When I started gaming two decades ago, I didn’t even know about the concept of piracy, DRM and everything else surrounding the subject – I knew that if my friend had a floppy disc with a game on it, he could give it to me, I could install it and play it. It was free, it was great! I didn’t know that I was actually pirating games, but ever since the first title was cracked and money were lost by its developers, the companies have tried to find a way to stop piracy.

Dragon Age: Inquisition might be the title that did the best job at stopping or delaying piracy and it certainly is one of the best examples of games that can’t be cracked yet. Indeed, even today, the Dragon Age: Inquisition crack that so many gamers are waiting for – which allows them to play the game without having to pay for it – is nowhere to be found and all versions of the game, PC, PS4 and Xbox One are safe from pirates.

This is probably because of an otherwise controversial anti-piracy system, Denuvo, one that for the moment can’t be hacked. Most likely it will be broken eventually, but the wait might just give BioWare and EA some extra customers who simply can’t wait to play the game. Is this right? Is a Dragon Age: Inquisition crack that enables piracy a must and such a big surprise that there’s none yet on the market?

The truth is that PC gamers are pretty much used to even playing their favorite titles before they even get officially released. For some, this is a way to test the game out before purchasing, but for most, this is the only way they want to play the game. I won’t go into specifics – like people not affording to pay for the game or countries where the game’s not even available, like is the case with India who banned Dragon Age: Inquisition, but we can’t ignore the fact that piracy is here, it exists and it plays a major role in gaming – not only on PC.

What I am most curious, though, is if the lack of a Dragon Age: Inquisition crack means better sales for the game, because I really doubt it changes the numbers too much. A person who wants to play a pirated version of the game, will patiently wait for it to be cracked. If somebody doesn’t have the money to buy a product, that someone won’t instantly get the money overnight just because of some unbreakable anti-piracy methods.

So far, Denuvo seems to be winning and this might mean that more developers are likely to implement it as an anti-piracy measure. We’ll see.

66 COMMENTS

    • this ^^
      i’ve been watching the gameplay footage and they are following the da2 style. i will probably play it cracked to test it but my sad guess is that it will not even worth the download. and as such (its a crap and they dont offer refund if im unhappy with the product after purchase) i take it as a scam. if they can legally scam me, i can legally steal it :) and i dont care if they dont like it.

    • Your loss, friend. It’s nothing like DA2 outside of the combat tempo/skill trees and DA atmosphere. It’s not without a few flaws but its basically the best parts of the DA series, Skyrim, Mass Effect and older rpgs like Suikoden, combined. Fantastic reviews from every major website, nominations for best rpg and game of the year. Probably the best we’ve seen from the genre in a very long time and an extremely heavy hitter compared to games of the past 5 years.

    • yeah its not worth purchasing, especially now that it has worse companions than DA2, short story (promised to be 100+ hours but instead it’s 12 hours only), with DA2 UI, and worst yet, microtransactions for in-game equipment.

    • @putnamehere it’s not possible to beat the game in 12 hours I think, even if you could one shot every enemy in the game, you still have to obtain power to do main quests, even if you skipped all the dialogue + one hit killed every enemy, the travel time going quest to quest would take up those 12 hours easily.

      This is assuming that you’re focusing solely on beating the game in the fastest time.

    • Yeah that’s because the protection on the older systems is a joke. Denuvo is only on the pc and as far as the new consoles, well nobody has hacked them yet.

    • That doesn’t track. THey still make lots of money porting it to PC, which is why they do it now anyway. There is just no way to absolutely safeguard a product without requiring it to be always online in the realm of what D3 did.

    • games aren’t “ported” to PC. They are ported to consoles. Games are made on PC.Yes some are designed to play on specific consoles, but pretty much any game released for PC and consoles had the PC version made first.

  1. It’s nothing like DA2, besides some combat mechanics. About the tactical view, kind of crappy, it zooms out three feets above your character, and that’s it.

    Inquisition is much more action-combat orientated than DAO. But still has that DAO feeling to it.

    Check it out on youtube. It’s still kind of great. I’ve been playing it on a friend’s house. Lots of fun.

    Besides, it’s an amazing looking game.

