Battlefield: Hardline DRM Locks You Out For Hardware Changes

[Fanghawk]

Battlefield: Hardline DRM Locks You Out For Hardware Changes

Feel like testing Battlefield: Hardline on multiple PCs? Be prepared for Origin to lock you out with DRM it hadn't previously mentioned.

Hey, remember when <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/135582-Ubisoft-DRM-is-Ineffective-Against-Piracy>publishers were figuring out that DRM was ineffective and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97748-BioShock-2-DRM-Getting-Scaled-Back>began scaling it back? Wasn't that wonderful? Well, there's still a few more hurdles to sort through. It turns out the recently-released <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/battlefield%20hardline?os=battlefield+hardline>Battlefield: Hardline is bundled with DRM that wasn't explicitly mentioned on its Origin page. And not your run-of-the-mill DRM either - this is the kind from three years ago <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115375-Ubisoft-Defends-Then-Changes-Anno-DRM>that locks you out for changing your video card too many times.

Reports from <a href=http://www.techspot.com/review/979-battlefield-hardline-benchmarks/page6.html>Techspot and <a href=http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ea-infects-battlefield-hardline-with-new-ghastly-drm.html>Guru3D state that Origin locks players out of Hardline for playing on eight computers in a short span of time - which means it's naturally triggered by changing your PC hardware. While this DRM probably won't be discovered by the average PC player, it's a huge challenge for anyone testing hardware benchmarks.

Techspot discovered this first hand <a href=http://www.techspot.com/review/979-battlefield-hardline-benchmarks/page6.html>when reviewing Hardline became a slow and painful slog. "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," Techspot writes. "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.'"

Now that particular phrasing suggests Hardline can be reset eventually - it just depends on what EA means by "recently". But it's still confusing since <a href=https://www.origin.com/en-ca/store/buy/182288/pc-download/base-game/digital-deluxe-edition>Battlefield: Hardline's Origin page doesn't mention such a system - let alone how many computers can run the game before it locks. Regardless, Techspot's review notes that Hardline is still locked on multiple accounts, preventing them from doing further testing.

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/113970-EA-Germany-Origin-Is-Not-Spyware>Origin has faced controversy for hardware monitoring in the past, although EA has stated that no personal information is collected with the data.

Source: <a href=http://www.techspot.com/review/979-battlefield-hardline-benchmarks/page6.html>Techspot, <a href=http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ea-infects-battlefield-hardline-with-new-ghastly-drm.html>Guru3D

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[sid]

"EA LOCKS USERS OUT FOR CHANGING HARDWARE!!!!!"

"but only after 8 times or so in a short period of time"

"oh and then it works again after a while"

Jesus, what happened to you guys?

 

[CrazyBlaze]

God damn it EA. I thought everyone was past shit like this. No one liked it when Ubisoft did it with their games (Dust something or other I think) and no one will like it now.

 

[Lightknight]

"EA LOCKS USERS OUT FOR CHANGING HARDWARE!!!!!"

"but only after 8 times or so in a short period of time"

"oh and then it works again after a while"

Jesus, what happened to you guys?

If it does work again after awhile then this is pretty much a non-issue and is actually an interesting non-invasive way to stop mass distribution.

8 times in a short period of time just isn't going to happen to the vast majority of us. It also depends on what a "short time" is. But even if it's not a "short time", 8 hardware changes is quite a bit.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Im guessing now jim and bob are gone they have to resort to click bait headings to force people to read and give views and ad money. This whole article is a non issue for 99.99% of every PC gamer. An even then that 0.01% are barely effected at all.

 

[Yozozo]

It doesn't brick the account or the copy... it's just a small lockout when you rapidly change from computer to computer?

Yea... clickbait article. At least update it to show that it is EIGHT changes it has to go through. This entire thing is a virtual non-issue.

 

[Callate]

Hmm. It's true, most people aren't going to encounter such an issue. But it would be nice to know just how long a "temporary" lock-out lasts, and it was foolish of EA not to consider such an eventuality.

