Denuvo DMCA lawsuit against voices38

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Denuvo GmbH sued an anonymous game cracker known as "voices38" in U.S. federal court on September 14, 2026, over the bypassing of its digital rights management (DRM) on 26 games. It is asking the court to bar that person from circumventing its software in "any past, present, or future video game". Denuvo GmbH is the Austrian developer of the Denuvo Anti-Tamper copy protection licensed to publishers including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Capcom, and Sony. Tom's Hardware reported that Denuvo does not own the copyrights to any of the 26 games & that the complaint instead relies on the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA); the complaint brings its claims under 17 U.S.C. § 1201.

Lockouts of paying customers

The Steam store pages for Pragmata & Monster Hunter Wilds list a "5 different PC within a day machine activation limit", & Stellar Blade's page listed "5 different systems within a day" as of April 12, 2026. Liam Squires-Hand of GamingOnLinux wrote on May 15, 2025 that Denuvo "has a set limit on the amount of activations it allows per-game", which he gave as five systems within 24 hours. He wrote that changing versions of Proton, a compatibility layer that lets Windows games run on Linux systems & devices including the Steam Deck, can make Denuvo "count each Proton swap as a new activation".

Doom: The Dark Ages, Pragmata, Stellar Blade, Resident Evil Requiem, & Hogwarts Legacy are among the 26 games in Denuvo's complaint, which alleges for each that "Defendant has bypassed the Denuvo Anti-Tamper".

Steam reviewers locked out of Denuvo-protected games (Steam post dates in U.S. Pacific Time)

Game	Date	What the reviewer did	What happened	Denuvo's status afterward
Dying Light 2 Stay Human	February 3, 2022	Steam buyer helena, whose Steam review of the game recommends it (1.0 hrs at review time), wrote of having to restart the game on GeForce NOW, NVIDIA's cloud game-streaming service, "a couple of times to find a good balance between quality and performance".	helena wrote that "it seems like Denuvo has locked me out of my own copy" & quoted the message "please wait 24 hours and try again". In a later post, helena wrote that the game had unlocked & that "its not exactly 24hour block".	A Techland developer reply from the account Uncy_Techland on helena's review said we're currently gathering Denuvo feedback, could you please report it to [email protected]? We're wondering if DRM impacted your gameplay performance in any way GameRant reported on February 1, 2023 that a new update removed Denuvo from the game.
Doom: The Dark Ages	October 5, 2025	Steam buyer onion_eater_2 (3.3 hrs at review time), playing on Linux, wrote of trying a different Proton version, then getting an updated Linux kernel in a distribution upgrade, then trying a third Proton version. On May 15, 2025, buyer PLEB-GAMING (10.0 hrs at review time) wrote of uninstalling & reinstalling the game.	onion_eater_2 wrote "Banned for 24 hours." after each of the three changes. PLEB-GAMING wrote of "Having to wait 24 hours because you were uninstalling and reinstalling a game YOU BOUGHT". 404 Media reported on May 15, 2025 that the game's anti-piracy software was "locking out Linux users who paid for the game".	Bethesda & id Software removed Denuvo with Patch 4.0, DSOGaming reported on July 8, 2026. Squires-Hand of GamingOnLinux wrote on July 13, 2026 that "the Steam page does still state it has Denuvo", while reports across the Steam forum, Reddit & elsewhere were "confirming it has actually been removed".
Pragmata	April 16, 2026	Steam buyer TrickySleeves (0.4 hrs on record) wrote of trying different Proton versions. Buyer uwuclara (0.7 hrs at review time), who wrote of preordering the game three months earlier, wrote "Game had disabled ray tracing, so I tried launch option" & then wrote of trying different Proton versions.	TrickySleeves quoted the message "Currently your game purchase cannot be re-validated successfully, please wait 24 hours and try again." uwuclara wrote "on launch day I'm banned from playing because 5 machine activation limit". On April 19, 2026, buyer elscire (0.4 hrs at review time) wrote of being "locked out of this game for 24 hours the very day I buy it" after changing Proton versions. Notebookcheck reported on April 17, 2026 that "Negative Steam reviews reveal how swapping Proton versions can lock players out for 24 hours."	Pragmata's Steam store page still listed Denuvo Anti-tamper on September 20, 2026.
Monster Hunter Wilds	February 28, 2025	Steam buyer cyjonek (4.3 hrs at review time) wrote that Denuvo takes each version of Proton "(hotfix, experimental, GE)" as a separate device, & wrote of having "checked which version runs the best". Steam reviewer OST93 (1.6 hrs on record), reviewing the same day, wrote of changing Proton versions.	cyjonek wrote of getting "locked out of playing the game for 24h" & added "I've paid 70 euro for this". OST93 wrote of being locked out by Denuvo for 24 hours "because I changed the Proton version too often".	Monster Hunter Wilds' Steam store page still listed Denuvo Anti-tamper on September 21, 2026.
Stellar Blade	August 4, 2025	Steam buyer 喜·德·13 (6.7 hrs at review time) wrote of trying different Proton versions.	The reviewer wrote of getting "a 24 hour block by Denuvo for trying out different Proton versions".	Stellar Blade's Steam store page listed Denuvo Anti-Tamper as of April 12, 2026.
For the Proton lockouts in the rows above, Denuvo product manager Andreas Ullmann wrote on the blog of Irdeto, which acquired Denuvo in January 2018, on August 27, 2026 that different Proton versions "could be interpreted differently by the protection system" & that "Denuvo has since addressed this behavior". The post names no specific games.

