Anti-piracy firm Denuvo acquired by Irdeto to “protect the gaming industry”

PC gamers are more than familiar with Denuvo’s piracy protection anti-tamper tech and today the firm announced it has been acquired by Irdeto.

Irdeto specialises in digital platform security and Denuvo’s operation will continue as normal under its new owners. Denuvo’s customers include some of the big players gaming such as Electronic Arts, UbiSoft, and Warner Bros helping to protect games such as Star Wars Battlefront II, Football Manager, Injustice 2, and Assassin’s Creed Origins. By joining forces, the plan is to “prevent revenue loss for game publishers and disrupt undesirable cheating in the gaming environment”.

“The success of any game title is dependent upon the ability of the title to operate as the publisher intended,” said Irdeto CEO Doug Lowther. “As a result, protection of both the game itself and the gaming experience for end users is critical. Our partnership brings together decades of security expertise under one roof to better address new and evolving security threats. We are looking forward to collaborating as a team on a number of initiatives to improve our core technology and services to better serve our customers.”

The plan is for Denuvo to strengthen its protection and leverage Irdeto’s software security and application protection technology Irdeto Cloakware.

“Hackers and cybercriminals in the gaming space are savvy, and always have been. It is critical to implement robust security strategies to combat the latest gaming threats and protect the investment in games. Much like the movie industry, it’s the only way to ensure that great games continue to get made,” said Reinhard Blaukovitsch, Managing Director of Denuvo, Irdeto. “In joining with Irdeto, we are bringing together a unique combination of security expertise, technology and enhanced piracy services to aggressively address security challenges that customers and gamers face from hackers.”

Denuvo has been heavily criticised by PC gamers for hampering game performance and has been a continual target for hackers. Denuvo has offered some protection to publishers against piracy for varying periods of time but has been continually circumvented by hackers determined to beat their system.