Jochen Scheisse says:

Being able to admit mistakes is a good thing.

Gamers seem to be the most vocal and organized stand alone complex of customers in existence.

September 23rd, 2008 at 12:23 pm

James G says:

Do we know how they define a machine? As I understood the previous system the activation would remain valid if I uninstalled and immediately re-installed on the same system, as SecureROM would remain on the system. If however I formatted the HD in between the two installs then it would count as a re-activation. I’m assuming now that it uses some kind of hardware hash and after contacting the activation server it would realise it was the same system?

I’d still prefer an even more lax system, especially given that the original did nothing to stop even zero day big-P. However at least the movement is in the right direction, and I hope it wont be too long before consumer pressure encourages EA to drop the DRM completely.

September 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 pm

Bobsy says:

Well thank fuck for that.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this here yet, but last saturday the internet verification on my copy re-activated again. That is to say, my legitimately bought copy of Spore actually stopped letting me play after 10 days. I had already brought my physically massive computer into work one evening before (with great difficulty) to get it verified, and then 10 days later changed its mind. It may have been a sneaky resurgence of the 10 day check or it may not, but whatever, despite playing by the rules the DRM actively stopped me playing my legally purchased copy of Spore.

This whole experience has left me angry, upset and feeling humiliated. So this comes as good news, but I still don’t consider this a guarrentee that everything’s going to go smoothly from hereout.

September 23rd, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Calabi says:

Well they dont entirely have a voice.

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/3869.page

If you speak out about DRM your game may be written off.

September 23rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Nallen says:

“We’ve received complaints from a lot of customers who we recognize and respect. We need to adapt our policy to accommodate our legitimate consumers.”

By which they mean Amazon.

Also I bet they don’t touch the stuff on Warhead.

September 23rd, 2008 at 12:44 pm

araczynski says:

i love the retarded wording on that “accommodate our legitimate consumers”…. because the illegitimate ones accommodated themselves before the game was on store shelves.

borrowed a friend’s copy, returned it to him the next day. this is definitely a game for the myspace/facebook crowd. so should be successful.

September 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm

Albides says:

“We’ve received complaints from a lot of customers who we recognize and respect.”

Good thing the customers whom they don’t recognise and respect didn’t say anything provocative.

September 23rd, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Urael says:

@Nallen: Hmm, Warhead. That’s the acid test of how sincere EA are on the whole issue, isn’t it? Ok, so a consumer backlash has prompted a freeing of the restrictions on Spore (Note: the restrictions are still there) but where do they stand on DRM in general? Will this ‘5-machine install’ become the new policy going forward? What about Mass Effect and Bioshock? How about a retroactive loosening of their restrictions now that their initial revenues have died down?

I’m sorry, Cataclysm, but if this is the only effect our ‘voice’ has then EA have a LONG way to go before they deserve any faith from anyone. And as Nallen said, are they really listening to us or listening instead to the giant multinational retail marketplace called Amazon? I see nothing yet that makes me think they’ve changed from the horrible company of legend in any way shape or form.

September 23rd, 2008 at 1:24 pm

Mungrul says:

This isn’t really backing down though, is it?
This is [i]exactly[/i] the same manoeuvre they performed with Mass Effect PC.
I suspect they released the game knowing full well they’d have to be pervceived to be “backing down”, when in reality they should be removing SecuROM completely.
As it stands, now people are saying “Oh they’re not so bad really“, while still being stitched up with frankly unnacceptable DRM.
And as mentioned by Calabi, they’re still behaving despicably if you look close enough.

September 23rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm

Heliocentric says:

Wow. Thats shitty. Talk about our drm and we’ll ban your game? Fuck them, ea really are still the old ea.

September 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm

cHeal says:

>>Windows allows you to install once.

Yes, at any one time. OEM is stricter, allowing it to only ever reside on a single machine, but in that case you get what you pay for, with a proper license you can install it on as many machines as you like, just not at the same time. I consider this to be relatively fair for what this software is. Games are a whole other ball game. That’s my understanding of it.

You talk about de-activating but that whole concept is where I have a big issue. Lets fast forward 10 years and people like you have rolled over (no offense intended) on this issue and every single games comes with this “activate”, “De-activate” system, I would have to un-install and de-activate over 25 games just to format my PC, something which I could do quite often (last year I formatted 5 times, this year none). I really really don’t want to have to un-install every application (presuming that all licensed software takes up this DRM) off my PC just so I can then format it.