• Steam posts and reviews quoted in the table above
• 
  Steam user helena wrote that after restarting Dying Light 2 on GeForce Now "it seems like Denuvo has locked me out of my own copy", and wrote in a later post that the game had unlocked and "its not exactly 24hour block".
• 
  Steam user helena's Recommended review of Dying Light 2, posted February 3, 2022 with 1.0 hours at review time, carries a February 6, 2022 developer response from Uncy_Techland saying "we're currently gathering Denuvo feedback" and "We're wondering if DRM impacted your gameplay performance in any way".
• 
  Steam reviewer onion_eater_2, with 3.3 hours in DOOM: The Dark Ages at review time, wrote "Banned for 24 hours." after each of two Proton version changes and a kernel update in an October 5, 2025 review.
• 
  Steam reviewer TrickySleeves wrote Denuvo followed by the message "Currently your game purchase cannot be re-validated successfully, please wait 24 hours and try again." in a review of Pragmata and wrote that it followed trying different Proton versions.
• 
  Steam reviewer uwuclara, who wrote of preordering Pragmata three months before launch, wrote that "on launch day I'm banned from playing because 5 machine activation limit" after trying different Proton versions.
• 
  Steam reviewer cyjonek wrote in a February 28, 2025 review of Monster Hunter Wilds "I got locked out of playing the game for 24h", adding "I've paid 70 euro for this".
• 
  A Steam reviewer wrote in an August 4, 2025 review of Stellar Blade, with 6.7 hours at review time, "I got a 24 hour block by Denuvo for trying out different Proton versions".

Denuvo product manager Andreas Ullmann wrote on Irdeto's blog on August 27, 2026 that different Proton versions "could be interpreted differently by the protection system" and that "Denuvo has since addressed this behavior".

Reviewers and hardware testers

• Jake Roach of Tom's Hardware wrote on February 26, 2026 that "Denuvo flagged a CPU swap as a different device" while he tested Resident Evil Requiem, & that every five chips he tested he would "essentially be locked out of the game for 24 hours". He cut testing from around 35 planned processors (CPUs) to 13. After publication, Denuvo reached out to give Tom's Hardware access to fully test games using Anti-Tamper, including Requiem.
• Zak Killian of HotHardware wrote on August 27, 2024 that a change in the Windows 11 update KB5041587 "causes Denuvo to count the machine as a new install", & that the site was locked out of testing the update in Hogwarts Legacy on its Ryzen 7 5800X3D system.
• Gamers Nexus wrote in an April 1, 2024 article that it swapped CPUs & graphics cards (GPUs) between tests while benchmarking Dragon's Dogma 2, & that it got "locked out for 24 hours after 5 component changes due to BS DRM", which led it to buy four copies, & that "they got $280 out of us for this story". On March 21, 2024, the game's store page listed Denuvo Anti-tamper with a "5 different PC within a day machine activation limit". PCGamesN reported that, according to SteamDB changelogs, Denuvo was removed from the game on September 2, 2026, & that reports of another DRM, Enigma, being added were unconfirmed.

Gamers Nexus wrote that while benchmarking Dragon's Dogma 2 it was "locked out for 24 hours after 5 component changes due to BS DRM", which led it to buy four copies of the game.

• Wolfgang Andermahr of the German site ComputerBase wrote on August 20, 2018 that Denuvo deactivated the F1 2018 CD key for 24 hours after five different CPU activations, so no further processors could be tested. ComputerBase had received the pre-release version under a non-disclosure agreement the week before.

