EA apparently doesn’t get it
EA apparently still firmly believes that its DRM will mean more sales. I don’t think they get just how much their latest DRM policy angers legitimate gamers. The interviews where they mention this is here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20655
EA’s Riccitiello claims he “hates DRM”, and has this to say about the whole DRM debacle: “‘I’m guessing that half of them were pirates, and the other half were people caught up in something that they didn’t understand,” he says. “If I’d had a chance to have a conversation with them, they’d have gotten it”. He may be able to sweet-talk a lot of potential customers, but I definitely will not back down from my position on DRM. No online activation, no drivers, and no hindrance on me selling the game on if I so desire.
EA keep saying that the games are good, and that most people voted with their wallets when buying Spore. I doubt that the majority of spore’s buyers knew just how limiting the DRM is. I’ve seen plenty of people complaining about being a legitimate owner of Spore because they hit the limits, or they didn’t like getting the restrictions which the game had (and they hadn’t been informed of/read up on beforehand). And that’s before EA’s shut off the activation servers.
And all this does not stop pirates one bit. Oh, it may stop them from accessing online content in the form of creatures from sporepedia, which is fair enough, but it doesn’t stop them from getting and playing the basic game.
This just shows what happens when customers get pissed on in this fashion, and even with the game being downloaded 500000+ times since september 2nd, it still sold 2 million copies. A fair few of those downloads are probably due to people wanting to give EA a virtual punch in the face, but that’d probably still be a fair bit of additional copies sold. Compare that to crysis, which is apparently one of the best-selling PC games according to the article I referred to, which has been pirated 470000+ times since november 2007.
Another article which mentions the same thing I’m mentioning is:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091400885.html
I’ve said time and time again that I will not be buying their games as long as they insist on having this kind of draconic DRM that the latest versions of SecuROM means. Most people are against online activations and limited number of activations. I’m probably going further than most people, since I’m indignant about the device driver that they also insist on installing, but I hope most people will see just how much of an overtramp this also is.
I can understand it if they don’t see this, however, because doing so requires getting a technical understanding of just what this means for them, whereas most people just never even notice.
Yet.