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Solam
Solam
Join Date 03/2007
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EA DRM flop on Wikipedia

October 30, 2008 11:54:47 AM from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

I was reading about the new game Spore. Heard a lot about it but I never knew what kind of game it was and I afound this...

 

 

SecuROM controversy

Spore uses a modified version of the controversial[46][47][48][49] digital rights management (DRM) software SecuROM as copy prevention, which requires authentication upon installation and when online access is used.[50] This system was announced after the originally planned system met opposition from the public, as it would have required authentication every ten days.[51] Additionally, EA released the game under a policy by which the product key of an individual copy of the game would only be authenticated on up to three computers.[52] In response to customer complaints, this limit was raised to five computers.[53] After the activation limit has been depleted, EA Customer Service will reset the activation count on a case-by-case basis.[54]

As a result of the protection scheme, out of 3184 of the reviews on Amazon.com, 2671 individual reviews have given Spore a one star, the lowest rating. Electronic Arts cited SecuROM as a "standard for the industry", and Apple's iPod song DRM policy as justification for the control method.[55] Former Maxis developer Chris Harris labeled the DRM a "screw up" and a "totally avoidable disaster".[56]

The SecuROM software was not mentioned on the box, in the manual, or in the Software license agreement. An EA spokesperson stated that "we don't disclose specifically which copy protection or digital rights management system we use [...] because EA typically uses one license agreement for all of its downloadable games, and different EA downloadable games may use different copy protection and digital rights management.”[57]

Despite the use of DRM, Spore has been cracked, bypassing the copy protection mechanism. The game was illegally distributed over BitTorrent file sharing protocol four days before its retail release, and has been downloaded over 500,000 times - and is now on its way to becoming the most online-shared game in history.

In response to reaction over Spore's DRM, Frank Gibeau, president of EA games, announced that maximum install limit would be increased from 3 to 5 and that it would be possible to de-authorize and move installations to new machines, citing the need to adapt their policy to accommodate their legitimate customers.[59][60]

On September 22, 2008, a global class action law suit was filed against EA, regarding the DRM in Spore, complaining about EA not disclosing the existence of SecuROM, and addressing how SecuROM runs with the nature of a rootkit, including how it remains on the hard drive even after Spore is uninstalled.[61][62][63]

 So by trying to combat Piracy this happened... Make your own judgement.
So sad....

 

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Solam
geminisama
Join Date 04/2007
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Reply #1 October 30, 2008 11:58:28 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

That's hilarious. Guess they deserved it.

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Solam
MottiKhan
Join Date 04/2007
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Reply #2 October 30, 2008 12:12:22 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

I'm just glad I heard about EA's DRM.  Spore is a game I would have gotten. 

I fear anything from EA now, since they've proven that they'll install hidden programs that can't be removed.  I'm pretty sure this will damage their reputation permanently. 

Same as Sony DVDs did a while back.  I haven't bought a single Sony item since then.  I'll avoid both companies completely.

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Solam
Solam
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Reply #3 October 30, 2008 12:18:32 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

I find it very scary as well.

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Solam
Whity2XLC
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Reply #4 October 30, 2008 12:23:27 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Go to hell copy protections! Customers have to pay for it. Any Protection will be cracked sooner or later.

What I accept is a CD-Key. Since almost every game can be played online today its the best protection anyway. Since without a valid key you cannot play.

Take some time to check companies like SecuRom, StarForce etc. they aren't small. The make profit. And the profit they gain is paid by us costumers!

What we get for this is just trouble, malware, rootkits and anything else we dont NEED and WANT installed on our PC.

Compared to 10 years go I spent much less money on Games today and I own a lot. Today I think twice about it if to buy or not and so I buy like 1 game ever 2 months. Often I buy games 6 months after release when they are cheap and *mostly* bug fixed. You can get real good games for just 10 bucks in the supermarket.

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Solam
Coelocanth
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Reply #5 October 30, 2008 12:37:55 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

From what I understand that article is slightly misleading: when you have to call EA for more activations, they don't 'reset the activation count' (meaning you start with 3 or 5 again), they just give you one further activation. If something goes wrong, you'd have to call them again and go through the whole process one more time. Anyone want to take bets on how many times you'd get a new activation before EA says "Too may times. No soup for you!"

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Solam
Shrapnel
Join Date 09/2008
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Reply #6 October 30, 2008 1:48:04 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

We all knew this would happen, I just hope that other companies learn from EA's mistakes.

 

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Solam
Spartan
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Reply #7 October 31, 2008 1:04:30 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

You can bet that the article will be cleaned up by EA soon. On a related note several people started using the following images on the official Spore forums as well as other forums. I suggest for everyone to add them to your personal signatures where ever they are allowed.

 

EA Assimilator:                               SuckROM:

 

 

 

 

 

You cant see all the text for the SuckROM image so for full viewing of the SuckROM one on a white background go here.

