5:54 AM on 09.15.2008
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The big mess that is Spore's DRM controversy continues as Electronic Arts has "responded" to concerns over its use of SecuROM in Will Wright's opus. EA corporate communications rep Mariam Sughayer claims that the uproar over limited installations is unjustified because 77% of customers have only installed the game once, leaving 23% that have needed to install it multiple times. "EA has not changed our basic DRM copy protection system," explained Sughayer. "We simply changed the copy protection method from using the physical media, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to one which uses a one-time online authentication.
"You can install the game on three computers - at your office, at home or for your family. What you can't do is make and distribute a thousand copies online." No word at all, however, on the accusations that Spore's DRM chews up RAM like it was free candy. EA also neglected to address the fact that Spore myopically allows only one account to be created per copy purchased. As the title looks headed to be one of the most pirated games of all time, I doubt this will appease anyone. Still, it's somewhat amusing that EA has stated "you can't make and distribute a thousand copies" with Spore's DRM ... isn't that what everybody's doing right now? |
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52 comments + 134338 views
Here I am, feeling rather dirty...
After the crap that EA have done over the last few months (Spore and Mass Effect) and what they have promised to do in the future (C&C), I vowed to not buy or give them money again. Yet here I am, waiting for Warhammer to finally get its patching a$$ in gear so I can go rip some greenskins apart...
Is it just me, or do you think the rep has just totally missed the friggen point as to why people are so pissed off?
"...77% of customers have only installed the game once, leaving 23% that have needed to install it multiple times. "
And the game has been out for how long? That is one of the most useless statistics I've seen. Try asking that question after 6 months or a year... Oh wait, that's not going to happen because the results wouldn't swing in EA's favour.
It's also amusing to see them say it prevents distributing thousands of copies when the fact that Spore downloads are running into the hundreds of thousands has been fairly widely reported.
But then, this is more about minimising the used market for the game and forcing people to purchase multiple copies anyway. It seems EA has resided itself to the fact that pirates will never buy the game, so they are trying to bleed customers dry instead.
After I watched EA release Madden 09 with a lot of issues, NCAA the same, Mercinaries 2 being the shit game it is, I have sworn off EA published or developed games. I love Spore, so I am struggling with myself whether or not I actually make a purchase...I started to feel bad last night after I evolved and got to land, but then I remembered, EA doesn't care about the consumer, so why should I give 2 fucks about EA...
In any event, you don't even need to go online to get the creatures/building/vehicles and the like...(using a little ingenuity) you can find well over 50,000 different user created content...And that was a huge issue for me when it came to spending money or not...
The most fucked up thing about it is that I normally NEVER 'find' games to play, as I think companies need money, just like I need games...But EA enjoys fucking people over, and making them twist hoping for patches and the like. So, I say fuck you EA, take better care of you softwares quality (Spore not included, because it rocks...Will Wright the shit, and I feel bad for fucking him) and take care of your consumers, or we will stop buying your games.
You can't fight freedom EA, people will play your game when and where they want.
It's amazing how the bittorrenting thieves have convinced themselves and many of you that the dreaded "DRM" is what's making them steal the game. Are you all that naive?
If it came without DRM it would have been pirated..oh im sorry.. "shared", even more.
If you're gonna steal software, atleast be honest about it...you're cheapskates that like free shit. You're not noble and you're not "fighting the man". you're just lying to yourself.
"What you cant do is make and distribute a thousand copies online"
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH (breathes in) HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAAH (looks at statement again) BWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAA
Anyway... Timmeh has hit the nail on the head. The game has been out for such a short time, those statistics are utterly meaningless. Hes also probably right that this'll leech as much as possible from the few people still willing to support them...
Well done EA - youve massively increased piracy rates for your games, while punishing the people who do buy them, all while acting like an arrogant, moronic asshole who cant understand any viewpoint except your own. I predict much success for you in the future!
Flay:
I don't entirely agree with you there. While it's obviously true that pirates will always pirate regardless of some sense of "justice," there is a reason why it's Spore torrents that have reached "extraordinary" levels. You can't deny that the DRM backlash has had a significant impact on the torrenting figures here.
I don't strictly agree with either side of this debate, but EA has brought some of this on itself.
I couldn't care less about Spore, just regarding this particular line:
"You can install the game on three computers - at your office, at home or for your family. What you can't do is make and distribute a thousand copies online."
That sounds very much like them assuming everyone would do that with the copy they bought, and it's exactly what this uproar is all about: Customers being treated like pirates.
See EA, DRM sucks and activly INCREASES piracy. Back to plain old manual-codes plz, thx.
That statistic is probably the most devestating thing EA could have pulled out of it's own ass. I mean the game is out for about 2 weeks and already 23% of the people who bought the game had to install it multiple times? If that's the case that clearly shows that 3 installs aren't nearly enough for the standard consumer.
