Seemingly as a response to the heavily criticized DRM in Spore last year, which restricted the number of installs allowed per user and crippled some of the game's content if no persistent internet connection was available, Electronic Arts has announced that it is easing off on most of these limitations. Specifically, the game publisher said that the third installment in its popular life-simulation franchise, The Sims, will not include any kind of online authentication but will rely instead on a simple serial code during installation.


That means players can use their disc to install and play the game on any machine as long as they have this number. It's possible that some other method will be used for copy protection, which seems like a reasonable compromise, as long as there is no oppressive and overly restrictive system calling EA's authentication servers to keep tabs on you. After all, pirates simply find workarounds for these DRM restrictions in the end, making people who actually bought the game the ones who suffer the most.