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Solam
Spartan
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Reply #8 October 31, 2008 2:20:52 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

EA lays off hundreds just in time for x-mas. A review can be found on GamePolitics.com. I urge everyone reading this to join it. The article is here.

Here is a quote from a major Wall Street analyst: "EA’s share price in after hours trading reflects that many investors have abandoned hope... management has demonstrated an uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the eyes of investors, and we think that these old habits will take a long time to die..."

See those of us in the "underground" that have been actively organizing people and groups to boycott all EA titles the past couple years are starting to have an impact. Spore was a great coming out so to speak. Now we need to get more main stream attention and more vocal people in the ranks. We need more, and more people to join with us and just say no to EA products. It will work sooner or later; make no mistake it will work as long as people keep the faith.

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Solam
Emperor_Seth
Join Date 10/2007
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Reply #9 October 31, 2008 3:10:09 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

Oh boy EA is finally screwed. Now hopfully Stardock can purchase Maxis from EA. If that did happen, imagine Galciv III with Will Wright on the devlopment team.

Quoting Spartan,
reply 8
See those of us in the "underground" that have been actively organizing people and groups to boycott all EA titles the past couple years are starting to have an impact. Spore was a great coming out so to speak. Now we need to get more main stream attention and more vocal people in the ranks. We need more, and more people to join with us and just say no to EA products. It will work sooner or later; make no mistake it will work as long as people keep the faith.

I wish that some PG gaming magizines would say something as well as gaming review sites.

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Solam
dfalken
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Reply #10 October 31, 2008 4:09:47 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I wonder what the details of the class action suite are.  Anyone here in the know?  I wonder if we are all able to get in on it, we being those of us who bought Spore at launch know knowing about the SecureROM stuff.

 

I also wonder if I have it as I installed it on a Macintosh.  Is SecureROM active on the Mac install too?  Anyone know?  I'll keep looking and post something if I find anything. 

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Solam
Annatar11
Join Date 11/2006
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Reply #11 October 31, 2008 4:23:13 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

You guys have to learn to be realistic. The reasons for EA layoffs has nothing to do with any underground boycotts secretly orchestrated over several years, come on

[UPDATE] In the conference call, Riccitiello and other executives laid out the reasons for the major shortfall. One major factor was the postponement of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was slated for a late summer release to lead up to its film tie-in's November debut. When that film was suddenly delayed until summer 2009, EA was forced to sit on a nearly finished game it had already spent million marketing. As a result, EA had to move $120 million of revenue into its next fiscal year. Of that, roughly $48 million was expected in the July-September quarter, when the game was slated for release.

[UPDATE 2] Besides international exchange rate issues, which cost EA 12 cents a share, the other big reason for the shortfall is EA's lavish investment in future ventures. The company spent over $100 million in expanded development costs, and invested a further $150 million in building a direct-to-consumer download business. The company also spent $35 million in upfront expenses for its EA Partners deals. Those include the recent publishing agreements with Epic Games, id Software, and Grasshopper Manufacture, as well as the just-announced agreement to distribute MTV and Harmonix's rhythm game based on the music of The Beatles.

I don't like EA's direction of DRM any more than most people, but at the same time, folks need to use their heads a bit and not spell out "the end is nigh" for EA from any game boycotts. Spore already sold about 2 million since September, not even 2 months since release, despite everyone insisting all those thousands of 1-star Amazon reviews will make sure their sales suffer. They haven't.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6200329.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;4 (reference for the above quote, note links in the quote don't work since I just pasted the thing)

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Solam
Coelocanth
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Reply #12 October 31, 2008 4:35:12 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

While I agree with what you said Annatar, a note about those Spore sales numbers: that's across all platforms, not just the PC. I don't recall the PC sales numbers offhand, but it would be interesting to know if they were actually as good as EA projected.

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Solam
Solam
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Reply #13 October 31, 2008 4:35:16 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

I love this quote from game politics.com.

 

It comes from the Fallout 3 news feed. Bethesda wanted to avoid the bad reporting they had from spore.

 

GP: Bethesda is clearly attempting to avert a consumer rebellion like the one waged against Spore. You know, the one about which EA 's CEO remarked that half of the complainers were pirates and the other half were too dumb to know any better.

 

That is sure to help their case.

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Solam
Annatar11
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Reply #14 October 31, 2008 4:44:44 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Spore is available for the Wii and Mac apparently. I doubt the Mac numbers are very high, but Wii who knows. I tried a quick google but couldn't find PC-exclusive sales numbers, and it's not spelled out in EA's quarterly report.

But considering that Spore PC topped Warhammer Online, which sold 1.2 million, I expect that most of the ~2 million sales are on PC.

Still, the bottom line is EA isn't posting a loss due to lost sales from DRM boycotts, but basically because it's very big and spending money on future endeavors like crazy - and as silly as it is, it can't help that they spent a lot of money on the Harry Potter game that they can't release now because the movie was delayed, which turns out to be all loss, no gain.

