Home Gaming EA’s got some extra DRM in Battlefield

EA’s got some extra DRM in Battlefield

2 min read
117

DRM

EA says it’s not DRM specific to Battlefield, but an Orign wide activation check.

“Players looking to benchmark more than five hardware configurations in one 24 hour period can contact our Customer Support team who can help,” says EA.

EA’s been righting many of its anti-consumer wrongs of late, or perhaps it’s just gotten better at PR. Much of the vitriol that’s traditionally been directed at the company is now being funnelled towards Ubisoft and their anti-consumer practices instead. Battlefield Hardline is out now, and it’s received positive to middling reviews. It’s not the game itself that’ll be getting consumers irate again – but rather the game’s DRM on PC.

As it’s an EA game, it obviously uses Origin, which is a form of DRM in itself, but there’s more. According to Guru 3D, who’ve been using the game to do a bit of benchmarking, the game’s got a second layer of DRM, that prevents you from making too many changes to your hardware configuration. Yes, switching out your hardware, effectively giving you a different hardware ID, will temporarily lock you out of the game. Here’s what Guru3D says:

Here’s what EAs DRM is doing, EA don’t just verify the number of PCs you work on slash use, nope .. they dare to 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 or graphics cards) the hardware id # hash changes and if that happens a couple of times they are rendering your 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.

Before you get up in arms about this, it’s very unlikely that you’ll make 5 hardware changes to your machine within a 24 hour period, but if you plan on doing any benchmarking, this is the sort of thing that could get right up your nostrils. It’s likely a way to prevent account sharing (which is something Steam’s got covered perfectly). It’s also suspected that that the DRM is in part, connected to DICE’s new hardware ID locks that are meant to keep hackers and cheaters out of the game. Unfortunately, as there’re already tools to circumvent that, the only people who’re ever affected by any sort of DRM re the people who actually pay for games.

It’s one of the great ironies of DRM; the people they’re meant to lock out are never affected.

Last Updated: March 26, 2015

117 Comments

  1. Kromas is drunk with power!

    March 26, 2015 at 09:11

    OH boy …. wait for it …….

    Also EA needs to stop screwing around. They also need to keep the web out of their games. Battlelog is a piece of crap (as is DA keep).

    Reply

    • Pariah

      March 26, 2015 at 09:40

      DA Keep was one of the most amazing pieces of web design I’ve seen, ever. Really wonderful, my gf even went through it just to see it. She doesn’t play Dragon Age at all.

      Reply

      • Kromas is drunk with power!

        March 26, 2015 at 10:06

        That was not the issue. Almost everyone I know who played DA went through their first playthrough without their tapestry because the integration was screwy and you only realize it 20+ odd hours in. Can be pretty as hell but at least with Mass Effect you load in your saves and get confirmation and boom it is done.

        Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      March 26, 2015 at 10:01

      battlelog took some serious getting used to, still not a fan of it.
      DA keep was an interesting alternative to importing saves, atleast it gave you the option of selecting the outcome of DLC events you didnt buy.
      preferred the comic they used for the ps3 version of ME2 though.

      Reply

    • Greylingad

      March 26, 2015 at 10:07

      Dear lord… Web interface interlaced with a game… I’ve always asked why they would want to purposefully break a game like that, it takes so much out of the experience… the phrase “I want to play my game now” shouldn’t be hampered by “After i’ve struggled for two hours to log into a useless web browser interface that highlights all of the useless crap I really wasn’t interested in in the first place, but what the hell?” Or is it just me?

      Reply

    • Decembermaloy

      March 26, 2015 at 15:02

      Because of Battlelog, I’m a lvl 2 soldier on Battlefield 4, a game I bought on release…

      Reply

  2. Dutch Matrix

    March 26, 2015 at 09:13

    Not sure if I should laugh or cry.

    Reply

    • Cyberats

      March 26, 2015 at 22:31

      Cry !

      Reply

  3. Admiral Chief

    March 26, 2015 at 09:15

    I cast Ryanza!

