Konami’s new horror game, Silent Hill f, leaked online days before its official release date of September 25th. The game was easily cracked by hackers due to standard DRM protections in digital stores. The early access granted to Deluxe edition owners accelerated the game’s upload to pirate sites.

Silent Hill f cracked before its release

A hacker group cracked the game in just a few hours. Using a simple emulator, the group bypassed the protection and immediately uploaded the 42.5 GB game file to torrent sites. This allowed the pirated version to spread even before pre-orderers could access the game.

Despite the leak, the game is receiving positive reviews from both critics and players. Silent Hill f has earned an 87 out of 100 score on OpenCritic. On Steam, 85% of the 133 reviews are positive.

Players particularly appreciate the game’s atmosphere, visual quality, and engaging story. The game’s stability, despite being developed with Unreal Engine 5, has also received positive feedback. The game’s rapid fall to piracy has once again brought the inadequacy of digital protection systems into the spotlight.

This situation calls into question game studios’ approach to digital security. Developers’ avoidance of more complex DRM systems to avoid increasing costs leads to games falling into the hands of pirates as soon as they are released.

The example of Silent Hill f demonstrates that despite the game’s quality, such leaks represent a potential loss of revenue for companies. What are your thoughts on this? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.