The fashion game’s “anti-piracy” system lasted less than a candy bar at the school door. Yeah; Hogwarts Legacy Denuvo has already been replaced and DRM-free (pirated) copies are running on file sharing networks.

Hogwarts Legacy is a great game, as you could see in our review. This immersive open-world action RPG is without a doubt the best yet created for the magical Harry Potter universe. Sales numbers don’t lie. It sold more than 12 million copies in its first two weeks and became a hit the best start in the history of Warner Bros. games.

It’s also on track to become one of the biggest overall by revenue, with $850 million so far according to official figures that have yet to be released for some of the supported platforms such as Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.

Denuvo from Hogwarts Heritage

continue than It’s a game worth playing and that if we want to support the industry and continue to enjoy these great titles, we need to pay for them. And not to hack them… something we do not endorse or support.

To make the above clear, the industry has insisted on using technologies like Denuvo that enforce digital DRM restrictions as a way to “fight piracy”. Users hate this company, and for good reason, as these types of features have a negative impact on performance (and in other areas) and don’t mean lower costs for distributors, which ultimately impacts the final price of the games. More expensive than ever by the way.

These DRM technologies turned out to be completely useless. Whether it takes hours, days or weeks, all games get hacked eventually. Hogwarts Legacy Denuvo took only ten days (publicly, as the beta version of the patch was tested in small circles much earlier), with the ‘Empress’ responsible for the hack, surely the most competent group for such tasks today.

The game is protected by the latest version “Denuvo v17” plus Steam’s own DRM, which can be easily bypassed by these crackers. Empress doesn’t (or shouldn’t) have access to the Denuvo source code, and yet was able to defeat their DRM and anti-tamper technology in just 10 days. It would be better if the wasted money spent on implementing Denuvo was used to reduce the final price of the games or launch them with better optimization, which is a problem in the times we live in.

The 12 million legal copies of Hogwarts Legacy sold to date are proof that gamers pay for good games. It is available on Steam for PC for 59 euros. If you’re looking for a deal, Amazon currently has it reduced the price of the Xbox Series version for 68 euros.