September 23rd, 2008 at 1:52 pm

John D says:

Big fucking deal. So instead of three it is five? How is this them backing down? Your Spore chappie there isn’t “free” compared to before.

This is a tiny and pathetic concession done in the hope of keeping people quiet long enough to get used to ever more draconian DRM systems. You’d have to be a fool to get excited about this or think it a victory.

September 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm

grumpy says:

And this is good how, exactly? We have exactly the same problem as before. You need their permission to reinstall the game. Oh sure, now you can do *two* more reinstalls than before, whoop de woop.

The ecstatic tone of this article almost makes me wonder just how much they paid you for it. No, this is not good news. Not if it means EA are now seen as Good Guys in articles like this. Hurrah, they let us reinstall the game FIVE times now. That makes aaaalll the difference. Praise our saviors.

September 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm

Azhrarn says:

Technically nothing has changed, they just increased the limit to 5 from 3 (and yes, the 3 installs was with “different machines” aswell.) The system is still the same and still as badly flawed.

As for what games have this type of DRM, EVERY SINGLE GAME EA has released since Mass Effect PC has carried this piece of junk and they obviously don’t intend to change their ways.
On the forums a mod made a mention of a deactivation tool (something that they should have released simulatiously with ME) but no time frame on its release, so that may well be a hoax aswell.

Overal EA seems determined to destroy PC gaming single handedly, as the treatment of their PC customers clearly shows.

September 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm

Gorgeras says:

Why are we being nice? It’s gone beyond being polite and showing basic courtesy now into full appeasement of EA’s bat-shitiness.

EA have made no attempt in recent years to improve. Yes, they have made attempts to make it seem like they have improved, none of which have stood up to more than five minutes of genuine scrutiny. The current president is not ‘the new president’ of EA; he’s the guy who was in charge when EA was at it’s worst. He was brought back because his successor was insufficiently reptillian.

After learning Crysis Warhead has DRM, I’m forced to not buy it. For the first time in my life I’m seriously considering downloading a pirate version knowing full-well it’s illegal. But EA have thrown away every bit of moral high-ground they had to preach to us about anything. They have distorted and stifled criticism of their practices long enough, it’s time they were meaningfully punished not only by consumers but an increasingly placid gaming-press that too often gives praise for scum temporarily ceasing some of their scuminess. What they should be doing is stop being scum at all and start behaving like they are worthy of their market status.

September 23rd, 2008 at 2:49 pm

RichPowers says:

Copies of Crysis Warhead purchased through Steam have SecuROM and a five-installation limit. Why? Because EA hates you.

Between this and EA’s pitiful quality control, there’s really no reason to buy games from them.

September 23rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Weylund says:

Shoot. I saw the title of the article and thought I might be able to buy Spore now.

Nope.

And: “…as many re-installs as you want on a maximum of five computers…” How in hell do you MANAGE something like that? If they’re taking hardware as a bench for “computer”… yeesh. That’s a gigantic amount of information they need to gather, store, and act on.

If they had released it DRM-free they would have sold more copies, with a LOT less work.

September 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm

Colthor says:

So, as for the copy protection, they’re just adding 2 to the install count? Not, say, getting rid of the install count and online activation?

So really nothing has changed, and this is just an empty PR stunt? Bugger them, then.

September 23rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm

rocketman71 says:

Let’s repeat the link above:

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/3869.page

So, if you speak about Spore’s DRM, you get banned from the forum and you lose your Spore copy?. Oh, yeah, sorry, I mean, in some cases. Pretty fucking amazing.

Whoa, that seals it. I’m not buying anything else from EA, ever, DRM or not. Congrats, fuckers, you did it. Now go cry about piracy on the PC.

PS.- Here’s counting the minutes until someone from EA says that the mod didn’t have permission to say that, he’s been fired, and of course they’re not going to deactivate your Spore copy just because you bitch about their useless, customer harassing, DRM.

September 23rd, 2008 at 4:05 pm

Mungrul says:

What I really don’t understand is why that forum post isn’t being reported on any of the major news sites.
This is far bigger news than EA’s supposedly submissive DRM posturing.

