Rock, Paper Shotgun received a report from a reader earlier this week claiming that one of his three Anno 2070 activations, as determined by Ubisoft's Tages DRM, had been used up over a simple graphics card upgrade. Everyone assumed that was a bug, since activation limitations are meant to prevent players from instaling a game on too many different computers, not from upgrading their hardware.
But Ubisoft released a statement today claiming that the DRM is working exactly as intended. "While it’s correct that copies of Anno include three activations and that changing hardware may trigger the need for reactivation, the vast majority of Anno customers never encounter this scenario," they said.
"On the rare occasion when a customer does need additional activations, Ubisoft customer service is available to quickly resolve the situation, and we encourage those customers to contact us directly so that we can ensure they are able to continue to enjoy their game.”
Note the vagueness of "changing hardware," which technically includes something as banal as upgrading your graphics card. On the other hand, if you can get more activations from customer service, is this really that big a deal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter.
