Electronic Arts Responds to Copy Protection Outcry, Removes 10-day SecuROM Check for the Troops

BEFORE you BUY SPORE!
Please do a little google on “EA Shuts Down Online Games”
Having a single player game like SPORE tethered to an on-line DRM scheme would be like buying your music from Microsoft’s now SHUTdown DRM infested MUSIC store and being left without your music like all the people who paid for music form that now SHUTDOWN store.

I’m sure a few well placed JNZ, NOP codes will fix SPORE just fine. Once they put out a stable version, and it’s worth cracking

OOPS !! Wrong 1>>>>>> http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/badcompanypc/

Sign this >>>> http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=52618

Thats BF2 we playing now BTW!

E.A TRY GIVING OUR GAME SOME SUPPORT,LET US USE SOME OF THE CUSTOM MAPS ETC....

I aint buying a E.A game ever again! i bought all the BF Games, for P.C./rent a RANKED SERVER, just to find that there is no new maps / Custom maps allowed!!

E.A is realy taking our eyes out with the Bad Company, No game for the P.C! The likes of me been buying this series of games for years now, to be told i aint getting the next 1 !! BOLLOX!! TO E.A GAMES!!

Fair enough they can waffle on about pirates etc.. BUT! most people d-load a pirated game to try it(single player), THEN buy it for on-line gaming!

the ps 3 - x-box etc... can get pirated disks also!!

EA strives and strives to piss off its customer base. Hopefully this change sticks, at least.

Not that I hold them responsible for killing Earth and Beyond or anything and using those servers to power THE FUCKING SIMS ONLINE. And I'm not bitter, no.

When I heard about the "10-day" rule, I actually decided not to buy the game, and I've been waiting for the PC version since the game came out for the 360! I think this "validate when downloading new content" option is MUCH more reasonable. I'm still peeved about this "three-installation" thing though. I'm still reading it as "three installations. Period." If you upgrade your hardware or re-install your system from the OS up, I'm guessing that the game counts it as a "new system." For someone like me, who has TWO oft-used PCs in the house, and re-images both with paranoid frequency, this is still a point of contention. That means if I install the game on both my PCs, and then re-image them both six months from now, I can only install the game on ONE of my machines, and then I have to call EA and beg them to let me install the game I bought six months ago. Fair, no? Um, no.

Amazon.com sells DRM-free music. Today I buy music online where in the past I never did.

PC games are increasingly using obtrusive DRM that keeps me from playing games I purchase and own. Today I don't buy PC games where in the past I often did. This doesn't mean I will pirate any game, but if I chose to, the DRM sure as hell isn't going to stop me or anyone else from doing it.

I'm glad that EA changed their minds.

The authentification only for the additional game content dowloads seems to be a better idea for me.

OK, so the 3-installs-and-thats-it was hysterical misinformation? From what I'm reading here its up to 3 "PC's", not installs.

I predict that once EA compares the numbers of Spore games online downloading creatures/content to the number of games sold, they won't back down on any future DRM.

Wow, people complained, and they actually changed their minds?

I am fucking impressed.

To be honest you can hardly blame them for trying new methods to combat piracy.

Good, but it's still Bioshock level now. It requires activation and ater 3 attempts (without deactivating the others) it will not work anymore. I assume like Bioshock you'll be given a "decative" tool to fix this.

It's still not even close to steam in terms of treating the user like a customer and not like a fucking thief. Just admit it EA - you don't know what the fuck is up with protection. Submit and join steam. That way you get peace of mind and enjoy steam's features.

Problem with copy protection is that it only anoys the people who BUY the product. Hackers/crackers and leachers are never bothered by it because they will find a way to get pass it.

Copanies need to realize that and work on another way to valaidate legit copies.

You can hate Hitler, but you can't hate Stalin.

still don't understand the big deal with 10 day activation periods. as long as you buy the game and don't pirate it, you shouldn't have any beef with this.

I didn't really have much of an issue with the previous scheme (though it was kinda wtf), but this is infinitely more reasonable.

However, the real impressive thing here is that EA listened to their customers.

Holy shit. :P

WAY TO GO!!! YEAH!!! that's how you properly introduce more intrusive DRM to the masses. Seriously, it's ingenious. You make a game that has more hype than almost any game ever made before this one, state that there is going to be the most intrusive, game breaking DRM management ever imposed by multiple factors of magnitude, then take a few steps back, which is a LOT better than their initial plan, and because of the CONTRAST of WHAT IT WAS to WHAT IT IS NOW, it seems like night has turned into day, and everyone can be happy again. Except for one little thing...it's still WORSE than Bioshock, which allowed for it to be installed on 5 computers, and a LOT of people complained about that, pirated it, etc. say what you will, people treated this as if hate crimes had been committed, with them as the direct, intentional targets.

Don't you love sheep? I do, they provide my daily amusement...

