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back to article Amazon flash mob mauls Spore DRM

For software that appeals to a wide audience like EA's latest sim game Spore, it's sometimes the first time the average person gets a good taste of how digital rights management (DRM) puts the screw on legitimate users. Spore's DRM limits customers to only three activations after the game is installed. That number isn't …

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  1. regadpellagru
    Thumb Up

    At last !

    "Spore's DRM limits customers to only three activations after the game is installed. That number isn't restored even if the game is uninstalled."

    Eh, seen that ? El Reg discovering DRM are not only on music !

    </sarcasm>

    Serisouly, good to see El Reg at least trying to catch up on what is seen by gamers as a major nuisance, putting them in the "be screwed or apply warez dodgy crack" situation, just after purchase.

    It's to the point it is now frequent to see people ask in forums, before release date "What DRM does it use ?", makeing it a purchase criteria. It certainly is, by the way, for me.

    I'd suggest a further article on the economics of DRM on games, and how the whole story is spinned up so as to make game acquisition more and more a de-facto rent with some expiry period (here, the 3rd time Windows collapses under viruses/malwares, which can be approxed to 6 months for Vista, and 3 years or more on XP).

    That would make for an interesting read.

    PS: by the way, I recall reading here the above was also a tactics on some expensive CAD SW. A SW market trend, maybe ?

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  2. rob
    Unhappy

    spare me a thought

    please spare me a thought. i loved the sound of spore when i heard about it, and i thought i read somewhere it was made by someone other than EA (who i vowed never to buy again after they milked bf2 so badly)

    i bought spore. twice. - one for me, and one for the wife. I have mine installed, and im going to install it under linux sometime soon. Imagine my dismay when i saw the EA logo after getting home.

    the game is a bit rubbish too :( - got to the civilization stage and ... and nothing, the game sucked after that point.

    unhappy smilie, cos i got shafted. twice.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @david g

    "87% buy the item featured on this page"

    That's 87% of people who BOUGHT anything after viewing the page, not 87% of the people who VIEWED the page.

    As for this DRM rubbish, it reminds me of the annoying crap that DVD makers put on their discs, accusing all their honest legal-copy-buying customers of being thieves, while those who get a pirate copy can just watch the film without the hassle.

    I'll take the cracked copy every time.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Well done EA

    Once again they've managed to alienate the legitimate users and push more people towards piracy.

    I'm not sure why EA hasn't created a Steam-like app to manage its games (or simply started using steam) if it must assume its users are pirates, rather than using DRM like in spore. But then i guess in order to use a system like steam they really need decent games in the first place......

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    And there's more...

    You can only have one Spore user profile per machine. So if like our family, everyone has their own login, you all pick up the game at the point it was left at by the previous player.

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  6. Britt Johnston
    Unhappy

    getting around the 3-strike rule

    Spore-DRM may count uninstalls, but will surely start from 3 again after a refresh of windows.

    While we're at it, games are my main reason for reinstalling, along with viruses. They leave bits around and the whole becomes less stable after a while.

    Anybody out there with experience of a policy of one PC for games and/or internet and one for serious stuff? (I'm tempted, but I only have one working at the moment - and don't really want to get a playstation)

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crack me up

    I've bought Spore (and was unaware of the DRM - it doesn't say anything on the box about 3 installs, certainly not in an obvious place) and it will sit on my shelf. I'll download a crack like I do for all my other games to avoid having to put DVDs in my one DVD drive every time. One day in the future I'll move house/be on a laptop/brick my router with a firmware upgrade and not have access to the internet but want to play Spore - and I won't be able to because of this stupid DRM. Then I will go back to the store I bought it from and demand a full refund because it didn't say on the box that I only had 3 installs. Having to do this makes me very angry.

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  8. Wokstation
    Thumb Down

    As I said in the last article, I'm voting with my wallet.

    No way in hell am I buying a single-player game which requires you activate it online. Not all of my PCs are online, and why do they have to be?

    Single-player game + online activation = Wokstation's wallet staying closed.

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  9. Chris Cheale

    it won't last...

    As soon as Spore is a little older, long before most people will need to install it for the third time, the DRM will disappear.

    It happened with X3 and the (even worse) Starfarce copy protection that was built into that - once the game had aged somewhat the DVD requirement (and therefore the Starfarce DRM) was removed and you could just boot the game up.

    Actually time-limited DRM isn't too bad an idea (if DRM there must be at all) since it gracefully allows to game to drift into abandonwarez and the end of it's life-cycle.