Not, you know, SimCity "we failed to provide enough network space to allow you to use the game you bought due to the obligatory online requirement you didn't want in the first place" foolish, but foolish. And, one would think, fairly easily avoided by providing watermarked copies to reviewers with an interest in hardware benchmarking, without that limitation.

 

[tzimize]

"EA LOCKS USERS OUT FOR CHANGING HARDWARE!!!!!"

"but only after 8 times or so in a short period of time"

"oh and then it works again after a while"

Jesus, what happened to you guys?

If it does work again after awhile then this is pretty much a non-issue and is actually an interesting non-invasive way to stop mass distribution.

8 times in a short period of time just isn't going to happen to the vast majority of us. It also depends on what a "short time" is. But even if it's not a "short time", 8 hardware changes is quite a bit.

But...how much are you willing to bet that actual pirates will have ZERO problems with this DRM on account of it probably being cracked?

Even if ONE legitimate customer has a problem with this, thats one too many.

 

[KaZuYa]

Utter clickbait, Headline that made it seem if you upgrade your PC in anyway you lose your $120 Hardline Premium account and it turns out only if you try to use that account on 8 different PC's in a short period.

The Escapist journalism is quickly becoming either links to other sites or misleading clickbait.

 

[Areloch]

"EA LOCKS USERS OUT FOR CHANGING HARDWARE!!!!!"

"but only after 8 times or so in a short period of time"

"oh and then it works again after a while"

Jesus, what happened to you guys?

If it does work again after awhile then this is pretty much a non-issue and is actually an interesting non-invasive way to stop mass distribution.

8 times in a short period of time just isn't going to happen to the vast majority of us. It also depends on what a "short time" is. But even if it's not a "short time", 8 hardware changes is quite a bit.

But...how much are you willing to bet that actual pirates will have ZERO problems with this DRM on account of it probably being cracked?

Even if ONE legitimate customer has a problem with this, thats one too many.

I'm going to agree with this. This DRM seems specifically engineered to inconvenience people that do hardware testing/benchmarking.

Unless your pirates are operating out of one massive shared-use account in Origin, I can't see this impacting anyone that pirates the game. Meaning the only people that MIGHT be affected are legitimate ones.

Given that the story already notes when testing those guys had to burn through several accounts just to finish the article, that's a pretty annoying problem. Not crippling, depending on how long the lockdown is, but annoying all the same. Further in the fact it's not even mentioned by EA anywhere.

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

My biggest question is when will EA release a Ferguson, Missouri DLC for this game?

OT: It's hard to imagine that EA once made good games. Personally, I found the last game EA made that I liked was Road Rash II for the Sega Genesis. DRM wasn't a big thing back then, especially since the EA cartridges were not Sega approved. My how times have changed.

 

[NLS]

"EA LOCKS USERS OUT FOR CHANGING HARDWARE!!!!!"

"but only after 8 times or so in a short period of time"

"oh and then it works again after a while"

Jesus, what happened to you guys?

If it does work again after awhile then this is pretty much a non-issue and is actually an interesting non-invasive way to stop mass distribution.

8 times in a short period of time just isn't going to happen to the vast majority of us. It also depends on what a "short time" is. But even if it's not a "short time", 8 hardware changes is quite a bit.

But...how much are you willing to bet that actual pirates will have ZERO problems with this DRM on account of it probably being cracked?

Even if ONE legitimate customer has a problem with this, thats one too many.

They won't have any luck playing the game online though. Also, if someone were to lets say have a gaming cafe where they would offer this game up for play, they'd have to actually provide a legal copy of the game for every machine, instead of just switching accounts back and forth.

Sorry, but the "Pirates get everything better" doesn't always apply.

 

[tzimize]

"EA LOCKS USERS OUT FOR CHANGING HARDWARE!!!!!"

"but only after 8 times or so in a short period of time"

"oh and then it works again after a while"

Jesus, what happened to you guys?

If it does work again after awhile then this is pretty much a non-issue and is actually an interesting non-invasive way to stop mass distribution.

8 times in a short period of time just isn't going to happen to the vast majority of us. It also depends on what a "short time" is. But even if it's not a "short time", 8 hardware changes is quite a bit.

