Denuvo Tracks Cracker 'voices38' Across Steam, Reddit, Discord

Ever wondered what happens when a DRM company gets tired of playing defense? Denuvo is finding out — and it wants Steam, Reddit and Discord to help. The anti-tamper specialist, owned by security firm Irdeto, has asked a California federal court to subpoena all three platforms in a bid to unmask the anonymous game cracker known as “voices38.”

Here's the story so far. Denuvo filed a lawsuit on Sept. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, naming the anonymous voices38 as the defendant. The company alleges the cracker bypassed its technical protections in at least 26 games, including heavyweights like Black Myth: Wukong and Hogwarts Legacy. Because voices38 has worked hard to stay hidden, Denuvo says it still can't confirm whether it's chasing one person or an entire group.

According to TorrentFreak, Denuvo's investigation turned up seven Steam profiles that may be connected to voices38, along with a single Reddit account and a single Discord account. Before heading to court, the company says it reached out to all three platforms directly. Valve and Reddit both replied that privacy policies stopped them from handing over data without a legal basis. Discord, per Denuvo, didn't reply at all.

So what exactly is on the subpoena wish list? If the court approves the Oct. 2 request, Valve would have to hand over details on seven specified Steam accounts — registration information, names, billing addresses, payment methods, transaction histories, linked accounts, and timestamped IP addresses and device identifiers. Discord would be asked for user data plus the servers the account joined and its identity within each one. Reddit would be asked for the full account record, including posts, comments and every subreddit joined.

There's a crypto twist too. Court documents reportedly show Denuvo chasing a transaction trail it believes may be linked to voices38 — trades in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana through the exchange FixedFloat. Denuvo hasn't explained how it spotted that connection, or how it came by its identity leads.

voices38 hasn't been silent the whole time. After the September lawsuit surfaced, the account posted: “All is fine. Everything will continue as normal.” Since Denuvo made its move, though, no new cracks have appeared — and voices38 has dropped off the radar.

For years, the Denuvo-versus-crackers fight has played out in code, with encryption, obfuscation and anti-debugging tricks on one side and ever-faster bypasses on the other. Now it's moved into the courtroom, where the stakes involve not just game sales but how much account data a company can demand from the platforms you use every day. What do you think — does unmasking one cracker actually protect Denuvo's games, or is this an arms race nobody wins? Tell us in the comments.