Spore DRM issues addressed by EA

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EA has addressed the growing number of concerns over the DRM (digital rights management) employed in its latest game, Spore, over at MTV Multiplayer.

The most glaring complaint is that the game can only be installed on three different machines. Ever. The EA spokesperson pointed out the similarities with iTunes here, with that the software can only be 'authorised' by three machines at any one time - the difference being that Spore doesn't allow players to disassociate the software from a machine. Thankfully, the EA spokesperson said that a patch was on the way to rectify this.

The spokesperson drew on statistics to show why they don't believe this to be a big problem. Presently, only 23% of people who activated Mass Effect and Spore: Creature Creator - and 14% of Spore owners - have tried to activate it on more than one machine.

Spore players have also been concerned about the possibility of spyware included in the game's SecurROM software, which the EA representative shot down.

"There’s no viruses, no spyware and no malware…We have located a download off of one of the Torrent sites that is a virus," advised the spokesperson. "The thing I would say to the consumer audience is that, if you’re concerned with a virus on your computer, the chances of that are infinitely higher when you’re downloading off of a hacked version than it would be downloading the authentic game. We would never put any spyware on anyone’s computers. That’s not going to happen."

Fans of Spore have also expressed concern about the game needing to authenticate itself over the internet each time it is played - what happens when EA shut down the authentication servers?

"If we were to ever turn off the servers on the game, we would put through a patch before that to basically make the DRM null and void," noted the representative. "We’re never walking away from the game and making it into a situation where people aren’t going to be able to play it.”

The slippery issue of the instruction manual explicitly stating that players could create more than one online character was once again written off as a misprint, but without any details as to why such a restriction was implemented.

The spokesperson's bottom line?

"EA has no intentions — nor will they ever — to make it easier for people to play a pirated game… than to play an authentic retail copy."

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19 Comments

A13x

3 years ago

Article wrote

"There's no viruses, no spyware and no malware. We have located a download off of one of the Torrent sites that is a virus," advised the spokesperson.

Haha, these are the same guys who go around posting in torrent site comments that the file "HAS A VIRRUS!! DONNOT DOWNLOAD! IT RUINED MY COMPUTER!" to discourage downloaders...

Good to see them listening to people about the install limit, and confirming that should it lose its servers, which inevitably happens to a lot of EA games, as they insist on hosting their own matchmaking services, with the clause that they can switch them off and end any type of online play within 30 days of a notice being posted on EA.com, that it would be patched first to not need authentication.

Lord Haart

3 years ago

"Only" 23% of millions of people = LOTS of people.

If those 23% percent pirated the game to avoid DRM, I sure bet EA would be having a whinge...

Jarrod

3 years ago

Bethesda refused to use piracy protection in Oblivion as they felt it was an utter waste of money. Pirates would get around it regardless, and if the game was hyped up / high quality it would sell anyway.

As a result Oblivion sold like hot cakes and doesn't even require a disk to play.

BioShock is cracked, Mass Effect is cracked (as far as I'm aware), and if it isn't already I give it another week before Spore is cracked.

I don't know why publishers seem to think that pirates are going to magically give in and buy the games. I can understand the "don't give up" mentality, but those utterly intent on pirating won't ever purchase the game. They'll just wait until its cracked, which it will be.

Do publishers ever really take into account that their tedious piracy protection is really doing very little, and legitimate customers are the ones paying the price?

Appel

3 years ago

EatChildren wrote

I give it another week before Spore is cracked.

Spores been cracked for a little while now.

EatChildren wrote

I don't know why publishers seem to think that pirates are going to magically give in and buy the games. I can understand the "don't give up" mentality, but those utterly intent on pirating won't ever purchase the game. They'll just wait until its cracked, which it will be.

Yeah, the harder the game is to crack, the more hacking groups want to crack it as they win 'respect of the scene' once they do.

Jarrod

3 years ago

Well there you go.

Those looking to pirate the title will do so, and those buying legitimately get stuck with a pain-in-the-arse activation and 'security' feature.

Passa

3 years ago

Spore was cracked five days before the North American release. GG EA, I can see treating your customers as criminals really paid off.

Quote

EA has no intentions — nor will they ever — to make it easier for people to play a pirated game… than to play an authentic retail copy.

That's funny because I can install the pirated version as many times as I want, never having to actually manually call up EA and request a re-activation. My primary concern was never the lack of authentication servers in the future, it was the extreme bulls**t associated with having to actually sit on hold for an hour on a long distance phone-call just to be able to play a game I would legally own.

DrTim

3 years ago

^ Not to mention that F***ING phone call costs $2.50 a minute. Read the back of the Spore manual, its a goddamn joke.

Mr Waffle

3 years ago

EatChildren wrote

BioShock is cracked, Mass Effect is cracked (as far as I'm aware), and if it isn't already I give it another week before Spore is cracked.

Spore was cracked about 2 days after it broke the street date in Australia. It was being torrented by tens of thousands of people before it had even launched in the USA. I wouldn't be surprised if Reloaded's cracked copy of Spore has found homes on hundreds of thousands of PCs by now...