But...how much are you willing to bet that actual pirates will have ZERO problems with this DRM on account of it probably being cracked?

Even if ONE legitimate customer has a problem with this, thats one too many.

They won't have any luck playing the game online though. Also, if someone were to lets say have a gaming cafe where they would offer this game up for play, they'd have to actually provide a legal copy of the game for every machine, instead of just switching accounts back and forth.

Sorry, but the "Pirates get everything better" doesn't always apply.

Well of course, but not being able to play online have nothing to do with this machine-ware drm, so that point is kinda moot.

Also, I dont understand what you are saying about gaming cafe shops. Considering you have to log on to play and you can only use one account at a time, its not like you can just install the game on multiple pcs and use them all at the same time anyway? This has nothing to do with the parts in the PC.

 

[Lightknight]

"EA LOCKS USERS OUT FOR CHANGING HARDWARE!!!!!"

"but only after 8 times or so in a short period of time"

"oh and then it works again after a while"

Jesus, what happened to you guys?

If it does work again after awhile then this is pretty much a non-issue and is actually an interesting non-invasive way to stop mass distribution.

8 times in a short period of time just isn't going to happen to the vast majority of us. It also depends on what a "short time" is. But even if it's not a "short time", 8 hardware changes is quite a bit.

But...how much are you willing to bet that actual pirates will have ZERO problems with this DRM on account of it probably being cracked?

Don't really care. As long as their silly attempts at DRM don't bother the vast majority of legitimate customers then that's their prerogative to waste their time.

On the other hand, it may also impact so few people as to make hackers not really care about cracking it. See, the amount of time it takes for something to be cracked generally relies on how many people want it cracked. Otherwise it's not worth the hacker's time.

That being said, it seems like EA's server is running the check. It may be something that is impossible to crack because the hardware check is required on the server and that code isn't going to be altered. It's kinda really smart. I'd be interested in seeing what happens if you figure out an adequate hardware response and then just auto-populate that hardware response going forward. My guess is that the server is still just going to look at the real hardware anyways and ruin that.

Even if ONE legitimate customer has a problem with this, thats one too many.

Depends, what kind of time span is required before the lock out is resolved?

This argument is extremely subjective. Let's strip it to the most basic elements. Is any inconvenience at all acceptable? Why is it too many if the smallest percentage would ever see this?

Heck, this is an extreme scenario. Who is going to run through 8 machines on one day or in one week? Who is going to take the time to install the game that many times on that many machines?

It seems like this is something they did that is minimal at the very worst. Something the vast majority of us will never see at all. It was different when everyone had to deal with it. But the extreme cases and pirates?

 

[Nooners]

Im guessing now jim and bob are gone they have to resort to click bait headings to force people to read and give views and ad money. This whole article is a non issue for 99.99% of every PC gamer. An even then that 0.01% are barely effected at all.

Yeah, aside from Extra and Zero Punctuation, there's not really much reason for me to visit this place anymore. If Yahtzee leaves, I expect the Escapist to close shortly thereafter.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I wouldn't say that people leaving has caused clickbait articles, they've been a feature on and off the Escapist for years. Though they could trigger another trend of them, I guess.

 

[Lightknight]

I wouldn't say that people leaving has caused clickbait articles, they've been a feature on and off the Escapist for years. Though they could trigger another trend of them, I guess.

Yeah, clickbait is a dime a dozen on most sites now it seems. I certainly wouldn't blame shifting winds or any other such imagined nonsense.

Honestly, I'd say it's gotten a lot better recently.

 

[K12]

Wow now I'm going to avoid buying Battlefield: Hardline even harder than I have been already.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Can it really be considered click-bait since EA is pretty well known for pulling crap like this?

 

[Vivi22]

If it does work again after awhile then this is pretty much a non-issue and is actually an interesting non-invasive way to stop mass distribution.

To what end? I can install and run my Steam games on as many PC's as I want in as short a period of time as I want. Hasn't hurt Valve's or anyone elses business any. So it seems like a solution to a problem that either doesn't exist or is so miniscule it's not worth worrying about.