Changing graphics cards can lock you out of Battlefield Hardline for 24 hours, thanks to EA's hardware monitoring DRM

GarlanTyrell · March 26, 2015

The intrusive hardware tracking DRM makes a return with EA's latest title: Battlefield Hardline. Reviewers conducting benchmarks with the newly released title have been hit by Hardline's DRM wall after swapping hardware during testing.

'After testing merely a handful of graphics cards I noticed EA will now lock your game with the following message: "We're sorry, an error has occurred. Too many computers have accessed this account's version of battlefield Hardline Digital Deluxe recently. Please try again later."'

The DRM implemented into the game, intended to stop piracy, seems to be recording the hardware ID numbers of the components in your system and after 5 changes to the hardware, the associated account is blocked for 24 hours.

While this is not a new form of DRM, it goes to show that publishers are persisting with forms of DRM that ultimately hurt the legitimate users as well as those who attempt to provide media coverage of the game at launch. The PC has the potential to unquestionably be the best gaming platform, sadly however, it seems like game studios are doing their best to make us want to go back to using consoles.

Source: http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ea-infects-battlefield-hardline-with-new-ghastly-drm.html