September 23rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm

Leon says:

Wow, they realized all that after that “reconized” customers complained about all this. What about all the other “not so reconized” customers. What you have to be a hardcore gamer under a banner to be reconized by EA. That’s lobbying crap if you ask me. And for the restriction of 5 computers installation, it’s really a mess too. Computer Gamers need to change an hardware component once in a while to have an healthy game experience. Each time that a person changes a part, reinstall the software, it’s considered like a new computer. For me, I’ll be buying the game to encourage the enterprise, but I would install a pirated version instead so I don’t have to shove all that DRM crap into my computer. I still have the chills of the DRM virus from Sony a year or two ago…

September 23rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm

Gregory says:

It’s been asked before, but I’ll do it again: Can I play the game in ten years, like I can with all of my ten-year-old games now?

September 23rd, 2008 at 5:08 pm

Cope says:

So I guess the Amazon backlash worked, at least partly. I’m still not happy that they didn’t drop SecuROM entirely, and this sounds too much like a PR stunt to try to recover what I’m sure will turn out to be pretty dismal sales considering how hyped the game was.

In a few days Spore slipped below the top 5 sellers in videogames on Amazon, now 2 weeks later it’s slipped to #16, below things like the PS3 Blu Ray remote and Pinball Hall of Fame for the Wii. Probably not what they expected.

Threatening to ban users who speak out against DRM on their forum cancelled out any goodwill they might have won from me with this announcement.

September 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm

cHeal says:

Keith, this DRM has an absolute install limit, or activations.

I believe that a full windows license can be activated on as many PC’s as you want, just not at the same time.

September 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm

suibhne says:

Where in that press release do they commit to allowing unlimited reinstalls on a single machine? I see the bit about the 5-machine limit and the forthcoming deactivation tool, but little else.

September 23rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm

Chis says:

It’s only now that the news is quietly leaking out that Stalker Clear Sky has activation, via the TAGES copy protection. This is NOT mentioned on the UK box, only “technical preventitive measures”.

I’m livid. Sod the EUCD, I’ll use a crack for Clear Sky and never reinstall it. But in future I am not ever going to buy any games with this activation DRM bullshit. It is only harming legitimate customers.

And EA are hardly backing down, I’ve no interest in Spore anyway, but unless they completely remove the activation DRM on Crysis: Warhead, I shan’t buy it.

September 23rd, 2008 at 7:39 pm

trioptimum says:

And to think that for the last two weeks I have held out a glimmer of hope that the massive Amazon backlash would cause someone at EA to finally, lastingly, get it.

Don’t expect me to thank you, after you’ve taken my stuff, when you then give a portion of it back to me. These softer limits are still draconian by the standards of even 12 months ago. How short do they think our memories are?

Like several of the commenters above, I’m finished with this ludicrous, offensive company. I don’t need their games enough that I’ll sacrifice what they want me to to enjoy them. (Which I usually don’t anyway.)

When the 1* ratings started to go up on Amazon, it was obvious that EA had to respond in one way or another. They could back down, and buy a lot of goodwill, or they could renew their commitment to DRM even under intense pressure to do the opposite. Either way, the statement would be clear and unambiguous: ‘this is our choice; this is the way things will be’.

EA have made the choice to become an amazon.com running joke.

September 23rd, 2008 at 7:55 pm

Psychopomp says:

I pray that EA realizes the error of their ways before Dragon Age comes out. Everything else that’s carried SecuROM has been of passing interest to me…

But Bioware would be the thing that makes me cave.

September 23rd, 2008 at 8:34 pm

redrain85 says:

Sorry Mr. Walker, but you are being far too generous to EA.

Nothing has really changed. The DRM is still there, there’s still an install limit, and now a Spore forum moderator is even threatening that your Spore game account could be banned for discussing the DRM. Possibly forcing you to buy another copy of the game. Despicable.

And I read Mr. Gibeau’s entire statement. I’ve selected some choice quotes.

- “We’re disappointed by the misunderstanding surrounding the use of DRM software”
You’re disappointed?!

- “We felt that limiting the number of machine authorizations to three wouldn’t be a problem”

- “We assumed that consumers understand piracy is a huge problem – and that if games that take 1-4 years to develop are effectively stolen the day they launch, developers and publishers will simply stop investing in PC games”
So, EA Games’ president is threatening to stop making PC games if they can’t use this kind of intrusive DRM. Bravo, sir!