Just shows that EA has totally lost it. I personally played every installement of the C&C series since Tiberian Sun passionately but seeing that the disc will come with this shitload of malware that companies like Sony got sued for when they put it on their discs, I think I'm going to make this the first Command and Conquer that I'll pass. And this really is a shame because the Red Alert universe has always been my absolute favourite and I have been waiting for the third installement since the second I had punched through the campaigns of RA2. So thanks EA for fucking up a game that I have been waiting for for years and which I would even have bought if Jim had given it a 1.0 in a review.
Speaking of which, I would like to suggest that we resurrect the old review guide or at least reinstall the definition of a 1 score in this guide .
1 – Unbearable. Practically unplayable. An exercise in absolute madness.
By this definition every game published with SecuRom will earn a devestating 1.0 score.
a) the game is practically unplayable because the DRM nukes your RAM and it will become literally unplayable after the third install without begging for EA's mercy
b) Using such a restrictive method of DRM and expecting the consumers to cope with that is a prime example of pure madness.
So 77% of people have only installed the game once but what percentage of these people may at some point uninstall and reinstall the game?
@flay
I'll be first to admit that I'd snag any movie I wanted to see, but not video games. I wouldn't take a game like Braid on a torrent...Even though MS will see some of what I spent on it, the guy that made it will see that money too.
At least for me, I can honestly say that had Spore been published by an indie studio, or even a dev/publisher that I don't feel abuses consumers with flagrant disgreguard in the way only EA can. Pandemic, a GREAT developer, who created great games prior to EAs take over, now release sub par software...I already said my peace about Madden (whos users have been fucked on a monumental level since "next-gen" that it goes beyond small mistakes and hovers on gross incompetence).
EA just makes my gaming blood boil...And I was pissed I spent money on an EA game recently (TW 09 for 360), a game I could have gotten for "free" on my PC...But I refuse to lend my support, or money to EA at this point. I'm soured on EA, their questionable ethics, and the fact that depend more on patches to fix brand new games more so than almost any other dev/pub...There is no reason to be talking about "Patch 2" on August 19, only days after Maddens release.
Maybe to you it sounds like me trying to give myself some sort of excuse to you, Jim, or any other person who will read this article. I didn't have to say anything, especially about my aquiring the game...But the reasons I gave are real reasons, and not just some excuse to get free games. I don't need to do it, but my reasoning is my own, and it's honest. I have no reason to lie or make up some excuse...
Brutal, I have nothing to add, Timmeh hit it out of the park. But I have to wonder if maybe Flay is an EA employee, yeah?
DRM is such a failure of an idea. It's the reason I didn't buy Bioshock for PC, and instead pirated the shit out of it. It's also partly the reason I won't be buying Spore, it sounds like a mediocre game anyways. Why would I pay money to be treated like a criminal. It just doesn't add up.
I think it was Wardrox that had a rant about DRM on the latest Podcastle episode that I enjoyed immensely. I can't recall what was said though I do remember giving it a "fuck yeah" as I listened. Damn it, now I'll have to re-download it to remember :-X
EA must have its collective head up its backside so far they can the their fillings. Or are they using the gnome model of business.
1. Make Game
2. Rape Customer Base
3. ????
4. Profit
Remember EA, Don't Do Crack.
Stoopid EA.
@ zeronil: drugs are bad mkay you shouldn't do drugs.
DRM is bad mkay you shouldn't do DRM.
DRM has a very destinctive smell to it so I'll just pass around a little bit so that you'll know it when you come across it. ^^
If anything, the DRM 3 'activations' should be enough to cause a backlash, and EA will have earned every bit of the vitriol aimed at them. They continually fuck the consumer over.
EA = swing and a miss. Pillocks.
I downloaded a Spore torrent just to up the number of downloaders. I'm not even going to install it. If I do want the game in the future I will go out and buy it.
Spore is such a high profile title with the less avid gamer community (a IT guy I know who never plays games was all excited about it).
Hopefully this will smack some sense into EA.
@Flay: And you're not fighting piracy by yelling at the internets. Douchebag.
Currently, there are are more than 17,408 leechers attempting to torrent Spore, with more than 6,435 seeds, today alone.
By figures the game was downloaded more than 171,000 times from September 1-13 alone. And that's not counting people who hit-and-ran, thus being missed by the count. And it's STILL not counting the MILLIONS of copies that will be burned onto DVDs and sold in street markets and game stores WORLDWIDE.
If we go by EA's moronic "logic", wherein pirated copies are equal to sales lost, SPORE has, and will lose hundreds of thousands of times the average blockbuster game's OVERALL LIFETIME revenue. In just TWO WEEKS. That's THE SIMS MONEY. Remember, it's considered a great success if a game can move 500,000 copies at market price.
And given that significant percentage of that is likely from backlash users and DRM-avoidance, EA has just given itself a PR punch in the balls.
And they still have to pony up cash to pay to SecuROM, which may well be getting royalties per copy sold.
Utter bullshit.
Might I add that that's JUST on Mininova, which doesn't reflect activity on all the possible trackers and distribution methods.
@ unangbangkay very true
one private tracker has over 66538
one has 1,421
another 1,845
and those are just 3 private trackers not included in the numbers
so the number really is a lot higher than 171,000
And in just two weeks so far. Since Spore is meant to be played forever, we'll probably never see how much EA could have gained by being less idiotic about things.
