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Guru3D Rig of the Month - November 2019
EA Infects Battlefield Hardline with new ghastly DRM
So hey - I was am working on a graphics performance review for Battlefield Hardline, and guess what ? Do you guys remember the DRM introduced in Ubisofts Anno 2070 ? Well, EA just did pretty much the same thing. They sniff your PC and monitor for hardware changes.
The story goes like this; once upon a time I started working on a performance review. And after testing merely a handful of graphics cards I noticed EA will now lock your game (Battlefield Hardline) with the following message:
Interesting huh? Especially considering it is just one PC that we are using ? Here's what EAs DRM is doing these days, EA does not just verify the number of PCs you work on slash use, no Sir .. they monitor hardware changes inside your PC now, which I am sure is a privacy breach on many levels. So once we insert new hardware CPU / mobo / graphics cards or even a system firmware flash the hardware id # hash changes and if that happens a couple of times EA will render your game activation invalid. From what we now have learned, you get to have 5 hardware changes per license. Use them up and access to the game will be blocked for 24 hours per activation.
What a bunch of rubbish ....
If this is the future for EA titles then you guys can forget about VGA performance reviews as EA is rendering that pretty much impossible now. I've now been waiting for like 3 or 4 hours and we are still locked out of the game. The only way to solve this would be purchasing another key and setup a secondary account. This means that if we'd like to make a VGA performance review on Battlefield Hardline with a card or 20 we'd need to purchase the game three to four times.
EA - Guys we understand your piracy and cheating/hacking concerns, really we do. But STOP pissing off your user-base with this STUPID non-sense as it just is not needed. This is not five PCs we are using, it's happening after we swap out a videocard. Thus one user, one PC ... but changing graphics cards. Do that 5x in 24 hours and you are locked out of the game for 24 hours.
Hey -- if hardware changes force Windows to de-activate, we push a button and the system gets re-validated. EA however refuses you to login to the game for 24 hours, I could understand an hour; but 24 hours ?? I don't get that anymore, how does that make any sense ? Sighs - you need to wonder - at what point will the industry realize they are killing the PC game market themselves ?
Denial
Senior Member
Posts: 12416
Joined: 2004-05-16
Senior Member
Posts: 12416
Joined: 2004-05-16
#5036914 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:10 PM
Probably for the best, not only is it not a good game but it looks noticeably worse then Battlefield 4 for some reason.
Probably for the best, not only is it not a good game but it looks noticeably worse then Battlefield 4 for some reason.
LiviuTM
Junior Member
Posts: 15
Joined: 2013-12-26
Junior Member
Posts: 15
Joined: 2013-12-26
#5036915 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:13 PM
Are you kidding me? Maybe you should marry one configuration and stay together Till Death Do You Part.
Great job, EA
Are you kidding me? Maybe you should marry one configuration and stay together Till Death Do You Part.
Great job, EA
Gumby
Member
Posts: 52
Joined: 2002-11-11
Member
Posts: 52
Joined: 2002-11-11
#5036916 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:13 PM
Not so sure it's about piracy so much as the cheating in the game as this article explains. "BF4 cheaters are now hardware banned, but hackers already have a solution" http://bf4central.com/2015/02/bf4-cheaters-hardware-ban/
Also http://youtu.be/1LlCUXYgx4c
Not so sure it's about piracy so much as the cheating in the game as this article explains. "BF4 cheaters are now hardware banned, but hackers already have a solution" http://bf4central.com/2015/02/bf4-cheaters-hardware-ban/
Also http://youtu.be/1LlCUXYgx4c
chinobino
Senior Member
Posts: 1040
Joined: 2006-06-19
Senior Member
Posts: 1040
Joined: 2006-06-19
#5036923 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:19 PM
You give them free advertising and they give you the finger - nice.
You give them free advertising and they give you the finger - nice.
TheDo114
Junior Member
Posts: 14
Joined: 2015-01-22
Junior Member
Posts: 14
Joined: 2015-01-22
#5036927 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:23 PM
Wow I don't like this at all. They never mentioned it once before or after release and expect us to never find it or just let it slip by?
Wow I don't like this at all. They never mentioned it once before or after release and expect us to never find it or just let it slip by?
vbetts
Moderator
Posts: 14720
Joined: 2006-07-04
Moderator
Posts: 14720
Joined: 2006-07-04
#5036928 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:23 PM
Glad I skipped this one.
Glad I skipped this one.
StewieTech
Chuck Norris
Posts: 2538
Joined: 2012-02-06
Chuck Norris
Posts: 2538
Joined: 2012-02-06
#5036929 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:25 PM
Now that´s bull**** if i ever saw it. EA sucks.
Now that´s bull**** if i ever saw it. EA sucks.
hansip87
Junior Member
Posts: 10
Joined: 2006-03-04
Junior Member
Posts: 10
Joined: 2006-03-04
#5036930 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:29 PM
If Only Cities Skyline has graphic benchmark worthy quality
plus i know you like City building Hilbert.. 
