Despite launching with the Digital Rights Management software, Lies of P has been cracked after Denuvo was mistakenly removed, finally giving pirates a chance to sail the seven seas and download a copy.
While our sister site's Lies of P review praised the game, with our reviewer stating "Lies of P found ways to frustrate me in the best and worst of ways, but the good certainly outshone the bad", and giving it a great 9/10 score, there's bound to be people on PC looking to avoid the game due to Denuvo.
However, this small mistake has given pirates the opportunity to download Lies of P, without the terrible and performance-killing Denuvo attached to it. As shared by PC_Focus on Twitter, the developers accidentally removed the DRM software, with the game then being cracked by RUNE.
At the time of writing, the Steam storefront still includes the "Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: Denuvo Anti-tamper" on the Lies of P page. This suggests that Denuvo is already back in the game, so it's only a small victory across the board. However, we hope that the game being cracked in the short time the DRM was removed will cause Neowiz Games to remove Denuvo permanently. Alas, that is a pipe dream.
This means that, people who pirate the game will likely get a better experience than those who purchased it via Steam. Denuvo has a long history of causing problems, including performance issues, and if you're playing on the best gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck, you'll have to reconnect to the internet occasionally to get access to a game you bought.
As you can tell, we're not huge fans of Denuvo DRM. We understand why it exists in a financial sense, but it is a costly investment for publishers, and when things like this happen, it ruins the experience for those who purchased a copy and supported developers. Nevertheless, whether you're playing a cracked copy or looking to finally pick up the game, make sure to find out how to fast travel in Lies of P, as well as how long Lies of P takes to beat, before you journey into one of 2023's best soulslikes.