  2. That’s been my argument for years, just coz a game can’t be cracked it doesn’t mean sales are going to drastically increase. As a student, I only buy games once they are really cheap (under $5 on steam sales that give huge discounts, like the recent studio sales weekends). I don’t have the income to afford new games soon after their release, I hate to admit it but I do sometimes get a cracked game from a friend but if I like it, I save up to buy it when I can afford it because I want to support the creators of good games, if nobody bought games, no studio will waste their capital on developing a game if they don’t believe they’ll make a large enough profit from it. The people who can afford to buy games when they release probably won’t waste their time getting a pirated copy coz pirated copied don’t allow you to use all the online features (like assassins creed black flag)and there’s a lot less of a hassle to get it and start playing. I’m conflicted, as I like Bioware’s games, their RPGs like mass effect and dragon age are some of my favorite games, but I only bought them long after release when I could afford them after trying their pirated versions. I have to say, if there weren’t pirated games, I would never have bought the originals to start with because I wouldn’t know of the games, if their good or not, a simple demo doesn’t allow you to assess it properly. My opinion is that sales, in the long run, increase because of piracy, because people who enjoy the game will want to own an original copy, a physical copy they can see and touch, or digital one linked to steam or origin that tracks achievements or allows you to earn trading cards and badges… and those extras like dlc, dev diaries, art books ect.

  3. There’s gonna be some piraty people buying Inquisition out of desperation. I know a few myself.

    But not everyone can afford it, so there’s some folk who isn’t gonna buy the game anyway.

    Here that game is half-third an average salary, on dollar convertion.

    So, it gets kind of hard for some people.

  4. It has been proven time and time again (despite companies and commissions trying to hide it), that Piracy increases, not decreases sales.
    You can’t quantify losses of piracy because every person who pirates a game cannot be seen as a customer who would buy the game if they couldn’t pirate it.
    DRM costs the developer money, developers working with and on the DRM costs the developer money, any issues that arise from the DRM (of which there has been many, look at SimCity, SONY BMG Scandal, SecuROM scandal, The Witcher 2) all costs the developer money and harms the paying customers more than Piracy ever has.

    These are non-refutable facts.

    • I think you mean “These are unsupported assertions.”

      I’d love for all of that to be true, but you did not provide a shred of evidence.

    • Fel, just look at the devs of ”The War of Mine” and stop spilling bulls**t. Piracy is inevitable and DRM can just f**k up one’s experience. Remember how AC 2 required constant Net connection? Remember how cracks erased that requirement and let people play the game without major problems?
      Also – remember demo versions of games? Yeah, there aren’t much today. Most people just use pirated versions as a demo and then buy the game.
      Maybe not everything is true – it depends on the point of view. However, it isn’t decreasing anything.
      How can you consider a pirate a customer? No piracy = no customer, no people interested with the product, no possibility of knowing the core elements of the product via first-hand experience.

  5. I don’t know much about how cracking works but a lot of knowledgeable people are saying that a crack for Denuvo games is inevitable, just it may take some time. I think there was a Splinter Cell game once with “uncrackable” technology which took a whole year for people to crack.

  6. I wont buy it because i hate ea so much, they trolled me so hard with shit city. And pls dont argue with they gave you a free game. They gave us a free one out of their ruined shit collection. Ea faked the bf4 tech demo, it ran on three high tec workstations instead of a normal pc. Ea tears down every game studio which is stupid enough to sign a contract with these shitheads. No matter which game they wont get a single dollar from me.

  7. Its really simple….
    If you think about it, what is the next big pc release we are all waiting for?? GTA5 right!

    Denuvo has bin cracked, its just not released yet to the public to prevent the makers of GTA5 to use something different.

    Wait and see, if gta hits the pirate marked the crack for dragonage will be there the same or next day.

    peace

    • Yeah that would be nice and all but that’s just hearsay…so here is some more… I have heard that the way Denuvo works it is not that simple even once it has been cracked in one game that doesn’t mean you will be able to crack the next game any easier.

  8. I haven’t bought it yet because I suspect that there may be a bunch of porting issues between the console and PC-version and I want to try it out. If I buy a full-priced title like this and I deem it unplayable because of the port, I can’t get my money back.

