Assassin’s Creed Shadows held out for over a year—and then fell. Hacker voices38 officially announced a full-fledged classic Denuvo hack without a hypervisor. Released on March 20, 2025, the protection has since been considered one of the strongest in the industry. voices38 completed the job, even after he was almost written off in June.
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The Difference Between a Hypervisor Bypass and a Classic Crack
Denuvo in Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been hacked before. Back in February 2026, hacker Andreh bypassed the protection via a hypervisor—a method requiring disabling built-in Windows security mechanisms like Secure Boot and virtualization. For many, this was too risky: disabling protection for just one game is a questionable decision. Furthermore, the first versions only worked on AMD systems, and on Intel systems, they frequently crashed.
voices38 took a different approach. Its classic crack doesn’t require any system manipulation—install the patch and run it. The size of the cracked version is 144 GB for Ubisoft Connect. And it works not only on Windows, but also on Linux via Proton and on macOS via CrossOver. The launch instructions are one-step and were accompanied by a laconic “Lol.” The community appreciated it.
Performance tests and FPS comparison on Reddit
An interesting performance comparison has appeared on Reddit. An enthusiast ran Assassin’s Creed Shadows on a Ryzen 5 5600G in two modes—with a hypervisor and with the voices38 crack. The result? The hypervisor version averaged 2 FPS higher. The maximum performance was 130 versus 116. The difference is so small that it’s not noticeable in real-world gaming. Theoretically, virtualization should put a strain on the processor, but in practice, it barely does. Surprising, but true.
Denuvo Hack Timeline and the Voices38 Story
The story of this hack is a separate story.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows was released in March 2025 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game utilized a strengthened security system: the new Denuvo V12 was supplemented with Ubisoft’s own solutions.
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February 2026 — Hacker Andreh breaches the protection through the hypervisor. But the method is crude: it’s unstable, requires disabling system protection, and has issues on Intel.
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June 2026 — Rumors circulate online that voices38 has allegedly given up. The combination of Denuvo and Ubisoft’s internal protectors proved impenetrable. The hacker himself remained silent—he wasn’t used to announcing his work in advance. And the rumors turned out to be false.
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July 2026 — voices38 announces the finished classic crack. The game is completely lost. And the most important detail: Ubisoft released the final patch 1.1.11 on June 16th and announced the end of support. There will be no new updates, meaning there’s no longer anything to patch this hack with.
voices38’s New Targets and the Future of Ubisoft Security
In recent months, voices38 has already cracked DOOM: The Dark Ages, Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Valley of Memory, and Hogwarts Legacy. He works methodically: he chose a target, prepared the tools, tested it, and released it. He’s already received $100 in donations in the comments. It’s unknown which game he’ll tackle next. The hacker himself denies that Ubisoft’s security presented any critical issues. Therefore, he did his job.
The question that now hangs in the air: if the security is still being cracked, what’s the point? It’s one thing when a publisher stops updating a game, leaving a cracked version permanent.
