TechSpot en EspaņolMost Popular
| Top Stories | Latest | Featured |
Sony unveils its "non netbook" Vaio P series
Windows 7 64-bit version hits torrent sites
Windows 7 beta released to testers, public beta coming tomorrow
AMD Phenom II X4 940 & 920 review @ TechSpot
Left 4 Dead DLC arriving next week?
Palm announces webOS platform and demos Palm Pre
TechSpot RSSGaming
Spore massively pirated despite DRM
Spore has been rife with controversy from well before release, both in and out of the context of gaming. When it comes to gamers in particular, there was a lot of negative feedback given to EA over their DRM. They responded, but not in kind, and it seems that despite all the heavy locking they attempted to do on the game it is being very heavily pirated. In fact, it seems that at the moment there are more pirated copies of Spore running than legal copies.
With the budget it took to create Spore, including development and marketing, has EA shot themselves in the foot by being a stick in the mud with DRM? It used to be that DRM was one of those things people just dealt with. Sure, there were complainers, but by and large you just put up with it. Spore may represent a change in that attitude, and may be an indication of what sort of reaction game publishers can expect if they try to artificially restrict how people can use the games, from account restriction to obsessive activation.
One could say that EA and Maxis should have seen this coming. After all, a former developer for Maxis outright said that this DRM would be a total failure, not only contributing to loss of sales but also not preventing piracy in the first place.
Related Stories
User Comments (8)
Post a comment| 9Nails on September 15, 2008 9:45 PM | I'm downloading the pirated copy just to piss them off! It's copying straight to my Recycle bin! heh!
I could hardly resist Spore when I saw a Google video from an E3 (I assume). But with the arbitrary DRM limitations, I think my eyes have been opened. It's not that I'll be installing on more than 3 PC's, it's that there are limitations in place and I don't agree to those in principal. It's my right as a consumer to elect not to consume in such a situation. Let them eat crow for their actions, but they still lost a sale with me.
|
| captain828 on September 16, 2008 3:06 AM | I sure agree with you
also, it appeared on torrent sites before its official release... so too bad EA, you're DRM was like non-existent
|
| x darthmonkey x on September 16, 2008 8:22 AM | Hah! I know people who have paid for the game, and people who have illegally torrented it (Some had it before the release), and here's what they say.
Legally purchased; they can't stand the limitations placed upon them by the DRM. Some even went and downloaded the pirated version for their "secondary" computers. Torrented; Love it. Some of them feel a bit left out without the Sporepedia, but I think they all agree that life goes on without it.
|
| black_adder on September 16, 2008 8:39 AM | Hahahah.... I remember last year I wrote a long a$$ Comment on the whole DRM situation.
And I (laugh) and repeat it again: The more difficult and annoying you make installing and running games, the more people will turn to illegal copies. Jeez, You'd think they'd all learn by now... THERE IS NO (POPULER) GAME THAT HAS NOT BEEN CRACKED. Why even bother trying? how much does it actually cost to include all the "anti-piracy" features? Valve/Steam was probably the best anti-piracy trick ever seen, and that got cracked in about 3 days if I remember correctly, JUST because it was a challange for the Hackers. Starforce is another awesome example, with it, its a MASSIVE pita, so people use the pirated starforce-free versions. Oh well... *end rant*
|
| aolish on September 16, 2008 12:13 PM | Why didn't they just release Spore on Steam?
|
| windmill007 on September 16, 2008 1:29 PM | First thing I do when I buy a game is go and get the no-cd crack so I can play the game without the cd and DRM. I recommend everyone do this. That way you never see this evil DRM.
|
| Julio on September 16, 2008 9:45 PM | For all the creativity and effort that goes into a game like this, it's such a shame and waste to have legal customers go through such a painful process. There's just times when piracy can be well justified.
|
| neurosys on September 25, 2008 12:27 AM | PIRACY IS ALWAYS JUSTIFIED ... ASK ANY AMERICAN WHO ISNT RED.
|