    Cracking it and trying it first though will help me see if I want to buy the game or uninstall it. But maybe I am a minority here.

    In any case, I can say for a fact that I haven’t bought the game yet simply because I am unsure about how it will play on PC.

  9. If there’s a soul in here that believes there’s a DRM that cannot be cracked: You’re a complete and utter fool.

    If you build a better mouse trap, they will simply build a better mouse.

  10. Lets see and wait. I for my part simply cant afford any of those games. So there is no crack – i still dont have the money to buy it, so the only thing they achieved is that i cant enjoy their game. They’ve gotten no additional money, just a disappointed customer.

    • Lol, if you’re downloading it illegally and cracking it you are not a customer. You are a pirate and I’m sure they really do not care about your disappointment.

  11. I suspect it will hurt their sales. I would love to see it no get cracked and fall short of their projections by miles. EA need to fail before we see the industry pick up again.

  12. Honestly, with the absurd amount of sh*t being released lately, at a $60 price tag, then another $30 for release DLC or seasons pass, or similar s**t, I dont see why people cant pirate.

  13. I’ve been a PC gamer since 1994. Started out with Myst, Megarace and Doom 2.

    Can’t remember personally EVER purchasing a game for full price. I received some as gifts, but never purchased them myself. I remember going halves on a $10 Blake Stone game back in the mid 90s w/ a friend and also purchasing a Tiger Woods golf game for about 25% of the regular price around 2000. That’s it.

    BUT I just bought Dragon Age Intervention for $40.

    As sh*tty as EA is, they’ve given me tons of positive memories and I’ve never paid them back the favor… until now. The “regular” people that work for them deserve to have employment.. and I’ve been sucking off the tit way too long. My hats off to them for getting a decent protection scheme that’s probably going to take until early 2015 to beat w/o added bugs.

    • And… I have to eat my words.

      PURCHASED the game and it ran like dogsh*t. I mean, I was getting 40-50 FPS and am certainly due a processor/RAM upgrade (video card is recent).

      BUT, the load times and stuttering were absolutely horrendous. Regardless of the perhaps unfounded Denuvo criticisms, I am NOT installing this on my SSD.

      So, thankfully Origin gives you 24 hours to refund after you first launch the game. Needless to say, that’s what I did.

  14. Good. Maybe the pc sales for games will rise and we can finally see some better ports instead of everything going straight to console. I hope all of them adopt this system.

  15. If game developers just had a trial period or released more demos I would probably willingly buy more of the games I pirate simply because I’m able to test them ahead of time to warrant a purchase or not.

    Games are a medium we’re kinda screwed over on if it’s a bad purchase. “You don’t like that console game? Ok… we’ll buy it back at a significantly reduced price. Oh? It’s not a console game? A computer game you say… well you’re screwed then. Good luck have fun.”

    Pirating is almost a requirement for some buyers because they get burned too many times buying games based on bought reviews or hype trains making it greater than it is.

    Miss the days of endlessly playing UT2004 deathmatch until I saved up the money to buy the game. So either I need to make enough money to potentially throw away 60$ purchases, or remain cautious.

  16. There might be people buying the game cuz there is no crack. On the other hand, there are people like me who buy after positive “trials” with pirated version. And these people usually don’t even bother downloading anything if there is no crack in first place.
    Denuvo is probably the only one who made money from this zero sum game in the end.

  17. I am simply amused at all the console users that hate PC gamers only cause they “pirate”. It seems they haven’t grown enough and haven’t realized that it’s actually this hateful pirates that make the gaming companies most money.
    By delaying the game from being cracked they loose more then they win.
    Sorry that not all of us are still holding our parents hands, mindlessly using their credit cards to buy games which are mostly trash. Not everyone lives in America. Many in other countries are not ready to give half their monthly salary for a game that might be a total disappointment.
    After Dragon Age 2 I am sure many gamers prefer to be cautious in purchasing Inquisition. Thanks the heavens I tried the DA2 before deciding to give money cause I would have thrown it out of the balcony and demanded Bioware to give me triple the money I have given for wasting my time.
    There will be some mindless people that will rush to buy the game or harass their parents to buy it for a Christmas present. But most PC gamers who have learned how things work will stay on the save side and will not purchase before trying it out.
    It would be great if someone can make a chart of the Inquisition sales after being cracked. If the game is really the best of all the RPGs Bioware have made the sales will go to the roof. I will personally buy it if it is and not because of the multyplayer (cause it’s complete rubbish) but to show my appreciation for the hard work they have done.

