Oculus Rift recently made updates on its virtual reality Rift software, intended to curb piracy; however, it seems that it completely backfired. The latest DRM for the software has paved an easier way to pirate Rift games, placing the company in a bad situation.
The software update for the Rift on Friday, which includes the new DRM, has killed Revive, a software that lets HTC Vive users to run exclusive Rift games on their headsets. However, Oculus' release of the updated version of the software backfired, as Libre VR, the Revive developer, has discovered a way to bypass Oculus Rift DRM, which makes it easier to pirate Oculus games, The Verge reported.
According to Libre VR, he is not aiming for piracy. "I really didn't want to go down this path, but I feel there is no other way. I still do not support piracy, do not use this library for pirated copies," Libre VR stated on a Reddit post. He also added that if they could discover another workaround that does not need to bypass, they would apply it.
Motherboard also reported that Oculus said that the update was not meant for Revive. Instead, it was made to "curb piracy" as well as to "protect content and developers." And yet, it made the piracy issue worse for the company. With the latest version of Revive, Oculus will never be able to know if someone playing a game actually owns that game -- once the ownership is checked to confirm the game legitimacy but it is disabled.
Libre VR, who developed Revive in April, also said that he is willing to work with Oculus, looking for a way for Oculus game to run on other headsets, without bypassing ownership. Currently, Libre VR is also working on it with Unity engine games.
Oculus spent hefty cash to develop exclusive Rift games, which also urge VR users to purchase them on Vive. Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus, said previously that players can mod game so that they can run games "whatever they want," but as long they are purchased from Oculus.
