EA Admits Spore Launch Botched by DRM

[Nimrod]

​

Electronic Arts has owned up to the mess it created with the DRM-heavy launch of Sporelast week, a fracas that may actually have cost the gaming giant as much as $25 million in missed revenue. Gamers angry with the "draconian" content protection features opted out of the $50 a pop for Spore and copped it illegally instead, to the tune of an estimated 500,000 downloads across various BitTorrent sites. In fact, peer-to-peer research firm Big Champagne called the speed at which gamers downloaded pirated copies "extraordinary."

In a statement, Frank Gibeau, EA Games label president, said the company was 'disappointed' by the misunderstanding around its digital-rights-management software and that it would expand the installation limit to five machines. He added that EA is expediting the development of a system that will allow customers to 'deauthorize' computers and move the game to new machines, without needing to call the company.

View: Full Story at the Washington Post

 

[Nimrod]

The DRM was a good thing to me, it gave me a reason to pirate the game instead of buying it which I was intending to.

I then found out the game got boring quickly and saved myself £40. Thank you EA

 

[Trebor]

Where as I bought it, thought I could've saved myself £30 as I quite like the creature creator and still downloaded it in case EA did screw me over. Good to know I can de-authorize the game, though how many times I'll remember this when I uninstall and reinstall etc, I don't know.