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      March 26, 2015 at 09:15

      I cast my money elsewhere! Oh! Oh! Oh! Dead or Alive 5 is released the end of the month, is it not???!!!
      Time to get Jiggy Wit It!

      Reply

    • z1n

      March 26, 2015 at 10:13

      Haha. Ryanza I choose you!

      Moves:
      1. NO DRM
      2. The Witcher 3
      3. CDProjektRED
      4. NO DRM

      Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    March 26, 2015 at 09:15

    They need stricter DRM, too lenient on PC gamers 😛

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      March 26, 2015 at 09:16

      Biometric scans; fingerprinting, dna samples, urine and stool samples!

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        March 26, 2015 at 09:18

        …every 10 minutes

        Better stock up on water, to provide that every 10 minute sample

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          March 26, 2015 at 09:19

          It has been 10 minutes since your last verification. Please poop in the Origin receptical attached to your PC.

          Reply

          • Splooshypooh

            March 26, 2015 at 09:21

            You say this, but it’s so close to the truth

          • Hammersteyn

            March 26, 2015 at 09:22

            EA could always hook you up to a catheter

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 09:23

            EA Piss. It’s in the game!

          • Hammersteyn

            March 26, 2015 at 09:25

            Hahahaha

      • Hammersteyn

        March 26, 2015 at 09:19

        As a start, also chip implants

        Reply

  5. Blood Emperor Trevor

    March 26, 2015 at 09:21

    Fuck EA & their invasive fucking spyware. But don’t complain, you totally gave them permission to do this when you agreed to the EULA. It’s right there, page 87, paragraph 11, sub-section 4, item 2 – by installing the game they get to do whatever the fuck they want on your PC. You’re being so entitled, they’re just looking out for their rights because if you bought the game you’re obviously a filthy pirate. And don’t forget to pre-order the next Mass Effect game.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 26, 2015 at 09:27

      I was just leaning back into possibly buying something from EA again (DA).
      Now I’m over it.

      Reply

    • justlikemo

      March 26, 2015 at 09:27

      hehe,
      yep,
      Mass effect check

      Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      March 26, 2015 at 09:29

      • Blood Emperor Trevor

        March 26, 2015 at 09:30

        You can live without it. I’m doing perfectly fine without the new Dragon Age, I’ll be perfectly fine without that too.

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          March 26, 2015 at 09:32

          Live without Mass Effect????!!!! What are you? MAD??!!!!

          Reply

          • justlikemo

            March 26, 2015 at 09:34

            exactly how dare you say that, take it back!

          • Ryanza

            March 26, 2015 at 09:34

            Mass Effect 1 was ok. Mass Effect 2 turned into an action adventure shooter and less rpg.

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 09:36

            Aannnddd your point is what exactly? Shouldn’t you be finding ways to prove Geralt’s manliness to the world?

          • Ryanza

            March 26, 2015 at 09:40

            Geralt doesn’t need to prove himself to the world. Geralt just let’s the world be what it is. His job is to kill monsters for money and use that money on women while looking for the next job.

            Point is Mass Effect lost it’s charm after the first game and people can live without it. Same applies to Dragon Age.

          • Pariah

            March 26, 2015 at 09:42

            Actually, DA:I is by far the best in the series. I didn’t enjoy the first all that much, didn’t bother with the 2nd, but Inquisition is lovely.

          • Captain JJ the damned

            March 26, 2015 at 09:52

            I enjoyed the first, thought the second was a bit of a disappointment…went downhill from there for me. Really was interested in Inquisition though.
            Not anymore. Now I’ll be happy with just The Witcher 3.

          • Pariah

            March 26, 2015 at 09:55

            Why not any more?

          • Captain JJ the damned

            March 26, 2015 at 10:05

            Because I haven’t bought EA since SimCity.

          • Greylingad

            March 26, 2015 at 09:42

            Blasphemy!!

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 09:51

            So Geralt has to pay for sex? Manly. At least Commander Shepard used his natural charm… 😛

          • Matthew Holliday

            March 26, 2015 at 09:55

            nah, he’s just not opposed to paying when he has to.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            March 26, 2015 at 10:09

            “Her natural charm” … fixed it for you.

