Mass Effect: Andromeda's Anti-Piracy Update Has An Interesting Side Effect

BioWare had to face off against some unfortunate realities when Mass Effect: Andromeda was cracked and spread across pirating communities only ten days after its release. Well, they've managed to rectify the problem by updating their anti-piracy measures... and it has an interesting side effect. Pirates will be stuck with game's unpatched animation for the foreseeable future.

According to DSO Gaming, the base executable for Mass Effect: Andromeda was updated with the latest patch, 1.05. This patch brought with it an update for the eye shaders so that characters no longer have dead fish eyes, along with some slight fixes to character movement during dialogue sequences, and improved localized lip-synching during in-game speech sequences. They also addressed the squat-walk that the Ryders suffered from when wiggling back and forth on the stairs.

However, not only did BioWare update aspects of Mass Effect: Andromeda's characters and animations, they also implemented the latest version of Denuvo anti-piracy DRM. This is an updated version of the anti-tamper security measure, and it's a replacement for the previous version of Denuvo that was cracked in Mass Effect: Andromeda just ten days after its release.

According to DSO Gaming, the newest patch containing the updated Denuvo DRM has not been cracked. This means that pirates have been unable to get their hands on the newest patch unless they buy a legitimate copy of the game. So what does this mean for pirates? It means that the only cracked version of Mass Effect: Andromeda available is the one that's pre-patch... that also means that they're stuck with the awful looking dead-eyed faces, stilted body movements, the waddle-walk up the stairs, and the poorly synchronized lip-synching.

Some people have been searching the net for a crack for the latest executable because even if you do manage to get your hands on a copy of patch 1.05's executable you won't be able to use it with your cracked version of Mass Effect: Andromeda unless you crack the exe. So far, pirates have not been able to crack the latest iteration of Denuvo.

This is a rather odd turn of events for pirates, and it definitely makes you wonder in some way if this was intentional from BioWare?

Presumably, they'll be using the latest version of Denuvo for every subsequent patch they release as well, which would mean that those who purchased a legitimate copy of Mass Effect: Andromeda would gain access to all the latest improvements the game will undergo over the next two months.

BioWare has plans on further fixing the rest of the game's dialogue animations as well as further improve lip-synching, and add in more customization options for the character creator.

So if BioWare can keep the anti-tamper tech updated for the game, keeping one step ahead of the pirates, it means that pirates will be stuck with the older versions of the game and thus stuck with the sloppily animated characters and poor character creation toolset.

It definitely makes you wonder how many pirates will give in and buy a legitimate copy of Mass Effect: Andromeda in order to get the fixed and proper version of the game?