  18. The problem for me, is that this game isn’t steam, because with steam, i can buy it using Dota 2 keys as i did with the Witcher 3 :(

  19. It’s not really a question of if it’s possible to crack the game, just a question of when. Anything can be de-compiled and then cracked by Windows programs itself. Should see it soon :)

  20. I have been a PC gamer since the 80s, and I have been a dirty pirate since the moment I discovered BBS’s with my brand new 1200 baud modem. I pirate for many of the reasons mentioned above: I am poor, I can’t afford brand new $60 games, though I do try to buy the good games I discover via piracy, and have bought quite a few as a result over the years. I simply do not buy games I am unable to try, so the absence of a crack for DA:I inspires in me only patience. There will be a crack. Denuvo has won only a bit of time during which we dirty pirates who might have otherwise tried it and bought it by now aren’t able to.

    Publishers that pour money into DRM are sending one message only: We neither respect nor trust our paying customers. If their DRM causes problems (Starforce), well gosh that’s just too bad. No amount of DRM is going to prevent piracy, and the return policy for PC games as a result is completely bullsh*t.

  21. Not so sure about DAI yet, it has this fetching quest feeling to it. Not much depth in between. More like an action-mmorpg, than a proper rpg.

    It looks beautiful and it’s huge, but there isn’t much quality content in between this extensive zones. Still DAO beats the crap out of Inquisition, on my honest opinion.

    But I’m just starting off, so here hoping it gets better.

  22. A lot of people live in countries Iike Iran where piracy is the only way they can play the game. And what is it the hackers haven’t cracked? As the drms become harder to break the hackers become wiser and stronger. This all just a game

  23. maybe until i finishing this games
    Kingdom Of Amalur Collection Prophet
    Far Cry 4 – The.Evil.Within – Middle.Earth.Shadow.Of.Mordor- unity and cod mw

    maybe -mayyyyyyyyyybe the crack for this f**king game is released …
    otherwise i’m not going to buy it piracy always sounds fun ……..:)

  24. Just will wait for complete edition of Dragon Age Inqusition. Then we will see already cracks and discounts in Origin. So take it easy and play in other games. I bought 5 games on Steam sales and I know what to do.

  25. Hahahaha, I love all the disappointed iThieves here! No, sales do not increase because of piracy

    Do you know what piracy has ACTUALLY done? It’s made it so that some games we make aren’t even worth making a PC version of! I was always a PC gamer at heart and I think almost all of my colleagues, the guys making these games, are too. But all of us own an X1 or PS4 now because of games that just aren’t worth it to port to PC (and yes, they are ported to PC even though they may be made on them, because games these days are usually built on the architecture of Xbox, then moved to PS4 then PC)

    And trust me that no one is fooled with the “Oh well we’ll buy it if we can just try it out first with a stolen copy!” We’re not stupid people.

    If you don’t want to pay full price for games, just wait to buy them. The prices on them always go down. I make fairly good money, but I still don’t want to pay full price for games. So I am usually playing games around a year after they release. It’s not bad once you get on this cycle, because you’ll have a continuous stream of “new” old games.

    Or you could help us out, make a Youtube account, get a good amount of viewers, do reviews on games… then send out emails to devs asking for a free digital download, if you have a real channel then usually you’ll get one! Pro tip: say you’re doing a giveaway and request another key (then actually do it or you won’t get another, you get more viewers this way). And you can make extra money with advertisments through youtube! Win-win scenario for everyone.

    • I pay every penny I earn to my unviersity, and more. You think just because you’re a 40 year old guy who is earning well only you can enjoy games. Building my dream rig cost me an arm and a leg so there is no way in hell I’m spending $60 on release for buggy pieces of s**t. Yearly releases have no value anyway.