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 10:14

            Oh, I did not want to mention Femshep. That would be like bringing a nuke to a knife fight.

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            March 26, 2015 at 10:15

            My play style for anything 3pp is always choose female. If I am going to stare at an ass for 100s of hours it better be female.

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 10:18

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            March 26, 2015 at 10:20

            Nah Femshep/Liara combo is my personal preference.

            Star Trek fans will always go for the blue alien chicks. 🙂

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 10:23

            Mine as well, but since they made Ashley Williams into a Godess…

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            March 26, 2015 at 10:26

            Meh. She has always been annoying to me. I would rather get it on with Tali and using her patented emergency induction port and some good alcohol everyone can turn into a Goddess.

          • Cyberats

            March 26, 2015 at 22:36

            They made Liara a lot more easier to get in the game than Ashley. She’s almost your plot GF.

          • Greylingad

            March 26, 2015 at 10:13

            Well, I’d rather he pay for it than forcefully take it…. Also if there are ladies of negotiable affection, won’t it just put people off? I would be quite disturbed if a game promoted the jobs of the ladies of the night…or men for that matter…

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 10:20

            Ryanza might be able to say if this is true or not, but from what I heard the Witcher’s world is not for children, as it is quite dark, slummy and very much “adult” orientated.

          • Greylingad

            March 26, 2015 at 10:24

            Great Scott… I am speechless… A world where you could go out into the night provided that you have money, slay a dragon here, slay a dragon there, blow up some poor dwarfs house and then to close off visit a brothel… Sounds like central Joburg to me…

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            March 26, 2015 at 09:36

            I’m the sanest person I know.

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 09:37

            Just as I am the most handsome guy in the universe.

          • Captain JJ the damned

            March 26, 2015 at 09:37

            Which one of you?

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            March 26, 2015 at 09:39

            IRRELEVANT!

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            March 26, 2015 at 10:08

            Cannot upvote this enough!

        • Captain JJ the damned

          March 26, 2015 at 09:32

          Hear hear

          Reply

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 09:33

            Sweet Lord this world has gone mad…

          • Captain JJ the damned

            March 26, 2015 at 09:34

            XD

        • Matthew Holliday

          March 26, 2015 at 09:52

          ignorance is bliss.

          Reply

      • justlikemo

        March 26, 2015 at 09:34

        The girls of ME, the best thing to come out of EA

        Reply

    • Cyberats

      March 26, 2015 at 22:33

      Why don’t they give you the EULA before you pay for the game ? AAaaand explain to you you’ll be using a “cloud server” to install/play & update/register your game ? Corrupt business practices = Lying.

      Reply

  6. Hammersteyn

    March 26, 2015 at 09:23

    Thing is, this affects erveryone…..except the pirates.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 26, 2015 at 09:25

      Exactly!

      Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      March 26, 2015 at 09:34

      Arrrrrr matey

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        March 26, 2015 at 09:40

        YAAAAWWWR It be a dogs age since we be talking like scally wags

        Reply

  7. Captain JJ the damned

    March 26, 2015 at 09:25

    Five hardware changes per license?
    So we’re not allowed to upgrade now? Because I’m pretty sure if I decide to build a new pc I won’t wait in hourly intervals to put in a new bit of hardware.
    Screw you EA. You’ve done it again.
    Steam even has family sharing but EA is so bloody money hungry they’ve gone full paranoid.

    Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      March 26, 2015 at 10:10

      Origin is still in Beta btw. 🙂

      Reply

      • Captain JJ the damned

        March 26, 2015 at 10:13

        Haha. That thing feels like it still is.

        Reply

        • Kromas is drunk with power!

          March 26, 2015 at 10:14

          No seriously go look at the top right corner. Says Beta.

          Reply

          • Dutch Matrix

            March 26, 2015 at 10:21

            All I know is that Beta software is allowing me to go offline without chugging all my savegames out the window. Here’s glaring at you, Steam!

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            March 26, 2015 at 10:24

            At least steam does not kick you out of the game if you lost connection for a second. Then again steam does way more right than it does wrong.

