Sonic Mania PC version launches with Denuvo, online requirement

[ArseTechnica]

[url]https://arstechnica.com/?p=1155659[/url]

[Steel]

Reading through the Steam forums the guys who made the game are [I]strongly[/I] suggesting you reach out to SEGA and let them know your thoughts.

[MystFoxcoon]

This is an ongoing story but rumors are floating around as well as an apparent official post from Stealth (One of the two fangame guys developing Mania) that Sega is adding the Denuvo DRM outside of their control and they actually didn't want it, and Sega is pinning both the DRM and the 2 week delay on them.

I'm unsure of the complete accuracy of this information but if it's true damn sega, that's pretty shitty to do to both the consumer and the guys that essentially made your game out of passion.

[Solo Wing]

Even when Sega has every reason to succeed with a Sonic game they find SOME way to fuck it up.

I fucking LOVE Mania, and even I think this is bullshit. Always online for a fucking genesis/saturn tier game? You can go fuck yourself with a loaf of french bread.

Anyone who is intending to get Mania for PC, I suggest you let Sega know how you feel about this. Mania is too fucking good to let Sega's own incompetence ruin it.

[EmilyVasquez]

Why on Earth would SEGA think this is a good idea? It's practically gonna make people try to pirate Sonic Mania more or find a crack for the DRM and then eventually release it.

[Johnny on Flame]

For fuck sake, I was pretty hyped for it too. :(

[Untouch]

Boycott until they remove it.
It was delayed 2 weeks for this, don't let SEGA know this is okay.

[Johnny on Flame]

[media]https://twitter.com/RubyEclipse/status/902608083200819200[/media]

Time to hit them hard and make them regret! :v:

[Zet]

I'm so glad I was impatient and bought it on the PS4 instead. I really do hope they Sega removes denuvo and the online requirement. Steam should be good enough to be the only DRM needed.

[noh_mercy]

Shame, I would have bought this.

[F.X Clampazzo]

Watch as it's cracked within a week like the last bunch of Denuvo games for the last few months have been.

Like, within 2 years the crack scene went from freaking out about how Denuvo was going to be this pretty formidable force to taking the absolute piss out of it because quite a few scene groups have it down to not much more than a moderate headache.

[Lightbulb]

I'm not getting it for PC until they remove it. Otherwise, I'll eventually get it on Switch if I ever get one.

[EIREXE]

I was going to get it, but it has denuvo, so no sonic for me.

Too bad I really wanted to play it.

[20k]

[QUOTE=eirexe;52629273]I was going to get it, but it has denuvo, so no sonic for me.

Too bad I really wanted to play it.[/QUOTE]

This might be the most depressing game I've had to add to the boycott list since the new metro games

[Solo Wing]

[QUOTE=eirexe;52629273]I was going to get it, but it has denuvo, so no sonic for me.

Too bad I really wanted to play it.[/QUOTE]

I suggest messaging Sega about it. Mania is a fucking love letter to the series of old. The series I grew up loving. As far as the game itself goes, it's a great game that deserves as many loving owners as it can get, Sega's own incompetence be damned.

I've waited far too long for a return to form for Sonic to allow Sega in their infinite stupidity to fuck this up.

[icemaz]

[QUOTE=eirexe;52629273]I was going to get it, but it has denuvo, so no sonic for me.

Too bad I really wanted to play it.[/QUOTE]

I don't think denuvo is actually [I]so[/I] much of a problem to not buying this game, Mania is honestly fantastic. Always online is fucking insane though.

[inaba]

Sent them a mail, hope others do too.
It's a shame, because it looks like it's an enjoyable game

[Solo Wing]

[QUOTE=gokiyono;52629514]Sent them a mail, hope others do too.
It's a shame, because it looks like it's an enjoyable game[/QUOTE]

I reiterate. If you're a fan of the genesis trilogy and CD, this game is fucking awesome.

Still a good game overall, but it was clearly made for old Sonic fans.

[Ganerumo]

[QUOTE=LoLWaT?;52627889]Ohoh man as soon as I get back to my computer I'm getting my refund. Fuck Sega.[/QUOTE]

Depending on how long ago you've prepurchased the game, you may not be able to.

