[Updated] Sonic Mania’s Denuvo DRM cracked 8 days after PC launch

[Update: Judging from some reactions on social media, it looks like it’s not been clear whether we were celebrating this news, we really aren’t! Perhaps I miss-worded some things in my original post and I apologise if you think we are condoning piracy – we are definitely not. But thank you for your feedback on this.

To give some clarification, Denuvo is known to be a problematic DRM system and caused many users on Steam to give Sonic Mania some very negative feedback, on an otherwise well-celebrated title! The fact the DRM has been breached, should be cause for concern for SEGA and might actually make them re-think using Denuvo either for Sonic Mania, or for future titles, which would be a good thing for PC gamers who are against using Denuvo as a DRM (especially as there are other DRM options out there).]

While DRM isn’t usually a concern for PC gamers these days, a lot of people were annoyed because Denuvo has become infamous for causing significant performance problems with games and, effectively, acting like malware (becoming troublesome to uninstall).

But, according to DSOGaming, Sonic Mania‘s Denuvo has been hacked, just eight days after it launched on PC. While we don’t condone piracy on SEGA Nerds, it’s understandable why hackers made the effort to break through this DRM – after some users reported performance problems with the game, due to Denuvo. With Denuvo (and therefore issues associated with it) removed, the pirated version of the game could be considered the best on PC right now – to clarify, that’s not a good thing and something that SEGA should be concerned about.

SEGA has confirmed that it is looking into resolving any problems with the PC version of Sonic Mania, but so far there is no indication of whether they will remove Denuvo. That said, on previous occasions where Denuvo has been cracked, such as DOOM, Mass Effect: Andromeda and Hitman (seriously, if it’s this easy to break and causes user-experience issues, why are companies using it?), publishers have just gone and removed it, to help secure legitimate sales and stop to the pirates – so maybe SEGA will do the same, now that it has been broken?

If you’re not happy with the DRM situation, the best advice is to get Sonic Mania legitimately on another system, if you can, it’s a great game and well worth the entry fee!