'Rime' Cracked Less Than A Week After Release, Dev Promises DRM-Free Version

The launch of Tequila Works’ Rime last week wasn’t smooth due to some performance issues, some of which seemed to be attributed to the game’s Denuvo digital rights management (DRM) system. Many users complained about its use to the point where one of the developers went on Steam to say that if someone managed to release a cracked version of the game, the developers would create a DRM-free version. The challenge was accepted, and less than a week after the post, a cracked version appeared online. Now Tequila Works is living up to its promise.

The cracked game was put up on Skidrow Games Reloaded by a user called "Baldman," and it completely removes the Denuvo software from the game. According to a post from Cody Bradley, a lead producer from Rime publisher Grey Box, the implementation of Denuvo in Rime allows it to check that Steam or Origin’s own DRM software is also attached to the game. According to Baldman, this constant check put too much stress on performance with about 10 - 30 checks, or “triggers” as Baldman refers to them, per second, resulting in heavily reduced performance.

In his post, Bradley acknowledged that Denuvo’s checks created “a small performance hit,” but he said that the performance issues reported by players are separate from Denuvo’s impact on the game. However, he also acknowledged that this assumption might be wrong as well, and the studio and publisher will continue to monitor the situation. 

Other than Baldman’s claim regarding the high number of checks, there’s aren’t any other pieces of evidence that show the high check count within the DRM software. Bradley’s statement mentioned the protocol, but he didn’t divulge specifics as to the number of times it calls for the Steam or Origin DRM.

In any case, Tequila Works acknowledged Baldman’s work, and stayed true to its promise. The studio tweeted that it plans to release a DRM-free version of Rime in the future, saying that "a promise is a promise." In the same tweet, the studio also pushed the blame of implementing Denuvo into the game to Grey Box, saying that “we didn’t implement that protection in the 1st [sic] place.”

In the meantime, there’s still more work to be done in terms of improving other performance issues that Grey Box found among user-reported problems. Bradley noted general gameplay issues for those using AMD’s Radeon RX 580 GPUs. There are also more specific issues for Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 users who might experience problems with super-sample anti-aliasing. Bradley did report that some users with GTX 900 cards have reported improved performance if the game’s V-Sync setting was set to Double Buffering.

  • dstarr3
    Denuvo isn't something that devs typically embed in their game permanently, anyway. Most of the time it's removed after 3-6 months, after the period of highest piracy rates has passed. It's hardly there to be impenetrable, it's just there as a theft deterrent for those that can be deterred. As for the pirates that can't be deterred, well, no DRM will stop them anyway, so what's the difference.
    Reply
  • uglyduckling81
    It's just funny how people jump up and down about how hard denuvo is to beat. Dare to challenge people over it though and its cracked within days.
    Reply
  • mrmez
    Hahaaaa.

    These guys need to take a break from programming and study human behaviour for 5 minutes.
    1. Tell somebody they can't do something.
    2. Watch them do it anyway.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    19764160 said:
    Hahaaaa.

    These guys need to take a break from programming and study human behaviour for 5 minutes.
    1. Tell somebody they can't do something.
    2. Watch them do it anyway.

    I'm pretty sure this is what they wanted though. It sounds like the publisher wanted the copy protection added, while the developer didn't, so the developer challenged people to break it to encourage the publisher to let them release a DRM-free version sooner. Or maybe it's all just a publicity stunt.
    Reply
  • none12345
    Why would anyone program DRM to check 30 times a second? Whats wrong with once every 10 mintues...
    Reply
  • XaveT
    I'm curious to see if they actually do it. I may have to buy it to support them if they actually live up to the promise.

    Honesty and living by one's word is just so... out-of-place in this age.
    Reply
  • Mr5oh
    I waited till Doom pulled out the DRM to buy it... Pirates are going pirate no matter what. Are they really stopping anything? There maybe more people out there like me who avoid titles like that as well. I don't mind paying for something, but I'm not going through the hassles of dealing with DRM.
    Reply
  • Morbus
    Bethesda doesn't allow early access of their games to the press, they can burn in hell.
    Reply
  • jeremy2020
    DRM doesn't work. DRM just causes problems for people who pay for the game. It's silly, pointless. It has been proven over and over and over that it is far more effective to connect with your fans and give them a reason to support you than waste money on DRM.

    If a million people pirate your game...you're gonna be doing fine because piracy rates are ridiculously low so you likely sold many millions of copies. The amount of time, money and effort put into anti-piracy efforts is silly.
    Reply
  • RomeoReject
    One developer does a terrible implementation of DRM, and suddenly DRM is a huge headache for every user of every game.

    I legitimately don't know how many games I have that use Denuvo, because it's completely in the background.
    Reply