Outages and processor incompatibility

PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor reported on November 8, 2021 that players had hit a "server not reachable" error when starting Denuvo-protected games during a Denuvo server problem on November 7, including Guardians of the Galaxy, Football Manager 2022, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, & Persona 4 Golden. A Denuvo spokesperson told PC Gamer that "A Denuvo domain was unreachable yesterday afternoon CET." & that the problem was fixed after its automatic system control notified the company. TorrentFreak reported that a user who believed the affected games' DRM provider had let a key domain expire identified codefusion.technology as the culprit & posted a screenshot of its domain registration (WHOIS) records showing that the domain had expired on September 24, 2021 & had not been renewed.

PCMag reported on November 5, 2021 that Intel had posted a release saying its Alder Lake processors can be incompatible with certain games; PCMag described them as "specifically some protected by the anti-piracy DRM software from Denuvo". Intel's support article says certain third-party DRM software "may incorrectly recognize" the efficient cores (E-cores) of 12th Generation Core processors "as another system", & that games "may crash during launch or gameplay". Tom's Hardware reported the same day as PCMag that Irdeto confirmed its software was the one having problems with Alder Lake's efficiency cores, & quoted Irdeto saying Denuvo had "provided patches for those titles to be compatible with Alder Lake". Intel later wrote that all games originally identified with the issue "have been fixed through game patches or OS updates".

Lawsuit filed September 14, 2026

Denuvo GmbH filed its complaint on September 14, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, docketed as case number 5:26-cv-10423. It names voices38, described as "an unknown individual or entity," together with ten Doe defendants. Denuvo does not know the cracker's real identity; the complaint lists a Discord user ID, a Reddit account, and seven Steam profiles it believes are linked to voices38. TorrentFreak reported on September 16, 2026 that, with a case on file, Denuvo could ask the court for permission to subpoena Valve, Reddit, & Discord for the account details, & that there was "no discovery request in the docket yet". TorrentFreak reported that, as far as it knew, this was "the first time Denuvo has sued a cracker in a U.S. court."

The complaint pleads two counts, both under the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. Count One alleges violation of 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1), the prohibition that states:

[n]o person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

Count Two alleges violation of 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2), the provision covering trafficking in circumvention technology. The complaint's cover page is titled a complaint for copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 1201. The complaint names 26 games and identifies the publisher of each, including Hogwarts Legacy, Black Myth Wukong, Resident Evil Requiem, Doom: The Dark Ages, EA Sports FIFA 20, and PES 2020.

Anti-circumvention claims without copyright ownership

The complaint states that the publisher or owner of each work "contracted with Denuvo to use the Denuvo Anti-Tamper product to protect each work." The complaint cites 17 U.S.C. § 1203 & alleges that the circumvention "has injured and will continue to injure Plaintiff". TorrentFreak wrote that "the DMCA allows anyone that's harmed by these bypasses to file a lawsuit". TBreak reported that Denuvo says its business depends on licensing Anti-Tamper to publishers including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Capcom, & Sony, "making the cracks a direct commercial loss".

Relief sought

The prayer for relief requests actual damages and the defendant's profits under 17 U.S.C. § 1203(c)(2), or in the alternative statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. § 1203(c)(3). The injunction it seeks would bar the defendant from "circumventing Denuvo's Anti-Tamper in any past, present, or future video game".

Background

Denuvo's complaint describes Anti-Tamper as one of the security measures developers & publishers use to "prevent unauthorized access, copying, and distribution of video games". TheGamer wrote that Denuvo cracking had dried up almost entirely in 2025 after Empress departed the scene. TheGamer wrote that DRM was getting harder to penetrate by traditional methods, "demanding far more skill and unpaid time to reverse-engineer each individual game". Cracks resumed in 2026 when a newcomer using the handle voices38 released a crack for Doom: The Dark Ages, & TheGamer reported that almost 30 games had been cracked in the months since.

Press reaction

TorrentFreak, which obtained a copy of the complaint, noted that voices38 had by then released new cracks not among the 26 games named, such as Persona 3 Reload & Star Wars Outlaws. Tom's Hardware likewise listed Star Wars: Outlaws, Persona 3 Reload, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown among the cracker's recent releases.

TheGamer wrote that even if Denuvo unmasks the cracker, the lawsuit's impact will depend heavily on where voices38 is based, & that if voices38 is operating from Russia, for example, enforcing a U.S. lawsuit "could prove difficult". Regardless of whether voices38 is unmasked, TheGamer wrote, a win for Denuvo would make it harder for the cracker to distribute future work on Reddit & Discord and may deter other crackers from risking similar legal scrutiny.

Tom's Hardware reported on September 16, 2026 that the case is in its early stages & that Denuvo's allegations have yet to be tested in court.

See also

• Denuvo
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Digital rights management
• Right to repair