Denuvo Removed from Dead Island 2 — Two Years After Hacker Empress Cracked It

The game was released while Empress was still actively operating.

Players have recently returned their attention to Dead Island 2. Publisher Deep Silver removed the notorious Denuvo DRM from the title in October 2025.

Notably, the hacker known as Empress had already cracked Dead Island 2 a couple of years earlier. Users on the Steam forum have long urged the removal of the DRM.

Dead Island 2 itself found favor with many — it holds a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam at 77%. Some of the negative feedback was tied to Denuvo as well as the game’s use of Epic Games services.

Source: iXBT.games