Developers have trolled pirates with game-crippling devices in the past. Most recently, The Sims 4 put an ever-growing pixelated blur on the screen of pirated copies. Other examples include the notorious immortal pink scorpion of Serious Sam: BFE, and Game Dev Tycoon, in which pirates have their virtual games virtually pirated until their studio goes out of business.
PC players! If you're online complaining about the lack of FOV control ... You pirated the game.
— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick) November 18, 2014