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Solam
Emperor_Seth
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Reply #15 October 31, 2008 4:48:50 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

I love Spore apart from the DRM and easy difficulty.

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Solam
Coelocanth
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Reply #16 October 31, 2008 4:56:53 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Yeah, good point Annatar. I'd thought I'd read the PC numbers were significantly less then the 2M reported, but cruising around a bit it looks like that is actually the PC figures. So yeah, the boycott is likely having little to no influence. Oh well, maybe the lawsuits will.

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Solam
psychoak
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Reply #17 October 31, 2008 4:57:32 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Two million copies for Spore is pathetic, it's a flop of monolithic proportions.  The concept should be on par with The Sims sales, perhaps higher, they had over a million people get the Creature Creator just to dick around with making stuff.

 

Two million seems like a big number, but it's peanuts when you're looking at a 5 year development cycle, a 70 man team, and a revolutionizing game concept that is supposed to appeal to everyone from the casual gamer's five year old kid to the freak that wont leave his mother's basement.  These are Half-life 2 sales, something you'd expect from an equal project with a much more narrow focus.

 

If it sells ten million by the year end, I'll be less than surprised at how poorly it's performing.

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Solam
Annatar11
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Reply #18 October 31, 2008 5:32:40 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Two million seems like a big number, but it's peanuts when you're looking at a 5 year development cycle, a 70 man team, and a revolutionizing game concept that is supposed to appeal to everyone from the casual gamer's five year old kid to the freak that wont leave his mother's basement.

Sure. But that's 2 million in 3 weeks. To put it in perspective. EA's fiscal quarter ended September 30th, and that's when they reported near 2 million sales. Three weeks. Not even a month since release.

The Sims took a long time to get those numbers, Spore is well on track.

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Solam
kyogre12
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Reply #19 October 31, 2008 5:38:58 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting Annatar11,
reply 14
Spore is available for the Wii and Mac apparently. I doubt the Mac numbers are very high, but Wii who knows. I tried a quick google but couldn't find PC-exclusive sales numbers, and it's not spelled out in EA's quarterly report.

But considering that Spore PC topped Warhammer Online, which sold 1.2 million, I expect that most of the ~2 million sales are on PC.

Still, the bottom line is EA isn't posting a loss due to lost sales from DRM boycotts, but basically because it's very big and spending money on future endeavors like crazy - and as silly as it is, it can't help that they spent a lot of money on the Harry Potter game that they can't release now because the movie was delayed, which turns out to be all loss, no gain.

I don't think that there is actually a Spore for the Wii.The DS has a watered down version that is basicly the Creature Creator, though.

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Solam
Annatar11
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Reply #20 October 31, 2008 5:50:05 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Hrm, well Gamespot listed it for Wii and Mac, since I was reading the layoff article on it that's where I looked Dunno.

I'll reiterate that I don't like EA's business practices and choice of DRM like everyone else, I just think it's living in la-la fairy tale land to assume that their couple hundred million loss for the quarter is due to an underground movement to boycott their games

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Solam
DivineWrath
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Reply #21 October 31, 2008 6:06:16 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

Speaking about securom, I heard that Bethesda's Fallout 3 has securom on the PC version of the game. I was wondering if anyone else heard the same.

I'm quite disapointed right now. I was looking for some new sci-fi FPS game and I heard about Dead Space. After returning my copy (after discovering securom), I turned my attention to Fallout 3. Shortly after realease, I started reading that it too has securom. What am I to do? I do like playing the odd FPS every now and then.

I'll be doing more research for the time being.

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Coelocanth
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Reply #22 October 31, 2008 6:39:58 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Fallout 3 does have SecuROM, but it doesn't have the on-line activation or limited activations 'features' turned on. It's a disc check. Oddly, you can get around even that and play without the disc in the drive without even cracking the game. Totaly legit. I know this because I own it and can do it.

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Annatar11
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Reply #23 October 31, 2008 7:02:25 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Coelocanth is quite correct, Fallout 3's SecuROM doesn't have the evil evil features.

Some say it still refuses to run with drive emulation software installed, but I have Daemon Tools installed and running and I don't get a peep out of it.

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Coelocanth
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Reply #24 October 31, 2008 7:13:06 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Yeah, that seems to be a hit and miss with people. I've seen a number of posts on Bethesda's site where poeple are describing probems with SecuROM and emulation software errors. There've been a few that have problems if they have nero installed. Apparently there's a fix on SecuROM's website. I've had no issues though, but I don't have any of Sony's blacklisted software (Alcohol, Daemon Tools, etc.), nor do I have Nero or Roxio.

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DivineWrath
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Reply #25 October 31, 2008 7:15:12 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums

Fallout 3 does have SecuROM, but it doesn't have the on-line activation or limited activations 'features' turned on.

After spending some time researching, what I found does appear to match you claims. I also have read about the no disk check stuff.

Anyways, when running the game like you say, does securom run at all?

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