EA to loosen Spore install restrictions

Written by Joe Martin

September 17, 2008 | 09:54

Tags: #drm #securom #spore #starforce

Companies: #ea

Electronic Arts is facing some serious flak as a result of the draconian SecuROM DRM used in games like Mass Effect and, Spore and with the latter becoming the most massively pirated game ever as a result of the copy-protection system, it's no surprise that EA should want to make some changes and loosen the install restrictions.

EA has therefore recently announced that in the near future a patch will be released that will let gamers de-authorise their own PCs, much like the system that Apple uses for iTunes. EA is hoping this should help placate those who have a beef with the installs limitation, which was also recently raised from three to five installs.

One thing that is a bit surprising though is that, according to a recent EA survey based on a customer sample, the number of users who even try to install the game on three different systems is tiny - making up only one percent of the actual market.

Speaking to MTV, EA directly addressed some of the main complaints and also showed some rough market statistics and some of the data included in the report makes for fascinating reading. According to the figures in a sample of 437138 Spore users, only 14 percent ever tried to activate on more than one machine and less than 0.5 percent ever tried to activate on more than three.

EA also makes some nice promises and assurances in the article, claiming that the SecuROM system is totally free of spyware, trojans, malware and so forth, while pointing out that at least one of the torrented versions of the game they have looked at has had viruses included in it.

Finally, EA has renewed the pledge that if the online authentication servers were ever deactivated for any of their games then a patch would be released beforehand to ensure players can still continue to enjoy the game.

Is that enough for you, or are your grapes still sour? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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