List of warez groups
s are teams of individuals who have participated in the organized unauthorized publication of films, music, or other media, as well as those who can reverse engineer and crack the digital rights management measures applied to commercial software. This is a list of groups, both web-based and warez scene groups, which have attained notoriety outside of their respective communities. A plurality of warez groups operate within the so-called warez scene, though as of 2019 a large amount of software and game warez is now distributed first via the web. Leaks of releases from warez groups operating within the "scene" still constitute a large amount of warez shared globally. Between 2003 and 2009 there were 3,164 active groups within the warez scene, with the majority of these groups being active for no more than two months and with only a small fraction being active for many years. The warez scene is a very competitive and volatile environment, largely a symptom of participation in its community being illegal in most countries. Groups are generally not driven by profit, but by reputation.
Groups
3DM
3DM is a Chinese video game cracking group. Their founder and leader is reported to be Su Feifei, more commonly known by the pseudonym "Bird Sister". Little else is known about Su, other than that her year of birth is speculated to be 1979. Unusual for piracy groups, 3DM's members have public profiles on the social network Sina Weibo, and use a blog to inform the public about their activities. Some members of 3DM have previously been part of NETSHOW, a group which released Chinese language copies of games using stolen cracks directly to warez scene FTP sites.3DM were one of the first peer to peer file sharing groups to offer cracks for games which utilized DRM produced by Denuvo. As newer versions of Denuvo DRM became more challenging to reverse engineer, 3DM gave up trying to crack games with Denuvo DRM.
In 2016 the group claimed that piracy of games produced by large developers and publishers would be impossible in the coming years, due to the technological challenges of reverse engineering and ultimately cracking the virtualization and licensing schemes employed by new DRM solutions like Denuvo. One of the most notable groups on the web at the time, 3DM publicly announced a year hiatus from developing cracks for games. Since returning in 2017, 3DM have only released games which use Steam licensing, only releasing copies of better protected games which include cracks made by other groups. This practice has been criticized by the groups whose cracks were included in releases under the 3DM name.
CLASS
CLASS was a warez group which was the target of federal raids such as Operation Fastlink. They were a global group with members worldwide, often releasing game "rips". The group ceased operations in 2004 after their 1,234th release.CODEX
CODEX – was a warez group founded at the end of February 2014. They were known for releasing copies of games which used Steam licensing and also for emulating Ubisoft's Uplay digital rights management protection. They were accused by the warez group SKIDROW of stealing their code to crack Trials Fusion, something CODEX denied, stating that they had written their own code for the DRM emulation. From 2016 to 2020 they have been one of the most active warez groups releasing commercial computer games with over 3700 releases in less than 6 years, compared to older groups like SKIDROW having fewer than 2500 over more than a decade of activity.In late 2017 CODEX gained notoriety by becoming the third scene group to crack Denuvo DRM when they released a cracked version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War on its release date. CODEX collaborated with STEAMPUNKS on at least one game which used Denuvo DRM, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, which they released under the name "CODEPUNKS". In February 2018 CODEX began releasing cracked copies of games from the Microsoft Windows Store. In mid-2018 CODEX began releasing cracked copies of games featuring the latest versions of Denuvo DRM, including updated versions of Assassin's Creed Origins and Far Cry 5, both of which used Uplay licensing DRM and contained additional anti-modification and anti-debugging code through the use of VMProtect. On February 1, 2019, CODEX published a cracked copy of Resident Evil 2, which used Denuvo DRM, 7 days after the worldwide commercial release of the game. In late June 2019, CODEX released two cracked copies of games which utilized Denuvo DRM, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and a cracked updated version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
These cracks were previously released on the web attributed to the Russian cracker "Empress". Later, a cracker who self-identified as C0000005 began releasing cracks under the name Empress as well, suggesting that they are one and the same and that C0000005 had access to source code for CODEX's cracks. On June 27, 2019 CODEX released a crack for Star Wars Battlefront 2, about 527 days after its commercial release. On October 29, 2019 they published a cracked copy of Borderlands 3, another game distributed with Denuvo DRM, 46 days after release.