- “And while it’s easy to discount the noise from those who only want to post or transfer thousands of copies of the game on the Internet, I believe we need to adapt our policy to accommodate our legitimate consumers”
So it’s all just been noise to you, eh? Everyone who complained was a dirty pirate too, apparently. And how gracious of you to go out of your way to accomodate us, your customers. When that’s your bloody job.

September 23rd, 2008 at 9:53 pm

Colthor says:

Wow, Clear Sky too. I’m glad the PCG review put me off now – thanks Jim!

September 23rd, 2008 at 9:55 pm

grumpy says:

“More eloquent people than myself have written many words about the things that are wrong with them (us?), but suffice it to say that there’s a lot of people out there who need to grow the hell up. Complain and register your protest with the company, guys. Vandalising Amazon and BSing about how justified your rampant piracy now suddenly is doesn’t make you clever. Nor does it work; Spore had one star and was still the highest selling game on the site.”
I disagree. It’s pretty clear that writing emails to EA saying “dear EA, I would rather prefer it if you didn’t use DRM in your games” has precisely zero effect. So far, the Amazon thing is about the only thing that has actually had an effect. And I don’t see how it’s vandalizing anything. The reviews on the Amazon page are *not* talking about how piracy is justified. They’re talking about how the it is not worth paying for the game when it is being sold under these conditions. And honestly, I think it’s a great way to point out these problems with the product. Because EA doesn’t exactly label them clearly on the box. They don’t want people to know about the DRM they put on the game. So I’d say a pretty rational response is to write about it on a public site that a lot of people will see before buying.

Here’s the flaw in your logic. If I complain to EA, what does that tell them? That I bought their game. It tells them that no matter how furious I sound in that complaint, I still fell for it, I gave them my money. In other words, thye can go ahead and keep using the same DRM.
It also means that they can silence the complaints easily. If everyone just complained directly to EA, no one would even *know* about the DRM that might bite them later when they attempt to reinstall the game. You think it’s immature to bring this issue out in the open where people other than EA can see it?

I disagree.

And I don’t see how you can claim that it “doesn’t work”. Don’t you think it might be part of the reason why they’re now relaxing the DRM a little bit? The fact that they’re getting a lot of bad publicity? The fact that everyone, even casual gamers, are now being made aware of the conditions under which the game is being sold?

I’m glad the Amazon protest started, and I think it’s frankly brilliant. I can’t think of a better website to post this criticism. For once, it’s not on the company’s own forum (where they can delete the posts and ban the posters), and not on dedicated gaming blogs (which are only read by a tiny minority). For once, the issue has actually hit the media.
I also think it’s about the most mature and responsible course of action. Much better than your “suck it up” attitude, which only guarantees more DRM next year. It’s funny to see that finally, a company is on the retreat regarding DRM, and then people like you are claiming that we’re “doing it wrong”, that we should go back to the tactic that has worked so well over the last years, of keeping our complaints to ourselves, talk to the company directly, and not let anyone outside the hardcore gamer community know about them. That’s what let them get away with this kind of DRM in the first place.
And of course, by keeping the complaints quiet, even if (according to your fairytale logic) they’ll make EA realize the error of their ways, they won’t affect every other publisher, who still believes no one really objects to DRM. For once, the publisher are all seeing a clear example of just how despised their DRM is, and how many sales it’s costing them

September 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm

malkav11 says:

I really wish people would quit announcing slight relaxing of DRM as some sort of exciting resolution to the problem. Is this better? Sure. Is it a meaningful resolution to the core issues with this DRM system? Nope. The core problem is the fact of the activation, not how many times you can do it or how many tokens you can get rescinded. None of the games that have used this sort of activation-based DRM have yet gotten rid of the activation, and thus they are still crippled, time-limited shells.

If their goal was to make me long for the good old days of unnecessary CD-checks, they’ve succeeded.

September 24th, 2008 at 12:20 am

BlazerKnight says:

This guy knows the industry way better than the suits at EA do. “My job is to increase sales, not stop worldwide piracy” Seriously all this DRM backlash is not beneficial to anyone, now I’m reconsidering getting Mirror’s Edge for PC.. Steam does a much better job overall on DRM, ironically Crysis Warhead on Steam also has Securom. DAMMIT EA!