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  10. Daniel
    IT Angle

    Somethigns a bit fishy

    Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2 in Video Games

    1.2 stars (1,982 customer reviews)

    Something wierds going on there! Number 2 game with 1,854 1 star ratings!

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  11. Richard Scott
    Unhappy

    @Britt Johnston

    erm, sadly not - the game calls home after every activation and decrements the amount you're allowed by one - this means uninstalling/ reinstalling doesn't use another one of the three your allowed, but Hardware upgrades (EA won't say what will require another activation), re-install of Windows all will.

    Personally, I upgrade regularly and re-install frequently, and I'm not adverse to buying games (like the new Special Shiny Ed of 'Clear Sky' ), but i'm stearing clear of Spore as well.

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  12. Christian Olsson

    DRM can be user friendly and strong...

    This is a terrible story for 2 parties - legitimate users who simply wanted to play Spore and couldn't because the activation servers went down and EA because Spore was cracked even before it was released.

    Often developers walk a tightrope with the tradeoff between protection strength and the degree of impact on legitimate users but this was a failure on both dimensions! Is this really what the publisher wants to 'accomplish'? Why not use a solution which is friendly to honest users, has no impact on development time and the strongest available protection against crackers - see the whitepaper "Is Anti-Piracy/DRM the Cure or the Disease for PC Games?" which can be downloaded here:

    http://www.byteshield.net/byteshield_whitepaper_0005.pdf.

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  13. RobP

    Want to get rid of this? Talk to Trading Standards!

    Yup. It's funny how these DRM restricted games don't mention on the boxes or advertising that one is limited to 3 activations. A user can be reasonbly expected to buy a boxed game and install it as often as they want, provided there is only one instance of the install and that they are still the legal owner of the DvDs/CDs.

    What they are doing is mis-representing the merchantable quality of the goods as defined in the 1979 Sale of Goods Act.

    Fine, let the idiots put DRM on their games to make them less valuable than the pirated versions. But at least make sure that they acknowledge on the packaging and advertising (both theirs and the online shops) that the media is limited to only 3 Activations.

    After all how is one to tell the difference between a game that can be installed for as long as the disk holds out and a game that only gives you three activations? Especially as this directly affects the value of the product.

    See you in court EA....

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There is a good reason for the reviews

    If you consider that Amazon is already advertising used copies of the game, three installs ever makes it a terrible prospect for secondhand buyers.

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  15. Sam
    Unhappy

    Another vote - with my wallet

    One more bloke that was planning to buy Spore. One more bloke who will not buy spore - JUST because of DRM. I will not support stupidity. Stardock games has been getting more of my money than any other developer. I actually bought 3 copies of "Sins of a Solar Empire." One for me, one for my son, and one I gave my father as a gift. I COULD have copied the game and all of them could have run it just fine, but I really like their model: no protection on the game, but you have to have a serial number to download updates and "bonus features."

    Why can't other developers be so thoughtful?

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  16. Chris

    @ Keith_C

    Keith,

    Not sure if you're in the UK or not but if you are then you should have got a free replacement and if they refused quoted the Sale of Goods act to them by stating the the disc is not fit for the purpose intended (it has to be put into a cd/dvd drive for the game to work so should be upto multiple inserts / removals)

    And if they still tried to fob you off and you paid by credit card, just get a charge back on them.

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    iPhone version's okay

    Although obviously nothing like the Mac or PC game, and tied to Apple's handset, the iPhone game is great fun for passing the time, and as far as I can tell the application can be installed on unlimited iPhones and iPod Touch(es?). For what it is, however, £5.99 is a bit steep.

    I won't buy the Mac version until and unless the DRM is dropped.

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  18. Corin Preston
    Unhappy

    Nice to see a bit of sanity being reported

    and is the first thing I have read on Spore that does not seem to be the rantings of the severely mentally ill.

    No one on the Amazon boards, or elsewhere for that matter, is getting that the 'reviews' they are submitting on the evils of DRM are being deleted as they aren't reviews, as this article has at last said. They are of no use to anyone past 'this has only 3 installations' and most have 'I do not own this game or ever plan to do so' in them. A car review where the car wasn't test driven and only ever seen in a picture, well I'd take it as Gospel.

    The DRM is crap and I hope it dies, but for an activist that is trying to change the world and people's lives in any small way he can every day, these people are hysterical foamers that add nothing to any debate they get involved in, if anything just showing what irrelevant extremists they are who quite simply hate corporations and authority.

    They make me angry that they cannot channel their hatred and anger towards more noble causes such as poverty, famine and environmental degradation, although I suppose I should be thankful they stick to irrelevant gaming issues where they can't cause any major damage to a cause.

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