For game developers, it may seem like software piracy is an all but unstoppable fact of life for the industry, but according to the founder of well known Chinese hacker forum 3DM, game piracy might be dead in just two short years.

The revelation came after numerous users questioned why it was taking the group so long to release a crack for Just Cause 3, which came out at the end of November.

“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,” 3DM’s founder, who goes by the name Bird Sister, said in a forum post (via TorrentFreak).

Software piracy has been a concern for game makers for about as long as personal computers have been a thing, and with modern tools like Bittorent, curtailing digital piracy has become incredibly difficult.

Studios have tried all sorts of tactics to reduce piracy, ranging from guilting users for playing a pirated copy to locking down content with the most draconian of digital rights management (DRM) programs. Unfortunately for game makers and players, DRM is often more of a headache for legitimate players than for pirates, and Bird Sister noted that it is encryption technology, not DRM, that may be the real death of game piracy.

“Uncrackable”

The current tough nut to crack (see what I did there?) is Denuvo Anti-Tamper, an anti-tampering program that protects game files from being modified. Created by Austrian company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, the software has been used on numerous titles, including Fifa 16, Batman: Arkham Knight, and Just Cause 3.

Once called “uncrackable,”3DM actually has managed to compromise Denuvo-protected games like Dragon Age: Inquisition. However, the group is steadily finding the software more and more difficult to penetrate.

“I still believe that [Just Cause 3] can be compromised,” Bird Sister said. “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.”

Image courtesy of Avalanche Studios