Rocksteady's Denuvo Leak: Suicide Squad Cracked But Is It Worth the Trouble?

A recent slip-up by Rocksteady has led to the accidental release of a Denuvo-free executable file for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, sparking a wave of piracy as the game was swiftly cracked by piracy groups. While the team at Rocksteady quickly restored Denuvo to the Steam version, the damage had already been done, and the file was in the hands of pirates.

This isn’t the first time a developer has unintentionally released an executable without Denuvo protection. Past examples include Lies of P, Persona 5 Strikers, and Conan Exiles, which all saw similar incidents where games were temporarily released without anti-piracy measures.

Despite the leak, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been criticized for being an average game, with many citing its lackluster gameplay and an infamously bad ending. The game, which follows the Games as a Service (GaaS) model, doesn’t seem to have sparked much excitement among players, and it’s argued that players aren’t missing much if they choose to skip it.

This situation shines a light on the ongoing debate around Denuvo, the anti-piracy software used by many developers, including Warner Bros. for Suicide Squad. While it’s hard to deny that Denuvo is effective in delaying cracks, protecting games for the first two to three months, it has been widely criticized for being anti-consumer, punishing legitimate buyers with added system strain. Some publishers, including Square Enix, Capcom, and Bandai Namco, have recently started removing Denuvo from older titles, which has led to calls for more publishers to follow suit.

For now, though, the question remains: Is it really worth using Denuvo on a title that struggles to make an impact? Fans of Suicide Squad and other GaaS games might be left wondering if these protective measures are serving anyone but the pirates—and if it's truly worth continuing a practice that punishes paying customers.