous prices and they've been incapable of getting with the times. The only reason they're still in business is because they have a monopoly on sports broadcasting in SA. They're so desperate to retain subscribers that at one point they wanted to hire a Cyber Piracy Investigator to combat movie piracy, because they believed it was affecting their bottom line. This, instead of adapting their product to the changing needs of the market.

They are widely hated for a good reason and it's mostly older, less tech-savvy consumers keeping them alive.

Uzzy said:
Well, they're a wholly owned subsidiary of Irdeto, who in turn are a wholly owned subsidiary of Naspers. That's not nothing, but laying the sins of the grandparent's company at Denuvo's door feels like a stretch to me.
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Is this still the case? I thought Naspers and Multichoice split ways?

Either way, Naspers is just as terrible as Multichoice. They're kept alive only by their Tencent shares.
 
Uzzy

Uzzy

Gabe’s little helper
Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,086
Hull, UK
Zewp said:
Is this still the case? I thought Naspers and Multichoice split ways?

Either way, Naspers is just as terrible as Multichoice. They're kept alive only by their Tencent shares.
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I stand corrected, I was running off this article talking about the initial purchase.

Denuvo Has Been Sold to Global Anti-Piracy Outfit Irdeto * TorrentFreak

Denuvo, the company behind the world's most famous video game anti-piracy system, has been sold. The buyer is global anti-piracy outfit Irdeto, which specializes in protecting all kinds of content, with an emphasis on the audio-visual sector. The news comes a day after Denuvo's latest protection...
torrentfreak.com torrentfreak.com

But yeah, Naspers 'unbundled' Multichoice, and Irdeto are a subsidiary of them.
 
Richter1887

Richter1887

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,146
Wow this is fucking awful.

Denuvo should stop being used. It is useless and now this shit comes out. It is not worth it.
 
Cenauru

Cenauru

Dragon Girl Supremacy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,940
Shit DRM supports even shittier practices, not surprised but still disappointed.
 
Nerdkiller

Nerdkiller

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,123
Sandwiched between Engerlund and Yankland
GFP_RYU

GFP_RYU

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,257
Can't we just remove this DRM completely? Or any type of DRM?

Regardless it's sad to hear this company is vile to the core
 
Paroni

Paroni

Member
Dec 17, 2020
3,398
Richter1887 said:
Wow this is fucking awful.

Denuvo should stop being used. It is useless and now this shit comes out. It is not worth it.
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From the perspective of a publisher (or at least the suits running them) any prevention of day 1 piracy is essential because preorders and day 1 sales are so important. It doesn't really matter that much if it's cracked later, they think that it's worth it if it prevents any early buyers from temptations of piracy, even if it would not really make a major difference in revenue.


Dreams-Visions said:
these exist?
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It's probably more of the usual "my favorite video game corporation would never make bad decisions" tribalism that just happens to extend into DRM methods they use.
 
BeI

BeI

Member
Dec 9, 2017
5,974
Banana Aeon said:
It's less devs and more appeasing dumbass shareholders. DRM doesn't and will never work to deter pirates and all it does is punish legit customers.
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Still seems like an opportunity for a new 1st party DRM option. People don't like permanent DRM, so something like an "enhanced" Steam DRM for the first month or so might make players and pubs less unhappy than the current situation of all sorts of paid 3rd party options that probably will never be patched out of a game.
 
FantasticMrSnake

FantasticMrSnake

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,407
between this and the problem they may have with intel is not a good moment for Denuvo, i hope many games will have to patch it out
 
lukaself

lukaself

Member
Oct 17, 2021
1
Hi everyone!

I feel obligated to note that the ICJ I initially mentioned in my post on the Steam community forums was not, in fact, the International Court of Justice but the International Commission of Jurists: a Human rights NGO with about 60 judges onboard. I blame a weirdly-confusing acronym and lateness. I have since corrected my mistake - everything else is unfortunately true. Let's take it as a reminder to fact-check everything you see on the internet whether they agree or disagree with you - actually, especially if they agree.

Take care!
 
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