          • Captain JJ the damned

            March 26, 2015 at 10:26

            O_O

  8. justlikemo

    March 26, 2015 at 09:28

    what happened to the good old days, install a game, maybe download a patch if its more than a year old. Play muliplayer (LAN style). Maybe, just maybe log on and play online multiplayer.

    Reply

  9. Captain JJ the damned

    March 26, 2015 at 09:28

    Knowing EA, they might just change this when everyone goes aapkak. Just like how they removed the “impossible to remove” DRM on SimCity.
    Even if they do remove or change this, the fact remains that they tried it in the first place.

    Reply

  10. Ryanza

    March 26, 2015 at 09:28

    Consoles have always been the corporations play ground. The PC was our play ground. Then they turned our play ground into a corporation play ground, Steam. The other corporations wanted a piece of the pie, Origin, Uplay, Blizzard, Social Club, ect.
    And now they want control of what’s in your PC box. So what’s next. Steam box, Origin Box, Uplay Box, that will permit you to change your hardware through the eye of the internet or else you locked out.

    When I say, Don’t Support DRM, it gets turned into a joke on here. But out there they using DRM to control you.

    Don’t Support DRM.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 26, 2015 at 09:29

      Just reading Social Club made me throw up a bit.

      Reply

      • Greylingad

        March 26, 2015 at 09:48

        in unison…

        Reply

    • z1n

      March 26, 2015 at 10:20

      Oh hello you! Long time no see. How are the kids?

      Just to clarify, yes DRM is a joke. I’m sure you can agree with that 😛

      The PC was turned into a corporation playground since the MS era I feel.

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        March 26, 2015 at 10:53

        Why do you feel the need to reply to my shit. Every time you see a comment made by me and you get that feeling of wanting to reply to my shit. Please go and make your own comment.

        Thank You.

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          March 26, 2015 at 10:57

          Wtf dude

          Reply

          • Metal Rabbit

            March 26, 2015 at 16:21

            lolz

  11. Greylingad

    March 26, 2015 at 09:29

    Oigh… I still don’t like DRM, Steam has only really started working well in the past year or so, but it took them ten years to get there, something no one else has the budget for, let alone time to properly develop. Filthy Pirateses…Ruining the games by cooking them…

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 26, 2015 at 09:30

      Yet the pirates are unaffected by this.

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        March 26, 2015 at 09:31

        More importantly, the pirates are not to be blamed for this either.

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the damned

          March 26, 2015 at 09:32

          You’re right. This is just typical EA bullsh!t

          Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          March 26, 2015 at 10:36

          piracy is just a symptom.
          dont treat the symptoms, treat the disease.

          Reply

      • Greylingad

        March 26, 2015 at 09:35

        Exactly, in reality there is nothing you can do to get rid of them, if your game has protection, whether it be condomising or not it will be ripped open at the moment of release and then they’ll use a little disclaimer that says, if you like it buy it… yeah…like that’ll ever happen… especially if you buy it and you end up finding the final boss of the game was the challenge to actually getting it to work…

        Reply

  12. Admiral Chief

    March 26, 2015 at 09:35

    *puts on eye-patch and goes arrrrrr

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 26, 2015 at 09:36

      I think EA’s biggest fans at the moment are the pirates.

      Reply

  13. Greylingad

    March 26, 2015 at 09:36

    It still beats Games For Windows Live….

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 26, 2015 at 09:37

      Oh fawk you’re right.

      Reply

      • Greylingad

        March 26, 2015 at 09:41

        Gee wizz….have I lost my cool repeatedly for that piece of demented, region locking, frustration generating, mediocre, lackluster, half bewitched, inconclusive, needless, error code(literally) useless piece of crap… the stories of endless nights, trying to validate your account getting redirected to sites that don’t even exist anymore… It probably doesn’t help that I had to do this a few nights ago either… Rage infusing nosense….

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the damned

          March 26, 2015 at 09:42

          I bought that Mortal Kombat arcade pack on Steam
          Didn’t know it uses GFWL. Took me 30min to get into the game the one day. Haven’t played it since.