September 24th, 2008 at 1:44 am

Mark says:

Do they still enforce it using SecuROM? Yes? Then I’m still not buying.

September 24th, 2008 at 5:11 am

Esha says:

So they still hang on to their DRM, eh? Corporate silliness, but there you go. The real victory though in my opinion is the ability to have “screen names”, so that at least up to five in a family can use it at once. That is a breakthrough in today’s somewhat irritating hoard-the-shinies-and-to-hell-with-the-people World.

Couple the multiple account thing with the 1.01 patch crack that Reloaded have already released (love that group) and that’s pretty much an ideal environment. And that’s what I’ll keep doing until they remove the DRM entirely, but even if they don’t then I can count on Reloaded to remove the DRM for me.

Before anyone gets any ideas, I have a legally purchased copy of Spore sitting some distance behind me, mostly because I actually like the game, or moreover I have the imagination to enjoy putting all the nifty bits together within the game. It’s an advanced Lego set and I never grew up. But I digress. I dig Spore, it can be a beautiful thing and I can enjoy it in my own way.

And as is ever the case, likeminded people will always make my experience all the more enjoyable. In fact, every problem I had with Spore has been dealt with. Here are some examples:

Crack from Reloaded: No more DRM.
Freelancer Mod: Missions finally have worthwhile payouts.
Staff of Life Mod: Staff of Life doesn’t run out, and therefore is useful as a sandbox tool (like the ship’s other sandbox tools).
Space is Fun Hack: This greatly reduces the amount of pirate attacks and biological hazards that can occur.

My mindset with the latter one is that most of my allies and own colonies are going to be smart enough to handle their ecology on their own, it’s only when they have a problem that’s really dire and desperate (something that has become a pandemic and is spreading more quickly than they can cure) should they call me in to fix it. And there should be police forces in space that keep pirates at bay, it’s only when pirates pull one over on the space police should they get to allied planets.

When Spore modding becomes more complex, I’m hoping I’ll see space-police and a system wherein planets do handle their own ecology modded in. But until then, the Space is Fun Hack works well and I can just pretend, based on reasonable factors.

For anyone interested in those, the Reloaded crack can be found on any torrent site (but I’m not going to help with keys, I try to stress as often as I can that I only want to help customers which are actually legit and feel screwed over), and the mods can be found on the xspore.com forums.

I’m quite happy with everyone complaining, that’s good because iit keeps EA on their toes. But everyone could complain and use stuff that good people have created to fix the problems already anyway. That’s what I’m doing. That way, I get to have my cake and eat it.

September 24th, 2008 at 6:27 am

Kismet says:

Yes Heliocentric, Clear Sky, Crysis and Crysis Warhead have limited activations on Steam, though after a week of sales, they finally added a notice on the product page (exactly what happened with Bioshock, no mention of the additional DRM on Steam for the first week or so).

Wholeheartedly agree on the Impulse / GoG part, I’m not particularly happy with Steam nowadays and not just for the DRM additions, but that’s a rant I’ll leave for another day.

As for Spore, it’s still in the “when it will hit the 10-15€ price mark, maybe” shopping list, with the current terms of use.

September 24th, 2008 at 7:09 am

Esha says:

@Heliocentric

I definitely support your ideals, as I support GOG and Impulse myself, and have bought from both.

My stance however isn’t so much about supporting EA but more about supporting cracking groups and bringing them more into the mainstream, so that their efforts can be used by paying customers (and more of them want this than you may realise, not all of them are simply all about the piracy).

And frankly, they’re smart blokes. They were smart enough to lobotomise SecuROM, and they’re smart enough to analyse the game and the packets it sends home. I tend to frequent a lot of forums, and there are very intelligent people looking into this and nosing at whether exactly anything naughty is going on between the client and EA.

A fun example (just to make a quick segue, here) is Warden. I think Warden was discovered a day after it was introduced, and long before Blizzard officially announced it. And that was because people are nosey and they like to poke things.

So really, I have choices: I can ignore a game I want to play and stick to the values of DRM-free, and these are great values. Or I could support those who’re making my life easier and simply believe in them and enjoy the game I want to play. If by some incredible chance EA pulls one over on these people and my Spore does get bricked, then so be it.

It’s like Linux, really. I love Linux and I support it as a socialising and applications platform, I have Linux laptops. But I don’t support Linux so exclusively as to miss out on the latest games. As much as I dislike Microsoft, I have to endure their offerings in order to play those games (and I might have to endure even more when Windows LIVE goes… well, live).