If Only Cities Skyline has graphic benchmark worthy quality
plus i know you like City building Hilbert..
Horus-Anhur
Senior Member
Posts: 177
Joined: 2013-02-05
Senior Member
Posts: 177
Joined: 2013-02-05
#5036936 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:32 PM
As if Origin was not enough, now we have to deal with another piece of DRM on the same game.....
EA has so little respect for their costumers.
As if Origin was not enough, now we have to deal with another piece of DRM on the same game.....
EA has so little respect for their costumers.
SiRDamiano
Junior Member
Posts: 11
Joined: 2010-07-26
Junior Member
Posts: 11
Joined: 2010-07-26
#5036946 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:40 PM
I can only say, no words.
Maybe some legal in the field can investigate this behaviours?
Suggesting just a lot of petitions to stop this on time for all, this is becoming stup*d!
EA find another way to obtain money, something like: Code better or milk lesser for DLCs
I can only say, no words.
Maybe some legal in the field can investigate this behaviours?
Suggesting just a lot of petitions to stop this on time for all, this is becoming stup*d!
EA find another way to obtain money, something like: Code better or milk lesser for DLCs
Arbold
Senior Member
Posts: 225
Joined: 2011-05-01
Senior Member
Posts: 225
Joined: 2011-05-01
#5036947 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:41 PM
Glad i skipped hardline after the horrible BF4. No more EA games for me it seems.
Glad i skipped hardline after the horrible BF4. No more EA games for me it seems.
(.)(.)
Senior Member
Posts: 9094
Joined: 2010-11-10
Senior Member
Posts: 9094
Joined: 2010-11-10
#5036949 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:41 PM
Hilbert on top of his game (no pun intended) as usual. Nice find... well, for those that were on the fence about whether or not to pick this up. Wounder why no other sites have reported this yet.
Did EA make this info available anywhere (EULA, FAQs etc) or is it a complete stealth mission from EA.
Hilbert on top of his game (no pun intended) as usual. Nice find... well, for those that were on the fence about whether or not to pick this up. Wounder why no other sites have reported this yet.
Did EA make this info available anywhere (EULA, FAQs etc) or is it a complete stealth mission from EA.
Turanis
Senior Member
Posts: 1446
Joined: 2014-08-15
Senior Member
Posts: 1446
Joined: 2014-08-15
#5036950 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:43 PM
Yeah,tipically big publishers etc.
Even if you change your CPU over 8 times you are blocked,so EA get our finger.
"The second problem is Origin. We had to cut some testing as EA's platform only allows us to change the CPU/GPU up to eight times per account before locking us out. We were forced use four different accounts to produce this article!
After eight hardware changes we get hit with "we're sorry, an error has occurred...too many computers have accessed this account's version of Battlefield Hardline recently. Please try again later." Ohh how I long for a Steam version of Hardline."
source techspot
Yeah,tipically big publishers etc.
Even if you change your CPU over 8 times you are blocked,so EA get our finger.
"The second problem is Origin. We had to cut some testing as EA's platform only allows us to change the CPU/GPU up to eight times per account before locking us out. We were forced use four different accounts to produce this article!
After eight hardware changes we get hit with "we're sorry, an error has occurred...too many computers have accessed this account's version of Battlefield Hardline recently. Please try again later." Ohh how I long for a Steam version of Hardline."
source techspot
JonasBeckman
Senior Member
Posts: 15790
Joined: 2009-02-25
Senior Member
Posts: 15790
Joined: 2009-02-25
#5036954 Posted on: 03/25/2015 01:47 PM
Should be the same with Lords of the Fallen and Dragon Age: Inquisition and any other game that is using Denuvo, pretty sure Star-Force, Tages and SecuROM also had hardware ID checks too albeit not as intrusive.
Denuvo seems to be a pretty light DRM but it is pretty invasive too or how it's called but it does work as it takes up to several months before the games are properly cracked, partially because there's so many different system configurations although as Hilbert discovered if you do upgrade your PC components often this error will pop up after a while.
(Should just need to mail support and reset the existing activations, Star-Force and SecuROM had methods so the end user could do this himself but I don't think Denuvo has anything like that which is unfortunate as customer support for big corporations like EA, Valve or Ubisoft can be pretty slow.)
Should be the same with Lords of the Fallen and Dragon Age: Inquisition and any other game that is using Denuvo, pretty sure Star-Force, Tages and SecuROM also had hardware ID checks too albeit not as intrusive.
Denuvo seems to be a pretty light DRM but it is pretty invasive too or how it's called but it does work as it takes up to several months before the games are properly cracked, partially because there's so many different system configurations although as Hilbert discovered if you do upgrade your PC components often this error will pop up after a while.
(Should just need to mail support and reset the existing activations, Star-Force and SecuROM had methods so the end user could do this himself but I don't think Denuvo has anything like that which is unfortunate as customer support for big corporations like EA, Valve or Ubisoft can be pretty slow.)
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Senior Member
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Joined: 2008-11-29
Thank god I have no interest in this obvious cash grab. EA and UBI are the debil.