We Know How Much Crytek Pays for DRM in Crysis Remastered
Thanks to the documents recently stolen by hackers, we found out how much Crytek paid for using the Denuvo DRM system.
- 140,000 euros for 12 months of protection, and then 2,000 euros for every next month thereafter,
- 60,000 extra if the game gets more than 0.5 million activations in the first 30 days,
- 10,000 for each additional digital distribution service,
- 0.4 euro for each activation at WeGame.
Last month we reported that the hacker group Egregor managed to steal valuable data from Crytek. Since then, the documents have been slowly surfacing on the web. The latest set revealed how much the team paid for using DRM Denuvo in Crysis Remastered.
The 12-month use of this anti-piracy system is expected to cost Crytek 140,000 euros, of which 126,000 is to be paid by the studio on March 31, 2021. After one year, each subsequent month of protection will cost 2 thousand euros
The contract also specifies an additional fee of EUR 60,000 if the game receives more than half a million unique activations in the first 30 days after its release. In addition, each activation on WeGame is to cost €0.4 and the studio will have to pay €10,000 for each new digital distribution service on which Crysis Remastered will be released.
Analyzing the above data, it should be taken into account that the document comes from mid-September this year. In October, Crysis Remastered's security was cracked and it is not known whether the agreement provided for changes in the financial conditions in such case.
It is worth comparing these amounts with the prices for using Denuvo that one of Reddit users was supposed to have received from the DRM's creators in 2016. According to this information, it was possible to pay once or for each copy. In the case of the first option, the kost was 100 thousand euros (a large AAA game, which is to be sold in over 0.5 million copies), 50 thousand euros (AA games) or 10 thousand (indie productions with sales below 100 thousand copies). If the second option was chosen, EUR 2.5 thousand had to be paid upfront, and then EUR 0.15 for each sold copy of the game.
Crysis Remastered debuted on September 18, this year on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Two months earlier, a less sophisticated version was released on Nintendo Switch. The PC edition is currently available only on Epic Games Store and (for Chinese players) on WeGame.
