Spore DRM more trouble than it’s worth?

Posted by Gwyddia on September 14, 2008

So much for DRM saving the day. According to Forbes, EA’s Spore was illegally downloaded over 45,000 times from Wednesday, September 17th to Thursday, September 18th. As of this writing, the game has been downloaded an estimated 170,000-plus times already, with no end in sight.

It seems that this is a backlash against EA’s draconian SecureROM system, which only allows three installs per disc. For many people with multiple home and work systems, this is not enough. EA claims that less than 25% install games on more than one machine, and only 1% install on more than two. if that is the case, why include SecureROM?

Between the flood of illegal downloads and the recent Amazon “civil disobedience” of hundreds of reviewers giving the game one star because of the DRM, it looks like EA and Spore are losing this fight. Surely there is a middle ground available.

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