Horizon Forbidden West's PC Port Was Cracked Just 30 Seconds After Launch

thegamer.com:

Horizon Forbidden West's long-awaited PC port finally hit Steam earlier today, bringing Aloy's second adventure to an entirely new audience. It means that more people than ever can experience one of PlayStation's best titles, but it also means that it's much more at risk of piracy, and publishers are going to start wondering what the heck they have to do for their games to stop being pirated, as Horizon Forbidden West was cracked in just 30 seconds after release.

According to PC_Focus, a program called Fairlight was used to bypass Steam's protection and had Horizon Forbidden West in the hands of pirates within 30 seconds of the game's Steam launch. Of course, a PlayStation game getting cracked on Steam isn't too shocking, as it more than likely happens to every big title released on the platform, but for someone to do it in only 30 seconds for a game the size of Horizon Forbidden West is pretty impressive.

Of course, it was made a lot easier due to the fact that Horizon Forbidden West didn't launch with anything like Denuvo, leaving the game's only protection being Steam's built-in DRM. It's been around a while, and there are plenty of people that know how to get past it easily by now, but it does highlight why some publishers keep sticking with Denuvo DRM despite its horrible reputation.

Denuvo DRM has been at the center of some performance issue controversies in the past, including titles like Redfall, Payday 3, and Mortal Kombat 1.

Those on the receiving end of these performance issues have always maintained that Denuvo DRM doesn't really stop piracy, and only punishes paying customers by plaguing games with problems those who pirate the game don't have to deal with, which is also why some publishers just take the hit. PlayStation more than likely knew Horizon Forbidden West would be pirated the moment it hit PC, so it should probably be commended for just dealing with it and not stuffing its game with pointless anti-piracy software.

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