A member of the high-profile 3DM group of software pirates has reportedly forecast the death of game piracy by 2018 thanks to the increasing quality of software encryption and other anti-tampering technology.
While it seems incredibly unlikely that game piracy will ever completely stop, developers may find this proclamation intriguing because, as TorrentFreak reports, it's based on how tricky a time 3DM is having cracking Avalanche's Just Cause 3, which is protected (in part) by Denuvo Anti-Tampering technology.
The (reportedly pricey) Denuvo tech is intriguing because it doesn't bill itself as DRM; instead, it seeks to protect extant DRM solutions (like Steam, or Electronic Arts' Origin platform) by preventing people from tampering with their code.
It has, in the past, been celebrated/blamed for significantly hindering pirates' efforts to crack games like FIFA 15 and Dragon Age Inquisition. Avalanche is now using it in recent releases like Mad Max and Just Cause 3.
"Recently, many people have asked about cracks for ‘Just Cause 3′, so here is a centralized answer to this question. The last stage is too difficult and Jun [cracking guy] nearly gave up, but last Wednesday I encouraged him to continue,” reads a TorrentFreak translation of a blog post from the founder of 3DM.
"I still believe that this game can be compromised. But according to current trends in the development of encryption technology, in two years time I’m afraid there will be no free games to play in the world."
The proclamation comes as many game makers are moving away from DRM entirely. Most small-scale developers don't bother with it, and even bigger studios like CD Projekt Red have seen significant success releasing DRM-free games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.