Andre Yoskowitz
9 Sep 2008 18:22
Yesterday we reported that Amazon users were rating Spore poorly under user reviews due to EA's crippling SecuROM DRM. As of writing, there were 1700 1-star ratings for the game on Amazon, with most if not all reviews citing the DRM as the only reason for the low score.
The SecuROM DRM only allows three installs of the game and it appears that although the game has only been out for a few days some users have already used up their installs for various reasons (computer crashed and needed reformatting anyone?)
In an apparent reaction to the headlines, EA has posted that they have loosened up the DRM for their upcoming game Red Alert 3 although it will still have SecuROM.
Executive producer Chris Corry posted that this time the SecuROM will allow for up to 5 activations, a slight upgrade from Spore's 3. You will also only need to authenticate the game online once, on initial launch and never again. "In other words, no reaching out to a central server post-install to see if you're 'allowed' to play," Corry wrote.
Corry also pleaded with users to look past the DRM and to buy the game for the game. "I think it would be a shame if people decided to not play a great game simply because it came with DRM, but I understand that this is a very personal decision for many of you and I respect that," he added. "As you might imagine, I'm a lot less respectful of those people who take the position that they will illegally download a game simply because it has DRM. Either way, we're very proud of the hard work our team has put into this game and we hope you will all enjoy it when it launches."
Red Alert 3 is set for release on October 27th, lets see if it fares better than Spore has on Amazon.