Preorders of the game came with a gift copy of the first Sonic game, which means the point of purchase starts at the preorder. If you spent your money two weeks or more ago, you won't get an automatic refund.

Better hope steam makes an exception, or takes "has denuvo without stating so in the store page" as a good enough reason.

[inaba]

So SEGA (actually) replied to my mail, and said the online issue had been fixed. And Denuvo, they reffered me to a [URL="http://www.sega.com/denuvo"]Denuvo FAQ[/URL] on their site

[20k]

"The FPS is unaffected by Denuvo. During development care was taken to ensure the performance impact was minimised and optimised to keep the game running smoothly."

Now, these are two different statements aren't they? If the FPS impact was *minimised* it implies that its still present

Also given how we know denuvo works (VM interpreted bytecode), its very likely it has a decent FPS impact on weaker CPUs

"Does Denuvo cause HDD or SDD (Hard drive) problems?
No."

Yeah and neither did securerom

[DrTaxi]

[QUOTE=Icedshot;52637282]"The FPS is unaffected by Denuvo. During development care was taken to ensure the performance impact was minimised and optimised to keep the game running smoothly."

Now, these are two different statements aren't they? If the FPS impact was *minimised* it implies that its still present

Also given how we know denuvo works (VM interpreted bytecode), its very likely it has a decent FPS impact on weaker CPUs[/QUOTE]

VM-based obfuscators hurt performance. [I]In the code they're obfuscating[/I].

In case of videogame DRM, the point of this obfuscation is not to make the program harder to reverse engineer in general, but to hinder people from understanding and patching (or fooling) the specific piece of code responsible for the license check, or reproducing a functioning executable from a memory dump of the program after it's run its license check and decryption routines. To achieve this, you only need to obfuscate some early, short initialisation routines (and unlike with whole-program obfuscation, you don't need to care about performance here at all, so you can make them as painfully long and obtuse as you want).

This is why Denuvo'd games take a few seconds longer than you'd expect to start - code that would usually run in a few hundred milliseconds tops now takes a few seconds.

But you have absolutely no reason to let Denuvo touch code that runs during gameplay at all. Hell, by the time you see the game window on the screen, Denuvo code shouldn't be hit anymore. That doesn't mean this never happens - when it does, you get RiME - but that's squarely a mistake by the game developer (and a pretty silly, easily fixed one at that).

I don't like DRM either, but the performance complaints people level against Denuvo are just wrong.

[스카치 여우]

[QUOTE=DrTaxi;52637480]VM-based obfuscators hurt performance. [I]In the code they're obfuscating[/I].

In case of videogame DRM, the point of this obfuscation is not to make the program harder to reverse engineer in general, but to hinder people from understanding and patching (or fooling) the specific piece of code responsible for the license check, or reproducing a functioning executable from a memory dump of the program after it's run its license check and decryption routines. To achieve this, you only need to obfuscate some early, short initialisation routines (and unlike with whole-program obfuscation, you don't need to care about performance here at all, so you can make them as painfully long and obtuse as you want).

This is why Denuvo'd games take a few seconds longer than you'd expect to start - code that would usually run in a few hundred milliseconds tops now takes a few seconds.

But you have absolutely no reason to let Denuvo touch code that runs during gameplay at all. Hell, by the time you see the game window on the screen, Denuvo code shouldn't be hit anymore. That doesn't mean this never happens - when it does, you get RiME - but that's squarely a mistake by the game developer (and a pretty silly, easily fixed one at that).

I don't like DRM either, but the performance complaints people level against Denuvo are just wrong.[/QUOTE]

Isn't denuvo based off of VMprotect? And I've seen a suggestion that I can't remember if it was from a dev forum or the site itself to say it's best to obfuscate/mutate/vm the loading part of the game and just the auth check.

[F.X Clampazzo]

So, little update, I posted 6 days ago that I was pretty sure it'd be cracked within a few weeks.
It's been cracked already. Took less than a full week.

Disclaimer: I am [B][I][U]NOT[/U][/I][/B] condoning piracy in any way shape or form, I keep up with piracy news as a hobby because the scene holds personal interest for me. I am, and will not, in no/any way, shape, or form provide/ be providing information on how to pirate said content.
("Ban proof shield" comment in an idiot-cull thread.jpg)