Benchmark and graphics-card enthusiast site Guru3D are reporting that Ubisoft have slightly relaxed the copy-protection restrictions on the PC version of Annoy 2070, in response to criticisms that the limited number of product activations were preventing them from being able to adequately test the game on a range of different hardware.

Under the game's original DRM implementation, Anno 2070 would only permit three activation attempts and if a user changed something as trivial as a graphics card in their PC, the game would view this as an attempt to install the game on a whole new PC and use up another activation attempt.

It's not exactly cause for celebration, but developer BlueByte have now confirmed that they have "removed graphics hardware from the hash used to identify a PC as a unique machine" -- meaning you can now swap video cards around as often as you like (but probably not processors or motherboards, or heaven-forbid want to play the game on your laptop or office PC).

Really though, it's still poor form from the publisher, who doesn't seem to understand that the game will still be cracked and pirated despite their overbearing efforts and it's only their legitimate customers that are being inconvenienced here.

The best DRM is not charging full price for a game on steam.

It is stupid. You could probably download the game from a warez site and have a cracked copy with DRM at all.

All DRM does is harm the innocent buyer.

Yea Ubisoft DRM goes down as fast as any other futile protection these days.

Ubisofts heavy handed DRM antics are the reason I refuse to buy (I don't pirate games) any game made by them.

Edit: i kinda wish people would all stop buying their games tbh watch them die.

last edited by TufNuT at 19:09:22 23/Jan/12

Was the Anno"y" 2007 intentional???

I stopped buying Ubisoft games back when the last IL2 was released due to their increasingly bad game design, features and releases (not that all games they release are made by them exclusively).

DRM is a problem for the honest and legitimate consumer - incompatibilities, limited installs, continual online presence etc.. the warez community just see it as a challenge, it gets cracked, still gets spread around while the honest consumer is left with a mess of a product.

Ubisoft see this as a good thing - "No one can steal our stuff!". Except that they do and then not only do you lose those sales, you will lose the sales of legitimate customers who aren't going to pay inflated prices for products that are increasingly more restrictive.

I've played games for a very long time and I've seen a lot of copy protection methods, it went from protecting the software to punishing the end user in mid 2000, now Ubi are kicking it up a notch to punish the end user further because they are all pirates anyway.