          Reply

          • Greylingad

            March 26, 2015 at 09:45

            Bwaaahaaah, Sorry, I really don’t mean to laugh, but bloody hell, that’s exactly it, I installed Dirt 3 again this week, it took me from 19:30 the evening until 23:15 to log into the game, with a new account, registered in the US of the A’s

    • Admiral Chief

      March 26, 2015 at 09:40

      Amen

      Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      March 26, 2015 at 10:12

      They were so badly shamed they changed their name to Xbox Live. 😛

      Reply

  14. Blood Emperor Trevor

    March 26, 2015 at 09:38

    I wouldn’t be surprised to hear EA & Nvidia announcing a new partnership in a few months, with games being locked to Nvidia at a hardware level.

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      March 26, 2015 at 09:40

      Delete this comment! Delete this comment! Before EA gets ideas! PLEASE!!!

      Reply

    • Captain JJ the damned

      March 26, 2015 at 09:40

      Luckily you can use that 4Gig card then ;P

      Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      March 26, 2015 at 10:13

      Won’t happen as EA is firmly on the AMD bandwagon.

      Reply

  15. Pariah

    March 26, 2015 at 09:44

    Just for the record – Windows does this too. Has done so since XP.

    Reply

    • ReaperOfSquirrels

      March 26, 2015 at 09:56

      Yes, but then you call Microsoft and get it sorted out… have you ever tried to call EA?

      Reply

      • Pariah

        March 26, 2015 at 09:58

        Yes, both times I got through quickly, and the problem was resolved effortlessly. MS on the other hand have given me grief – to the point where it once happened that I phoned in to their “official” line, which gave me a different number to phone. Phone that new number, and it gave me the first. Both automated responses. It took a year for me to get my Uncle’s XP revalidated after an upgrade. A year.

        Reply

        • Greylingad

          March 26, 2015 at 10:01

          Only a year!? What a lucky man he is!!

          Reply

          • Pariah

            March 26, 2015 at 10:03

            Lol, since it was a legit copy, a year is way too much. And since the rise of the internet, that’s no longer an issue. Simply click a button and everything is done for you.

        • Matthew Holliday

          March 26, 2015 at 10:30

          i didnt bother contacting them when mine bugged out, i just went and installed a pirated version, with a legit cd key, its 100% legal.

          Reply

        • ReaperOfSquirrels

          March 26, 2015 at 10:55

          I got through to them quickly too… but I still have a useless copy of The Sims 3 and about 5 expansions.

          Reply

      • Kromas is drunk with power!

        March 26, 2015 at 10:14

        EA has the best support service I have ever called. That being said I had to call them a lot.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          March 26, 2015 at 10:31

          ive heard differently, a friend got locked out of his origin account for something that went wrong during an install, or something.
          he said google was more helpfull than EA support.

          Reply

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            March 26, 2015 at 10:34

            I call them directly and have only had sterling service. However I have never tried their support website.

  16. Greylingad

    March 26, 2015 at 10:21

    We don’t want no D R M ing….tum tum tum tuum tum…
    We don’t need no HW control….
    Hey EA, Leave them PC’s alone…

    Reply

    • z1n

      March 26, 2015 at 10:25

      All an all it’s just a…nother way to control.

      Reply

      • Greylingad

        March 26, 2015 at 10:35

        I would have said another prick in control, but that works…

        Reply

  17. Mark

    March 26, 2015 at 13:56

    It’s a shitty game anyway….

    For me EA can just vanish from the world, won’t be missed.

    Reply

  18. Brady miaau

    March 26, 2015 at 14:44

    But, but, where’s the cat?

    Reply

  19. Cyberats

    March 26, 2015 at 22:30

    EA = Origin = Your games are NOT yours anymore, they’ve been registered once, who knows to what lost account and now you can no longer play them. The issue is they’ve found a way to take your money & make sure your software is NOT yours anymore. It’s somewhere in their “clouds”, may have been registered to you at some point in time, but not anymore.

    Reply

  20. Cyberats

    March 26, 2015 at 22:42

    It’s time to say Fuck EA !!!

    Reply

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