I'm willing to bet this whole "DRM-outcry-patch to remove DRM" process will repeat itself with every single game. Interviews in the past with various publishers have said that the majority of game sales are in the first week of a game; those are the most crucial to its success. DRM is meant to stop people from pirating the game in that first week, to ensure as many copies are sold as possible straight away. So DRM isn't to stop people pirating, it's to stop people pirating for long enough, like a temporary dam. In this case, thanks to Australian shops breaking release date, it failed miserably.

I think we can expect a hellva lot more DRM in the future, because they know that the people keen for the game will spend their money on the product in the first week, pirates will be held at bay, and then when they squish out the DRM they'll get the holdouts.

Fantastic, if totally evil, business plan...

Skiller

3 years ago

Those statistics are skewed and should not have been used, why would people be activating more than once if they know that they only have a very limited number of activations.
If it had unlimited activations I'd be installing it on at least 3 machines (home desktop, work desktop and my laptop) but instead I was too afraid that'd be it for my installs and only installed on my home desktop and I'm sure there'd be many others doing something similar.

ace_mclean

3 years ago

They should have No DRM- No limitations, hasn't EA ever heard of reverse psychology?

Company's have got to understand that if they release a game upon a PC, it WILL BE CRACKED. They cannot do anything to prevent that in this age (or that i know of)

People who get pirated stuff are smart and know how to use computers. No matter how hard it is, they'll find a way.

So make it better for us who own the game! And perhaps some piraters might actually buy a legal copy

Bitchacho

3 years ago

I ran out and bought the game the day it was out, assuming it wasn't possible to pirate the game and play the online content. Boy was I wrong. Not that I condone piracy, but in this case, I found it appropriate in sending a message that the consumers rights shouldn't be messed with. Good work dudes.

Jellyfish

3 years ago

You could install Spore on up to five different machines before hitting the road block. You could also install it unlimited times on the same machines forever. So it wasn't as bad as people thought.

fuzion83

3 years ago

EatChildren wrote

legitimate customers are the ones paying the price?

Im still wondering where exactly legitimate customers are paying the price? if people stopped assuming that they deserve everything for nothing, and actually coughed up cash for stuff they want then we wouldnt even have DRM and the associated systems that are put in place today...

I paid for my copy, and never had any problems. Admittedly, the game has not lived up to its hype for me - and in turn is overpriced; but thats no reason to pirate a copy.

RagingBull 89

3 years ago

Be quiet fuzion83. If someone presented to you two copies of Spore, one free or one bought, the free one coming with the benefits as the bought one, original etc. etc. AS IF you wouldn't accept the free one. Don't try to take the moral high ground you bastard...

Passa

3 years ago

fuzion83 wrote

if people stopped assuming that they deserve everything for nothing, and actually coughed up cash for stuff they want then we wouldnt even have DRM and the associated systems that are put in place today...

The DRM included is ineffective at stopping pirates, limits your ability to utilise the software you bought (you effectively 'rent' it for $100) and causes problems when playing your own game (SecuROM is a load of bulls**t).

As it stands, the game was cracked and leaked online five (FIVE) days before the North American release. EA is punishing legitimate consumers for absolutely nothing.

Spore is going to break records for piracy..

That's 31,000 downloading it right now, I'm sure many times that number have already completed the download. (another site has the download figure at 182,000)

Confirmed that Crysis Warhead has the same copy protection folks, on the Steam version as well. Very nicely done EA. The best thing of all, it's all cracked and online.. GG indeed:

(to the mods, I'm just showing the age of the torrents and number of leechers, not showing people where to download the games..)

Skiller

3 years ago

RagingBull 89 wrote

If I had the money and wanted the game then I'd always buy it because I'm not selfish and want to support the developers. That's why I end up buying 3-5 games a week and downloading 0 (despite having no download limit).

Benza

3 years ago

Skiller wrote

That's why I end up buying 3-5 games a week

Wow, thats like 500 bucks a week on games.

A13x

3 years ago

Apparently Warhead does contain SecuROM however... it allows simultaneous installs on 5 machines, and unlimited reinstalls.

Fly

3 years ago

A13x wrote

Apparently Warhead does contain SecuROM however... it allows simultaneous installs on 5 machines, and unlimited reinstalls.

Would be why the numbers are minimal with only 3700 downloading it 15hours in to it, whereas with Spore 2.3 weeks after its release it's still getting 31k leechers. The noble pirate and those effectively forced to piracy because the product is superior are less likely to pirate games which do not treat you as a criminal to begin with. In Crysis' case, I'd argue that those downloading it without either be the arrogant pirate type or uninformed on the actual security if the installs basis is as you say since afterall, not everyone has a T3 connection for 7gb file either.

Inherently though, no one should be taking the moral high ground or blaming either party for the current status quo, pirates aren't helping devs and their confidence in the PC market and devs aren't helping the valid customers with the current line of security, both sides need to change for anything to change.

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