Fungal Infection

Frustrated Spore users are slamming Will Wright's new release with poor, 1-star reviews on Amazon.com.

Of 642 user reviews posted as I write this, 586 are of the 1-star variety, hardly what one would expect for such a hotly-anticipated game. The negative reviews invariably mention the digital rights management (DRM) system built into Spore. This one, posted by Amazon user dwemer22, is fairly typical.

I was EXTREMELY excited about this game... Then I got on Amazon and noticed that a large number of the forums devoted to Spore were complaining of something called "SecuROM." I did a little digging and discovered that SecuROM is a piece of [DRM] software that is installed along with the game to prevent you from installing the game more than three times, in an attempt to combat piracy.

I read further through the forums and the Wikipedia article and discovered that SecuROM does a number of other things too, including sending mysterious packets of data back to the company from your computer (identity theft, perhaps?), prevents you from using certain programs, such as DVD and CD burners, makes it impossible for you to modify your root drive and, worst of all, will NOT uninstall without the help of a third party application. So I cancelled my order...

The pirate version, now available without the nastiness, is therefore, ironically, a superior product.

Spore was without doubt the most anticipated game of the year. The game itself has blown away the people who have played it, but the DRM encouraged thousands to get their copy illegally. Already Spore has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on BitTorrent, and this number is increasing rapidly.

Users aren't too happy with the absurd DRM restrictions that come with the game. EA decided that people who buy a legitimate copy of the game, are only allowed to install it three times.

The idea behind DRM is that it will stop people from pirating the game, but in reality, it often has the opposite effect. As Forbes points out, many commenters on various BitTorrent sites now legitimize downloading this game because the official copies include some heavy and intrusive DRM.

You have the power to make this the most pirated game ever, to give corporate bastards a virtual punch in the face, deathkitten writes in a comment on The Pirate Bay. He or she is spot on. Spore has been the most downloaded torrent on The Pirate Bay for over a week, which is unique for a game.

Electronic Arts is going to ease up slightly on its digital rights management (DRM).

The upcoming Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3  will still use SecuROM as used in Mass Effect and Spore. But 5 installs will be allowed rather than the previous 3.

Premier Executive Producer Chris Corry responded to Spore's backlash and wrote on EA's official support forums that Red Alert 3 would ease up on its copy protection. In addition to allowing two more installs, the game will only require a one time online authentication. The EA published Mass Effect for the PC previously required users to authenticate their game online every 10 days, this requirement was later removed.

A first for the Command & Conquer series is that Red Alert 3 will no longer require users to insert a disc to play. In addition, if owners need to install the game more than five times, EA Customer Service will be on hand to supply additional authorizations on a warranted case by case basis.

Electronic Arts, stung by a siege of criticism from gamers who took issue with the copyright restrictions the company placed on its Spore game, this morning issued an apology and said it would loosen the electronic locks on the game.

We've received complaints from a lot of customers who we recognize and respect, said Frank Gibeau, president of EA's Games Label, the division responsible for Spore: We need to adapt our policy to accommodate our legitimate consumers.

The customer anger erupted largely on video game message boards and in user reviews on Amazon.com's Spore page. The game's ratings have been hammered by critics of the installation restriction, with nearly 2,500 of the 2,900 Amazon reviewers giving Spore only one star.

EA officials said the controversy caught them off guard.

The company said today that it would boost the limit to five computers. It also will allow players to transfer the game an unlimited number of times so long as each copy is installed on no more than five computers at the same time. EA also said it would sometimes let players go beyond that limit, depending on the circumstances.

Amazon.com customers are once again accusing the online retailer of removing video game reviews that criticize the use of SecuROM Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Electronic Arts expansion to the game Crysis, called Crysis Warhead, has recently been hammered in Amazon's customer review section in protest of its use of the maligned SecuROM copy protection. A vast majority of reviews (at publication, 78%) give the game a 1-star rating. A good many forgo an actual critique of the game itself in favor of simply deriding the DRM.

A similar (and more widely reported) negative reception was given to EA's Spore for the very same reason.

Soon after Spore accumulated a hefty sum of customer complaints, some cried foul when Amazon's UK store appeared to have yanked hundreds of customer reviews. They claimed the site was censoring negative reviews in order to help encourage sales.

At the time, an Amazon representative unconvincingly claimed that the site was encountering technical difficulties which are preventing some customer reviews from appearing on product detail pages.

But the situation seems a bit more suspicious when the exact same thing happened to Crysis Warhead.

Amazon has again restored the missing customer reviews. The game presently resides at a one-and-a-half-star average rating with 217 reviews. It's fortunate some vigilant customers are out there keeping the site honest.

There has been some talk around the Net this week that the PC version of Fallout 3 is sporting SecuROM, the same intrusive copy protection scheme that caused so much controversy for Spore last month.

But a post on publisher Bethesda's blog claims that Fallout 3 only uses SecuROM to verify the disc:

For Fallout 3's copy protection on PC, we use the same security model as we did for Oblivion - a simple disc check. We only use SecuRom's disc check functionality for copy protection. We do NOT limit the number of installs. We do NOT use online authentication or any other SecuROM functionality except for a disc check when you install the game and when you launch the game. We do not install any other programs and we don't have anything that runs in the background while you're playing the game.

Update: GTA IV on PC

3rd December 2008. See article from gamepolitics.com

Regarding GTA IV's SecuROM, an unnamed Rockstar spokesperson told IGN:

GTA IV PC uses SecuROM for protecting our EXE until street date has passed, to ensure the retail disk is in the computer drive... Product Activation is a one time only online authentication when installing the game. GTA IV has no install limits for the retail disc version... and that version can be installed on an unlimited number of PCs by the retail disk owner... All versions of the game will use SecuROM for Product Activation. Downloadable versions of the game will have additional code if the vendor requires it, such as Valve's Steam program.

Video game producer EA has closed the chapter on a turbulent feud with its target market by announcing that the next instalment of The Sims will relinquish DRM.

In a public statement posted on the official Sims 3 website, studio head Rod Humble described DRM as overly invasive. He said that the Sims 3 would include disc-based copy-protection – a simple serial code – and the game would not need any online authentication.

The DRM debacle surrounding EA's last major PC title, Spore, had in many cases overshadowed the merits of the game itself.

Humble's announcement of the standard disc-based copy-protection may effectively bury the hatchet between publisher and its anti-DRM audience: We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.

Update: Remove Spore Infestation

4th April. See article from gamepolitics.com

Edge Online reports that EA is now offering a software tool which can be used by PC gamers to remove authorization limits on Spore. This will allow computer games to be re-installed or moved to other PCs without limitation.

Download EA's De-authorization Management Tool (DMT) here.

The reaction to Ubisoft's DRM, which requires a constant Internet connection, has been well documented, with a reverse boycott organized and hackers taking down the publisher's authentication servers twice. The new Electronic Arts release Command & Conquer 4, despite employee claims that the game has NO DRM. Zip, zero, zilch, none, also requires an Internet connection to play, which has already resulted in a thread full of complaints on the C&C forums.

A way to fight back might be to link up with the organization Defective by Design, which proposes that DRM should stand for Digital Restrictions Management. The group is organizing a Day Against DRM that is scheduled for May 4, 2010.