For video game pirates, 2025 has been a rather good year. Between day-one cracks of the likes of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and The Last of Us Part 2, among several other noteworthy titles, those who wish to pirate and not pay for video games have largely had it made.
Heck, even Pokemon Legends: Z-A managed to get a ROM dump way before anyone who legitimately purchased the game had access to it.
Now, it appears that Dead Island 2 has joined the ranks of games to be made free on the dark side of the Internet. The 2023 title recently had its Denuvo anti-piracy measures removed, and as a result, was promptly cracked and dumped online.
Given that Denuvo can cost developers and publishers upwards of $25,000 a month per game, at some point it made sense to simply stop paying that fee. The end result, however, is letting pirates do their work.
In the last week alone, some major developments have happened on the piracy front that could pave the way for games that have Denuvo anti-piracy measures in place to be cracked well before the software is lifted.
First,...
