Benchmark and graphics-card enthusiast site Guru3D are reporting that Ubisoft have slightly relaxed the copy-protection restrictions on the PC version of Annoy 2070, in response to criticisms that the limited number of product activations were preventing them from being able to adequately test the game on a range of different hardware.

Under the game's original DRM implementation, Anno 2070 would only permit three activation attempts and if a user changed something as trivial as a graphics card in their PC, the game would view this as an attempt to install the game on a whole new PC and use up another activation attempt.

It's not exactly cause for celebration, but developer BlueByte have now confirmed that they have "removed graphics hardware from the hash used to identify a PC as a unique machine" -- meaning you can now swap video cards around as often as you like (but probably not processors or motherboards, or heaven-forbid want to play the game on your laptop or office PC).

Really though, it's still poor form from the publisher, who doesn't seem to understand that the game will still be cracked and pirated despite their overbearing efforts and it's only their legitimate customers that are being inconvenienced here.