MarketEmpress (cracker)
Company Profile

Empress (cracker)

Empress is a video game cracker who specializes in breaking anti-piracy software. While the true identity of Empress is unknown, she refers to herself as a young Russian woman. Empress has also released cracked games under the moniker C000005.

Career
Empress became interested in the DRM-cracking scene in 2014. Other high-profile games cracked by Empress include Mortal Kombat 11 and Anno 1800. However, that March, Empress was available to publish a workaround for the online check-in system of Battle.net. Empress's arrest announcement was met with general skepticism by the cracking community. She released a cracked version of Hogwarts Legacy in February 2023, just 12 days after release. Retirement In late 2025, she was reported to have stopped working on new cracks, with coverage noting a circulated statement titled End of an Era – EMPRESS that mentioned ongoing health problems and a loss of motivation towards the piracy scene as key reasons for stepping back. ==Controversies==
Controversies
Empress is known around the P2P scene for her "extremely opinionated" notes she supplies in the NFOs of her releases. For example, the information file supplied with the cracked version of Hogwarts Legacy expressed dissatisfaction with what was described as the "woke system" of today, defending Harry Potter series creator J.K. Rowling's views on transgender people. ==References==
tickerdossier.comtickerdossier.substack.com