Unfortunately for Conan Exiles developer, Funcom, a build of the online open-world title went live without its Denuvo Anti-Tamper software, leaving it vulnerable for piracy. Naturally, it didn’t take long for software pirates to offer that version of Conan Exiles to any who wanted a free copy.
According to Funcom, “Denuvo was temporarily removed due to an error in the build process. A new build went live shortly after this one that had the anti-tamper software reinserted, but unfortunately the damage was done."
Normally this wouldn’t be as big of an issue considering Conan Exiles is an online game. Most of the time, when a game requires an online connection, gamers have to possess the most current version of the game to connect to the servers and play online. However, Conan Exiles doesn’t require players to connect to the official servers. Rather, gamers can enjoy the survival game alone or with friends on private servers. This means those with pirated copies can play the game as much as they want solo or with friends, so long as they stick with the current build.
That said, Conan Exiles is currently in Early Access on Steam, which means there will be many updates coming for the title. Any gamer who has a pirated copy will miss out on bug fixes and new features, unless they purchase the official version on Steam. This seems to be Funcom’s hope, which recently shared details of the situation with Eurogamer.
Fortunately for Denuvo, the situation with Conan Exiles’ piracy wasn’t due to the anti-tamper software. Denuvo received a lot of backlash this past week when it was discovered that pirates had cracked Resident Evil 7’s anti-piracy within a week. The anti-theft software creator is undoubtedly anxious to continue improving the software to keep games from getting pirated, and is likely relieved to learn the issue with Conan Exiles was due to a misstep on the part of Funcom.
What do you think about Conan Exiles getting pirated?
Conan Exiles is currently available on PC via Steam Early Access. It is set to launch on Xbox One as part of the Game Preview Program sometime in Spring 2017.