"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, armed-services-and-internationally-fans you're cool, and fuck you, I'm out!" said Watamaniuk.

I'm happy yet oddly disappointed. I for one wanted to see what would happen to a hit game with an ultra intrusive DRM. I think they honestly are reacting specifically to a vocal group of over-seas people who they are not willing to ostracize and I applaud their patriotism and courage to take a risk to serve their customers. But I still would like to know for sure what the effects of an ultra intrusive DRM would be on both pirating and sales numbers.

I know, with time, the pirates can crack anything. But I also know most games come unplayable without the patches and I think downloadable content is the best incentive to purchase a game and is the gaming industry's future and a hallmark of PC gaming. At the price games are now, we have to carefully choose where to spend our $$ and where the best value is.

This seems much more reasonable.

So instead of slapping me in the face I just get punched in the gut? Thanks assholes, awesome bait-and-switch!

Would it be immoral to borrow my friend's 360 instead of buying the game for my PC?

Uh, doesn't spore download content pretty much all the time?

Reading all these comments I am actually pretty amused at this ordeal. First off the gold standard in hated DRM, right now, is obviously Bioshock. With Bioshock you currently get 5 activations on 5 different computers and if you uninstall the game or use the revoke tool provided you get the activations back, so if you do everything properly you can have it installed on five machines at once for all time.

And people hate that. They are infuriated by Bioshock's DRM and continue to cite it whenever DRM threads pop up. Also the initial activation limit was 3 computers 3 times each, if we want to split hairs.

And now EA comes along with their ridiculous every 10 days thing and people EXPLODE, and probably rightfully so. After said explosion EA says "okay we're changing it to be just three activations and the only other time it will authenticate is when you download new content" and almost everyone here IS DANCING FOR JOY.

It's the same fucking DRM as Bioshock now, except you get fewer activations and they haven't mentioned a single thing about revokes when you uninstall. And everyone is happy?! It's almost like EA looked at Bioshock's ordeal and decided they liked the DRM but needed a way for people to accept it so they came up with this incredibly outrageous DRM that doesn't actually exist which they knew gamers would instantly hate only so they could reduce it to something more acceptable (by comparison) and seem like they are awesome and love their fans. I am not saying this is what happened (it's probably not) but it's fucking hilarious.

Now we just need to have similar public outcry over cd-checks, bogus device drivers, root kits and all other bullshit they pull and computers will be almost as usable as they were 10 years ago.

Good call. I believe an online activation ONCE is something people can do without a problem, and this actually works for what's intended - dimishing piracy before release day, as long as it's well done (ie, it has to download part of the executable with that "activation", a la steam).

And the no cd check is surprising but welcomed.

I'm torn between cynicism and pleasure.

I'd like to be all dark and distrusting, but I AM pleased to see some kind of effect, even if this was only an engineered and intentional farce to make them appear lenient when they inevitably caved in.

It was shocking. Too shocking.

But.. The optimist in me will see the light here and be glad to hear it. It's better than what we were told a few days ago.

Of course, it's still SecuROM, so... yeah.

I have always actively avoided SecuROM protected titles and will continue to do so. Same goes for StarForce.

Fear of games that alter my system without telling me what they're doing was one of the factors of going almost entirely console based.

You see, this is great and all. But all this really means is that it won't be in effect for these specific games . It's only really postponing the inevitable. Think about it, for how many years have people been complaining about securom? The only difference it has made is that some higher profile titles either get a watered down version or maybe disabled in a patch. But all in all it's still there and has at best stayed the same or more likely gotten worse as time goes by.

Hopefully this will stop "casual pirating"... whatever the fuck that is. It's easy as hell to just download the torrent, regardless of how hard it is to crack it. You never have to worry about cracking, just downloading and installing.

But don't install any software from Sysinternals, because if you do, YOU'RE A PIRATE!

Well, at least according to SecuROM.

This was their plan to begin with I bet. Announce it as worse than what they planned to release it as, then when they 'hear the concerns of the community' and fix it, everyone loves them.

Bargaining 101.

so now it's just the MS system, I guess that works.

You activate on first install, then if you want patches or new content, you have to reauthenticate.

but overall, it will continue to go towards online activation, I hope they get a good system working and NOT LEAK IT THIS TIME. just put "internet connection required" on the box.

Wohoo, a small win for the customers! Hopefully sales will be on par with expectations or the consoles first could be changed to consoles only for ME2

I wonder if they had numbers on how many people cancelled their preorders?

ok mass effect for the pc then it is. waiting for some reviews though.

I can't bring myself to care about Spore. Now if they were doing a sequel to Alpha Centauri, everything else would fade into the background.

Agreed. EA is getting better. They're listening. This is like the microtransactions in Bad Company - they backtracked there, as well.

Actually in both cases they reneged on the same day or day after a Penny Arcade strip about them. Maybe that's their signal that they've gone too far?

That's not unreasonable. A good chunk of Spore's appeal is online content download anyway.