Spore PC Game

A huge amount of people have begun complaining of the copyright protection system put in place for Will Wright’s EA published game, Spore.  Criticism of the DRM (Digital Rights Management) system has been posted on a number of sites selling the game, including Amazon.

The DRM system operates by checking how many times the game has been installed, thus making sure the user doesn’t add it to more than one machine.  Unfortunately, some have seen this system as ‘draconian’, as it only allows 3 installs of the game.  Obviously, this means if you uninstall a couple of times and then your machine crashes, you’re on very shaky ground.

Many complaints have been added around the net, including on EA’s own official discussion forum (never a bad sign and possibly the best way to send out the message to the publisher).  Some have gone so far as to cancel their orders, as the SecuROM DRM system has been seen as too restrictive.

Of course, it isn’t THAT draconian.  Do you remember the first install of Half Life 2?  It was an absolute nightmare.  I couldn’t play it on day of release, due to the servers being down.  I’m not even sure that I got to play it on the second day either!  DRM is looking like it is becoming a necessary evil, however there are clearly better ways to manage it than upsetting the very people who are buying the game.

Related posts:

EA hit with lawsuit due to Spore DRM
More on Spore: From TED Talks
DRM protection for Mass Effect, Spore reversed
Will Wright Speaks about Spore
New copy protection system to ship with Mass Effect, Spore

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