If I ever bought this game (probably wont) but if I did, I would probably get the pirated copy just to avoid the DRM, even though I had a purchased copy, that way I wouldn't feel bad about it (I could never pirate without feeling bad, how some of those people sleep at night...)
@swizzler121 - Nobody is killing someones first born. And for as much as the game getting Pirated sucks for Will Wright, I'm sure he's doing just fine financially...I mean, the guy made some of the greatest selling titles of all time.
EA has overthought and underperformed on a lot of games, and they really underestimated how many people would say fuck you, I'll get it for free instead of 50 bucks for what is basically a rental.
It's too bad, because the game is awesome (so far, I'm very early on in the second "stage"). There is a lot of cool user created stuff too...Too bad EA decided to screw the consumer.
For a game that wears off after you play though it two times, not being able to rent it is just retarded. Yeah yeah, I know you basically rent it from EA if you buy it, just saying :)
Max Power's Fun Factoids: Up until recently, it was possible and quite popular, too, to rent PC games in video rental shops in Germany. Some shops still do this. In fact, this used to be the prime way to pirate games in pre-broadband times. Shop clerks didn't even care people returned games after only about one hour. Fun times.
Hopefully more large corps like EA learn from this. Even better, in due time all we have to wait for is the statistics to show EA. Just wait, hopefully this kind of fiasco will teach somebody like EA that you can't rule gamers with an Iron Fist.
@Max - I can't think of 1 video store that used to rent PC games...Although EBs return policy was awesome on that front...
@Ocified-Xboxer: I just checked the Video World Germany website, they actually do have rental copies of Spore. wat. Also, in the top 10 rental games list they have three PC games. If that weren't enough, they're listing C&C Red Alert 3 (PC version) in the previews. As a rental. So, with DRM and all, I guess they know what people rent these games for.
@MAX -
So then that would mean that people will still need to get a hack/keygen if they aren't the first 3 renters....Which goes back to EA trying to screw the consumer, and them exacerbating the need for some this.
Yes, exactly.
I couldn't care less. I have no sympathy for EA, and I don't recall Will Wright speaking out against the DRM. The game doesn't really seem worth pirating, though.
'... "you can't make and distribute a thousand copies" with Spore's DRM ... isn't that what everybody's doing right now?'
Exactly, and what's the point in DRM, then? Just f*ck the real customer. It's a vicious circle and the only one that loses is the loyal customer who buy original PC games. F*ck EA!
In my opinion, pirating the game is not the answer. If anything, that will offer EA more ammunition to implement even harsher DRM "protection" software.
I would much rather see a concerted effort by troubled consumers to flood them with letters, emails, well-written posts on their forums, etc.
Of course, all of this could be moot if next month's NPDs come out and show it selling millions of copies.
Technically this is a concerted effort by troubled consumers. And if they try to tighten their grip, people will slip through just as easily, then turn around and give them the finger again.
This actually gives EA some numbers to look at to compare to their sales, as opposed to trying to get everyone to buy nothing which just gives them their sales and doesn't really show how much they have damaged themselves.
@Syn
I see your point, but I cannot imagine that pirating the game is going to change EA's mind. I came to that conclusion based on stockholders wanting some sort of assurance integrated into the game to stop/slow down piracy. If it were taken out completely, I think those same stockholders would cry foul and claim EA has given up the battle.
Or, I could be wrong and the stockholders fail to give a shit beyond the $$$.
Anyway, EA will obviously paint the pirates as low-brow thieves that would not have bought the game regardless of the absence of copy protection - which is true. But to what extent is unknown (albeit there was the report that it is higher than normal?).
I wonder if there are baseline measurements to compare Spore's DL numbers to other titles based on anticipation/hype, system requirements and included copy protection.
@Sharpless - I disagree, the game is worth getting, any way you see fit. It is really fun, and "evolving"you creations through generations (as well as the evolving from stage to stage) is...well..fun. I wouldn't say the gameplay (thus far, I'm holding off evolving into the tribe stage) is overly complex, as the 'Creature' stage is basically running around, finding new parts to add into you creature creator, and interacting with the stuff other people have come up with. I loved reading the little bio a user made up for his "Crystal-Backed Gorilla"...(They are sought for their precious crystals that form on thier fur/bone)
I love building up 'DNA' and finding new parts, and then creating a more complex species, and then run rampaging...And then a meteor hit my planet, or a space ship abducts indginous animals, or throws some new ones. The fear that hits you when you're just this green dude, and there is a 700 ft wasp-squito terrorizing the nests around you. It really is FUCKING BRILLIANT.
It really comes down to a collect parts/do missions to get DNA by completion of either a 'social or aggro' response. Some groups can't be negotiated with (I'll leave my political joke out but laugh here anyway, because its fuckin funny). I'm in stage 2 and there are 5 total. I would like it if they allowed me to have a save spot for each end of stage moments, because I love being Ghandi or Alexander. In any one few moments it really shows who is playing that they will dig it.
The game is tits, but more than anything...ALSO COCKS.
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