Ubisoft forbids changing your own hardware!

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brfritos

Humma Kavulaaaaaaa
This just gets better and better...

Why Guru3D probably never will review Ubisoft titles anymore - Anno 2070
By Hilbert Hagedoorn, January 14, 2012


So it's Thursday in the 2nd week of January 2012. I Figure, hmm, it's time for a nice new VGA / graphics performance article on a game title. One of my favorite series is Anno, I still play Anno 1404 which in fact is included in our graphics card benchmark suite.

A few weeks ago the latest version of the game was released, Anno 2070. I've been playing it for a while now, and do like it despite the time it eats away ! :) Next to that, it's a good looking game as well with an updated graphics engine.

So yesterday I started working on a performance review. We know (well at least we figured we knew), that the game key can be used on three systems. That's fair, the first activation is used on my personal game rig. The second we installed on the AMD Radeon graphics test PC and the 3rd on our NVIDIA graphics test PC.

On the AMD Radeon PC we initially test the Radeon HD 7970, then to match the timedemo sequence we install the NVIDIA system, which has a GeForce GTX 580. So far it's all good, we have created a timedemo sequence, defined our image quality settings, took screenshots and the numbers for the first two cards.

For the NVIDIA setup I take out the GTX 580, and insert a GTX 590. When I now startup the game 'BAM', again an activation is required. Once again I fill out the key and now Ubisoft is thanking me with the message that I ran out of activations.

Here's what Ubisofts DRM is doing these days, they don't just verify the number of PCs you work on, nope .. they monitor hardware changes. So once we inserted that GeForce GTX 590 the hardware id # hash changed rendering our activation invalid.

What a bunch of rubbish ....

This means that if we'd like to make a VGA performance review on Anno 2070 we'd need to purchase the game seven times. Ubisoft claims that you can send an email towards their support so that the activations are reset, we did so .. yet are still awaiting reaction.

When contacting Ubisoft marketing here in the Netherlands, their reply goes like this: 'Sorry to disappoint you - the game is indeed restricted to 3 hardware changes and there simply is no way to bypass that. We also do not have 7 copies of the game for you'.

I'm sorry, but I am not about to purchase the title seven times to make a review that by default benefits Ubisoft sales.

Welcome to PC gaming Anno 2012.

Please find the results of our massive VGA performance review below on the one chart. With one hand in the air I wave to Ubisoft, more puzzled about this then anything. What do you think ?

Update monday Jan 16 - 2012:

We have been contacted by bluebyte over the weekend, the company that developed the Anno series. Our key has been pretty much unlocked allowing us to properly work on this article. To be continued ....
Click to expand...

You know, I'm starting to think that Cory Doctorow is not entirelly wrong about his views on copyright and copyleft.
The main point is not trying to protect the intellectual property of artists or to boost profits for companies, but to create restrictions that come implemented from the factory.
This already happens with Apple products and XBox/PS3 consoles, but today companies are trying to implement this in every single hardware or software.

Everyone is talking against SOPA, but what the industry is really trying to do is forbid you to monitor your own devices and control how you use those devices.

Way to go people. :?
 
fedaykin said:
Ubisoft...Ubisoft never changes.
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This goes much further then just Ubisoft I fear.

It might be just a start. Trying to see how it works. And with more time we will see more and more software and products working like that. All with the "protection" in mind. Because as well all know pirates are worse then cancer and AIDS at the same time!

I never ever believed even for a second that Pirates are the real reason behind DRM measures like by Ubisoft or EA. How so ? Well they sure use this as well to fight piracy. But I dont think that is the main reason.

What is really "stealing" money from those large companies ? Second hand salles. Games sold from Gamers to other Games or stores which do nothing else but selling games they bought by other games.

With very harsh DRM measures you can almost eliminate such business.

Not a good evolution in my eyes. Mainly because people STILL buy those games ...

- I am NOT saying that piracy is a good thing. Or that we should now pirate games by Ubisoft. But think about it this way. Those which WANT to pritate the games will still do it. See Russia where they they have servers for playing Steam games. And other groups as well managed to crack games by Ubisoft and EA. So what are we "usual" consumers left with ? Exactly. The DRM. I guess what the DRM they throw around is doing is making it impossible to download and crack for a vew days which is already enough I guess. But still many times you are forced to "life" with those DRM protection ... hence why I dont buy any game anymore that works with GfWL. I had so many issues with their games that is not funny anymore. From not being able to log in, server conection problems and much more.
 
Only pirates have enough money to change their hardware, from all those games they don't buy.

;p
 
And these companies wonder why Piracy is increasing. DRM and Region Coding only screw over legitimate buyers, not Pirates.
 
Of course Ubi DRM (still) sucks but regular user can just contact Ubisoft via email and get extra activations without any problem.

This is a less intrusive form of the DRM Assassins Creed used years ago (you no longer have to be online to play the game), not sure why that site is surprised or finds this newsworthy.

Personally I decided this game was worth getting despite the shitty DRM. But that's beside the point.
 
fedaykin said:
They monitor your hardware, and if you change once piece of hardware the activation apparently resets.
Click to expand...

not reset, if it reset you could use it right away.

it gets "used up" and you have to contact ubishit to remove or release that activation.
 
which means that you are a slave to their mercy.

Awww look at that gammer dude. He is so poor and cute. He send another mail asking to reset his activation codes!

Today I think we should not allow him to play again. He has not bought the game 3 times !
 
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http://sayforward.com/sites/default/files/ext_image/5189_944d.gif
 
I can't say this is really a surprise. Most software is only ours to use "under license" anyway. If the EULA fine print says that Bob's Software can deactivate your copy of Family Planner 6.9 because your browser cache contains a link to the Popes fan website, then it is what it is. We don't actually own most of the code we use, but you know all that, I know.

We can either suck it up, or work around it. Anything a software company can throw at users, be it DRM or bad game design, can just be modded out of existence. It's a question of how far we're willing to go to get what we want. I'm not suggesting outright piracy either, but DRM isn't foolproof. They're going to continue to do dumb shit like this because it works on a large enough majority of their users that it's cost effective.
 
aboniks said:
If the EULA fine print says that Bob's Software can deactivate your copy of Family Planner 6.9 because your browser cache contains a link to the Popes fan website, then it is what it is.
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Not necessarily; EULA = adhesion contract, meaning that abusive clause can be reviewed in court. Point is, will you go into court to discuss such low value cause? Maybe if some kind of gamer association was created to make it a collective demand or something...
 
Excellent points. I'd probably join an association like that, just on general principles. Although I don't think I'd pay much for the privilege.
 
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