In late 2019, a crack developed by CODEX for Need for Speed: Heat, which uses Denuvo DRM, was leaked online, likely through their network of testers. Normally, the final cracks published by CODEX made use of anti-debugging tools like VMProtect or Themida, to impede reverse engineering efforts. This unfinished crack was not similarly protected. Subsequently, CODEX did not release any cracks for games using Denuvo DRM until June 2020, when they released cracked copies of Team Sonic Racing, Trials of Mana, The Quiet Man, and an updated version of Far Cry: New Dawn.
On February 23, 2022, CODEX announced its retirement in its cracked release of The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories. The group cited the lack of competition in the cracking scene as a sign that CODEX had accomplished its founding goal in 2014, which was to compete with RELOADED, "the dominating PC games group at the time."
CONSPIR4CY
CONSPIR4CY is a warez group founded in 1999 in Italy. They rose in notoriety after releasing Rise of the Tomb Raider and ''Inside in August 2016 under the name of CONSPIR4CY, though they resumed using the 'CPY' tag shortly thereafter with the release of their cracked copy of Doom in September 2016. They became the first group to create proper cracks for games protected by the third iteration of Denuvo DRM software.They cracked Resident Evil 7: Biohazard only five days after its release, at the time the shortest amount of time taken to develop a crack for a Denuvo DRM-protected game. They also cracked Mass Effect: Andromeda, only ten days after its release. In July 2017 the warez group SKIDROW criticized the methods used by CONSPIR4CY to crack games using Denuvo DRM. In early 2018, CPY released cracked copies of Assassin's Creed Origins and Far Cry 5, which were compiled with the most recent version of Denuvo DRM, and had additional anti-modification and anti-debugging features through the use of VMProtect software and EasyAntiCheat. In November 2018 CPY released cracks for HITMAN 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, A Way Out, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Pro Evolution Soccer 2019, FIFA 19 - all of which featured the latest version of Denuvo DRM, with some using additional custom DRM or off the shelf DRM such as EACore and VMProtect. In December 2018, CPY published a cracked copy of Just Cause 4, which used the latest version of Denuvo DRM, on the day after its release. They also released a crack for Battlefield V on December 22, days after its official release. In January 2019, CPY released cracked copies of Ace Combat 7, Mutant Year Zero, and Strange Brigade, as well as the first episode of Life Is Strange 2 - all 4 titles using the latest versions of Denuvo DRM.
In February 2019, CPY released Metro Exodus, which used the latest version of Denuvo DRM available, within 5 days of its release, as well as the second episode of Life Is Strange 2, titled "Rules". In September 2019, CPY published a cracked copy of the game Octopath Traveler, 93 days after its release. In November 2019, CPY released a cracked copy of Heavy Rain which featured the latest version of Denuvo DRM. After a long hiatus, CPY became active again in October 2020, releasing cracked copies of eFootball PES 2021, A Total War Saga: Troy, Mafia: Definitive Edition and Death Stranding in a single day, all of which featured the latest version of Denuvo DRM. On October 18, CPY released Marvel's Avengers, followed by Crysis Remastered'' on October 21, which both used Denuvo DRM.
DEViANCE
One of the most prolific warez groups active from 1998 to 2006. Their dissolution has been described as the end of an era, and the current affiliation of ex-DEViANCE members is a reoccurring argument between groups. Describing members of a modern warez group as ex-DEViANCE became something of a joke within the warez scene.DrinkOrDie
DrinkOrDie members were targeted by law enforcement in raids stemming from Operation Buccaneer.DOD was considered the most famous Software Piracy group in the warez group history, formed in Russia in the early 90s and
was known for its diverse leadership and influence, combined with members from Europe, the USA, Australia, and Israel.