The Last Of Us Part 2’s Steam Release Has Already Been Cracked Hours After Release

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered may have just been released on PC, but it appears that it’s already been cracked. In other words, video game pirates have found a way to pull the game off Steam and into the seedy underbelly of the torrenting world. For reference, the game was released at 1 p.m. EST, meaning it didn’t even have a day on the digital shelves.

The crack, which was announced on Twitter, allegedly took a handful of minutes to make happen. Soon after, multiple other pirating organizations announced their own versions of the game.

As it stands, the game has about 20,000 active concurrent players, according to SteamDB. That number figures to be higher had prospective players been forced to, well, actually buy the game.

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Games Have Been Getting Cracked Quicker And Quicker

This wouldn’t be the first time that a game that was released on Steam quickly found itself in the dark corners of the Internet. Back in January, the PC port of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was allegedly cracked in just two minutes. Afterward, nearly 300,000 peers, or people attempting to download the file, were found.

Before that, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was also cracked within hours of its release. That came despite Square Enix offering a 30 percent discount on the game to players. Still, that didn’t seem to hamper the game’s PC launch all too much, as it became the series’ biggest single-player launch on PC.

The quick turnaround is largely due to these releases not having Denuovo software included in the download. The software, a digital rights management system, helps prevent piracy, though often at the expense of game performance.

In the case of InZoi, it was removed altogether in order to facilitate better modding, though many PC games opt to include it in order to prevent situations like the ones above. Ultimately, it’s on the publisher and developer to add it in, and it’s unclear why Sony would choose not to, but until they do, instantaneous PC cracks will continue to be a thing.

Systems

Released

January 19, 2024

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

Publisher(s)

Sony Interactive Entertainment

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