      I pirate games when released, squeeze them dry, then hang them on my steam library when they sell for $10 a pop. If you’re angry that your conscience won’t let you do the same it’s your problem. My time to buy games at full retail will come, once I graduate and earn well. Till then I have my effing $30K a year university fee to deal with.

  26. AFAIK, what makes a port less desirable into any platform (be it PC or console) is their receptivity for a giving genre. So we’ll see less RTS on console and more on PC, and more fighting games on console and less on PC. Piracy have nothing to do with it. Besides, the PC-like architecture of the newest consoles makes the cost of porting to PC so low that not doing it have nothing to do with being worth or not worth, but more to marketing and other legal issues (like simply not wanting to). It’s childlike to think that there’s no sale or low sales on PC due the piracy (piracy isn’t PC exclusive, it’s just that PC is around the longest – I bet if the PS2 were around until now, it’s piracy rates would put the PC to shame. Hell, even Xbox360 piracy levels are getting closer to those of PC by now)
    — There’s just no way in heaven a PC game will sell less than a few thousands or even millions of copies (with piracy or not).

    Besides, as a security software developer, there’s my opinion: the whole point of Denuvo and any DRM/Anti-tampering system is to protect the game long enough to try and bring that small minority that have the resources to buy a new game but will prefer the easier method (crack it). If they don’t have their cracked version soon, they’ll end up surrendering to the hype and buy the damn game. Ah, I don’t like games, so this whole topic doesn’t concern-me, it’s just the new security system that picked my interest and I wanted to give my 2 cents on the whole subject. Peace.

  27. Pirates are sometimes just -pissed about the entertainment quality of modern games and the lack of demo versions -simply not able to afford it -want to play for free -want to be able to share it -want just the game, no background software/activation hazzle, code redeeming on websites/multiple portals/accounts -yelling ARRRH! -buying a game they pirated to test and then support the devs -also just human beings

  28. I am pretty sure Denuvo has won.

    It’s like real life boat pirates, a time will come where pirates can’t simply follow in terms of resources. Yes they will be able to board a simple ship, but when the navy is present they pretty much have no chance. Even if the people are equally smart, they just can’t afford or have access to equal resources.

    Some people that crack games out of hobby can’t keep up with a dedicated company.

    I personally will not buy it or any similar game, because I can’t possibly support such promotion methods. I could forget about the games going up to 60euro from 50, still: You don’t preorder? Miss content. You don’t buy from that place? Miss content. No deluxe edition? Miss content. DLCs. Even if you buy the deluxe edition, you still miss content because there is promotional content if you buy from a certain online store! All that for games that turned out not worthy of their cost, the vast majority of them.

    The worst? Exchange rate exploitation. They gain 30% just by making Euro=Dollar. I am not gonna give you 30% more even if the game costs only $10. It’s like saying “I’ll stick a carrot you know where, but only 30% of it”.

    So I won’t buy the game(s). If the price drops to $5 and I am like “I don’t want that burger that much anyway” and give that money for a complete edition(all content), I might get it.

  29. I would just like to point out a few things all found on Google in public records.

    US$3.797 billion (2013) (ea net profit)
    US$4.9 billion. (2013) (HBO net profit)

    EA stance is make it where noone can pirate it so more people buy it….
    HBO stance (shown with HBOGO) “It’s not that we’re unmindful of it, it just has no impact on the business,” HBO CEO Richard Plepler said. It is, in many ways, a “terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers,” he said, noting that it could potentially lead to more subscribers in the future.

    so to break this down….
    HBO who makes more money than EA with a product that is easier to pirate on a MASSIVE front, accepts people pirating because it can lead to more future buyers of their product and service while EA has the opposite stance.

    Seems to me like more companies need to hop aboard and take the Truth Serum with HBO and make a product they are confident in and not worry about people pirating because it is just another form of advertising for a great product.

    • I’ll believe it when I see it!

      The problem was Denuvo, if it’s been cracked, then the rest of the game should be cracked within a day.

      Maybe the crackers will make a deal with Ubisoft to delay the crack in exchange for big $$$!

  30. Well seems like filthy pirates are trolling this article along with denuvo, the crack is out and is working as it should be.

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