Ubisoft changes Anno 2070 DRM after Guru3D critique

Guru3D News

Over the past week a news post of ours resulted in a lot of coverage on the web. Long story short -- while we where testing the RTS game Anno 2070 for PC from Ubisoft we ran into downright silly DRM...

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WhiteLightning · 01-20-2012, 10:33 | posts: 20,408 | Location: Netherlands

Hilbert may i suggest you start to write more articles about DRM ?

CronoGraal · 01-20-2012, 10:36 | posts: 3,425 | Location: Sweden

still don't agree with such drm, period. it's progress but ever so small.

nice to see that G3D's post still carried so much attention and had a relatively high amount of influence.

Anubis · 01-20-2012, 10:41 | posts: 2,794 | Location: ∞

A small win, but they should remove that hardware based activation limit completely..
Anyways, good job Hilbert, now go test some mobos, so they'll remove the limit there too

Alberello · 01-20-2012, 10:52 | posts: 4 | Location: Spain

Unacceptable situation, Ubisoft should send you free copy of their games because you include always in Benchmark and, like in my case, turn on curiosity about to play it...

You always make good works, I completely share your opinion.

Best regards, Pasquale from Spain.

dchalf10 · 01-20-2012, 10:52 | posts: 4,044

Awesome, I just submitted this on N4G.

It's good to see them learn some common sense. I truly believed nothing would come of this for your average user.

It's one thing to get more keys after almost a week when your a massive hardware site, but I thought for your average consumer they would still get the finger. Its good to see common sense prevail.

FULMTL · 01-20-2012, 10:57 | posts: 6,146 | Location: Portland, Oregon

Army of one.

IchimA · 01-20-2012, 11:04 | posts: 619 | Location: Romania

Still no go. They have removen the ID for GFX but the motherboard ID is still there . So no Sir. A game should not have this kind of DRM , I think this measure is to stop second hand sales but c'mon if I own a game it's mine and I can do what I want with it. I don;t sale my games but I like to give them to my brother or father to play a bit. SO NO - DRM is bad

Neo Cyrus · **Memory**: 6GB DDR3-2000 9-9-9-24-1T

Quote:

Originally Posted by IchimA

Still no go. They have removen the ID for GFX but the motherboard ID is still there . So no Sir. A game should not have this kind of DRM , I think this measure is to stop second hand sales but c'mon if I own a game it's mine and I can do what I want with it. I don;t sale my games but I like to give them to my brother or father to play a bit. SO NO - DRM is bad

Even worse, if it includes everything it had before aside from graphics cards, that means changing a partition in any way results in it using an activation again. Insane.

In the best case scenario if they removed all the hardware monitoring (which they won't) the 3 activation limit with no way to deactivate it is still absolutely retarded especially considering calling in to get support after those 3 activations are done results in the middle finger.

I hope Ubisoft crash and burn... into EA preferably.

alanmowle · 01-20-2012, 11:36 | posts: 1

Wonderful outcome, thank you. Also having to play online is very mandatory and should be influenced to be non mandatory. Thank you for your influence.

dcx_badass · 01-20-2012, 12:02 | posts: 9,543 | Location: Leeds [UK]

Don't agree at all. Until they remove hardware limitation completely then they can piss off. I still go back and play games from 5 or so years ago, will have easily changed PC three times over that timespan.

It's a joke and they still don't deserve to be included.

Redemption80 · 01-20-2012, 12:03 | posts: 13,417 | Location: Glasgow

Fantastic work, good to see someone is paying attention.

Can you not de-authorise it before changing hardware?

Would be good to have the motherboard check gone too, but one step at a time I suppose

Still prefer this to always online DRM though, as that is the only type of DRM that would make me think twice about buying a game, but i think that is how things are going to go in the future.

hallryu · 01-20-2012, 12:03 | posts: 10,838 | Location: England

If the rest of that awful DRM still stands Ubisoft remain dead to me!

gorg_graggel · 01-20-2012, 12:23 | posts: 10 | Location: Germany

kudos to you hilbert!

this shows that being constructive rather than just ranting, is a much bigger help in getting quick results!

BetA · 01-20-2012, 12:46 | posts: 3,375 | Location: somewhere behind the Milky Way

Yay....A small win for us Customers.....

THX Hilbert for the attention u brought to this...We need more people and sites that fight back and stand theyr ground...

We have to fight for our right...in these times even more then ever...

-BetA-

GREGIX · 01-20-2012, 12:56 | posts: 238 | Location: Poland

I'll still don't get their titles, to be honest, last time I saw Ubisoft opening game video is like 3 years ago...
So..no, will not buy their titles. Because DRM, sniffing, etc.
Same apply for EA...last game i bough was BF3...didn't know preordering it, that Origin will be mandatory to play this game...

BLEH! · **Memory**: 24GB @ 1600 @ 9-10-9-27

Good news.

I like Stardock's method with Sins of a Solar Empire, none

RoadKillNL · 01-20-2012, 13:15 | posts: 2,544 | Location: The Netherlands

Wow, GG Ubisoft now the game still can't be used as Benchmark because CPU, Motherboard and RAM can't changed.

PirateNeilsouth · 01-20-2012, 13:19 | posts: 1,612 | Location: Manchester

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoadKillNL

Wow, GG Ubisoft now the game still can't be used as Benchmark because CPU, Motherboard and RAM can't changed.

Ubisoft is currently one of the worst pc developers not because of bad games but because of how they treat the customer. I would not be sad if the company went under and someone else took over.

Neo Cyrus · **Memory**: 6GB DDR3-2000 9-9-9-24-1T

Quote:

Originally Posted by PirateNeilsouth

Ubisoft is currently one of the worst pc developers not because of bad games but because of how they treat the customer. I would not be sad if the company went under and someone else took over.

Sad? I would have a party, literally. Out of spite it would be a pirate themed party... with plenty of rum of course.

Too many things would make me want to have a party... such as consoles dying but that one would be so momentous that it should become an international holiday.

gorg_graggel · 01-20-2012, 14:10 | posts: 10 | Location: Germany

i think most devs would actually gladly party with you on that pirate party...

but there just aren't lots of publishers with that much money, that are not jerks...so pay them and they'll sign a contract with you...

FedericoUY · 01-20-2012, 14:17 | posts: 20 | Location: Uruguay

That's great from Ubisoft, and is great to know that Guru3d will continue doing reviews of titles from Ubisoft..

Elder III · 01-20-2012, 16:31 | posts: 1,946 | Location: Ohio

Good Game Hilbert!

Icanium · 01-20-2012, 17:52 | posts: 857 | Location: Detroit,MI.USA

I think they should specify all the hash used to identify the PC.
Like if I increase or decrease my RAM or add a sound card.
This situation was just an indication that we never know what schemes are being cooked up to prevent us from playing games that were legally purchased.

chispy · 01-20-2012, 18:16 | posts: 6,410 | Location: Puerto Rico

Well Done Hilbert

, its a small win , but a win nonetheless , but i think one step at a time its good , Hopefully someday they will remove this Hard/Bad DRM options as well as the ALWAYS Online to play thing. Let's get this moving , the more media attention this gets the more likely they will drop the use or modify this issues. I will repost this at my other Home Base Websites

, to get this information flowing and keep it viral on the web...