And that’s all there is to it, there’re points when a person must decide exactly where they stand, and what they want to do. I’ll take all that I can get. I’ll use a Microsoft OS, but I’ll lobotomise it and rip out its innards so that it does only what I w ant it to. And likewise I’ll buy a game with DRM and graciously use the offerings of cracking groups to surgically remove the bad bits.

It’s just about what a person chooses to do, really. And personally, I’ll continue to endorse cracking groups. There is a truly minimal risk that a copy of Spore could get bricked for using a crack on a legit copy, but I think the risk is worth it.

As an aside: Let’s say that EA did get naughty, they managed to pull one over on cracking groups (or someone didn’t stay updated with the latest releases), and someone’s legal copy of Spore did get bricked. Could you imagine the outrage from that? It’d be all over the blogs within a day, and something like that might even make the printed publications, too.

I would love to see that. If nothing else, it would be entertaining to watch. Even if it was my copy of Spore.

Footnote: Hm, are people becoming disillusioned with Steam? That’s about bloody time. I really hope that StarDock takes advantage of that, and as fully as possible.

September 24th, 2008 at 10:12 am

warrenEBB says:

you crazy theives don’t get it. You keep saying it is stupid to put up with this DRM scheme, when it’s so easy just to steal the game.

get this: a lot of people aren’t ready to openly steal entertainment.

DRM is for those people who are NOT proud to call themselves a thief/pirate. People who generally consider themselves “law abiding.” The current DRM schemes are an attempt to scare this LARGE GROUP of customers into obeying the law. My girlfriend and I both wanted Spore, and our computers are 10 feet apart – but we still purchased separate copies of the game, because we don’t think of ourselves as thieves.

You may be proud to call yourself a criminal. it is oh-so-trendy to think piracy is sexy.

But i don’t know anyone who invites self proclaimed criminals into their homes. Or wants to leave them alone with the kiddies. Sooo, grow up a little? Maybe reevaluate how open you want to be about your criminal activities? (at least until the legal system catches up?)

At least: Recognize that these DRM schemes really aren’t meant to thwart the saavy pirate, but to keep a handle on everyone else’s pocket books.

September 24th, 2008 at 10:40 am

Esha says:

Sarcasm and now satire, too? Though that was a pretty funny effort, warren. I’m just wondering how many people will actually take that seriously? It reminds me of the satirical post on one forum where one person was outraged over identical trees in Warhammer, I couldn’t get over how many people actually fell for that.

September 24th, 2008 at 11:47 am

Thirith says:

@Warren: Taking your post seriously for a moment, I have a question: so what exactly is the purpose of DRM? If the thieves steal the game anyway and the law-abiding citizens will buy the game anyway… what need is there for DRM?

September 24th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Shadout says:

Its getting better. I’m worried about 5 computers though. Does it count for a new computer if you change hardware.

Anyway, it clearly shows that the complaints have worked, it just have to continue.
I think the momentum is gone for Spore DRm complaints. Further complaints will liekyl be seen as whining, since ‘EA has already given in’, which might become the public opinion on this. We dont want the ‘anti’DRM movement’ to be seen as whiners, because EA would have an easier time justifying not to listen to it then. What worked for Spore was exactly that newspapers etc. picked up the story, and framed it in a negative way toward EA and positive toward the anti-DRM case.

However, next time EA release a game, and likely use this very same DRM (changed to the new 5 computers thingy) people should redo the 1 star reviews, forum complaints etc. all over again. Until the day DRM doesnt hinder our usability of our legally bought software.

September 24th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

Ennui says:

This is good. EA needs to know that there’s a difference in expectations between PC gamers and their usual console audience. I’m glad they’re still looking receptive.

Personally I hate DRM. If you have to tie your key to an online account for multiplayer, that’s fine, but anything beyond that – like restrictions on how many times you can download it – is pretty stupid in my opinion.

September 24th, 2008 at 8:59 pm

Kismet says:

Heliocentric, I received an answer from DeepSilver / Kochmedia: the UK retail version of Clear Sky only has disk check, no online activation needed.

Steam having worst use conditions than retail, what’s next? People walking upside down? Humans biting dogs?

September 26th, 2008 at 4:19 pm