Game cracker group Codex and subgroup Plaza resign after eight years

The release group Codex is laying down its work. This group has cracked the copy protection of a total of approximately 12,600 PC games in its eight years of activity. According to the group, the cracking scene has become ‘less interesting’.

In a farewell message, which can be found in the .nfo for their release of The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories, Codex tells its story. They argue that the group was created to confront Reloaded, a dominant group at the time. Their version of the story is that Reloaded “quickly started to fall apart and the scene became less interesting.” The group also complains about other groups using names of other groups from the past without permission rather than building a reputation of their own.

The group rose to prominence in 2017 after breaking Middle-Earth: Shadow of War’s security on the day of its release. Not only was the group quick to catch up, but it involved the Denuvo copy protection, which is known for being difficult to crack. In some Denuvo cases, a crack takes months or years to arrive, or it never gets there.

Plaza is a subgroup of Codex, which has about 5300 of the releases to its name, according to The Sims. As a parting gift, the group has decided to release another more popular game: Elden Ring. That can officially be seen as the last release of Plaza and more or less also Codex.

In addition to the cracked games, the group is also known for providing a stage in its installers to artists who make music in tracker format, also known as chiptunes. That’s 8- and 16-bit-esque music that sounds like what was heard on old consoles and arcade games from decades ago.