It turns out Electronic Art’s Spore has some digital rights management (DRM) under the hood that’s irking a few video game players. We use the term “few” lightly, as game players use their voices to be heard and let them ring loud! Taking a gander at Amazon.com’s listing of Spore and you’ll see 797 customer reviews with an average rating of 1-star.
What’s the problem with the DRM? It’s almost easier to ask what isn’t the problem with the DRM in Spore. First, it’s intrusive, install Spore more than three times and you’ll have to call Electronic Arts to have them re-activate the game. Are we renting games now?
To re-activate your game with one more additional install will require you to give proof of purchase, so the comments say and, pretty much, you’re assumed to be pirating the product immediately. That might be over-reacting, a bit, but not really much considering the limitations on the product.
What if the DRM solution goes wrong? What if the game cannot access the Internet upon installation? There are plenty of what-if scenarios one can play out when they find their precious $50.00 game is phoning home to protect itself from you and your habits.
“This caused EA to remove the requirement that the game authenticate online every ten days, changing it to authentication whenever new content was added to the title. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be enough, and the limit on installations is what gamers are now finding most heinous. Review-bombing Amazon is a particularly nasty way of getting the point across as well; casual gamers who aren’t aware of this campaign may not bother to read the content of the reviews and only assume the game isn’t very good.” (arstechnica)
No doubt all the negative press will result in a full on revolt, having gamers who’ve not purchased the title ding it with a 1-star to prove a point, why not? How else shall we fight “the man” and their unholy DRM solutions.
Oddly enough, you can find the game pirated already across the Internet, what has this proven? The game was found on torrent sites before it’s release, already cracked. It’s said they’re using a Sony DRM solution, a known DRM solution, which means hackers whom have already cracked this protection before had it un-shelled in a matter of hours.
What did the DRM get Electronic Arts but a PR nightmare and a bunch of people stealing it off the Internet now that they know it’s already available? Lot’s of publicity for very little gain; imagine the reviews and comments had they chosen to go without a DRM solution and be a pioneer of future technological solutions.Sure, it would be on a torrent site within hours… but it was anyway.
The fact we’re continuing to discuss “always online DRM” issues tells me this is going to be the DRM of the future.
I’d prefer bleeding edge tech, but then again, I prefer upscaling DVD players to Blu-Ray.
By the way, regarding “sharing”, there was a huge debate about it on GameStooge.com three years ago:
http://www.gamestooge.com/2007/05/13/ps3-users-sharing-downloaded-games-illegal-unethical/
@ Sony
Like many Company GIANTS, They seem to lose the passion, Sony Gaming Sector have had a terrible last few years. I believe this will affect their new innovated products for the PS3. There is too much pressure from investors & the board too cut their losses & these products may get rushed in the process.
Side Note The PS3 is a game console, thats the market its in. There is nothing wrong with having additional features on a console just make sure the core focus is the Ultimate gaming experience & not selling an expensive peice of hardware (bluray)
I dont know about you guys but Blu Ray didnt seem to Allow PS3 to be have amazing games Comapred to its rivals just the same games with higher development costs?
Congratz to the 360 for a good gaming network & making $$$
&
Congratz to the Wii for making an original console & making $$$
Comapred = compared
=/
That right there is proof that Ivan is a hacker 😀
@1942: Damn, I played that game. A bit repetitive. And if I can remember the number of loops is limited to 3 per level/stage
@Capcom implementing always connect DRM
LOL! You’re telling me they implemented the DRM only for one platform? Bad PS3 pirates, bad!
Thing is, wasn’t Sony supposed to fix their own network? I’m just wondering why Capcom is experimenting with this.
I liked Jennifer’s point of view: Capcom may be in between the rock and a hard place. Still, I’m thinking, making it easier for the paying customer could bring more profits in the long term, by building a strong, loyal community.
@Ubisoft’s DRM cracked for good?
Yep. That’s the deal, once you find the call to “AmIGoodToGo” function, you can replace that with a “return TRUE”.
The customer will always have access to the code of the game, because the customer runs it. So it will always be hacked.
You will say “let’s have these DLLs on a server, and only the legit customer can download it in a temp folder, then delete them”. That, or any variation on that theme, won’t work.
There are programs to “undelete” files. Then those DLLs will be distributed around the world, bypassing this kind of DRM.
@First PS3 3D games will not have as good graphics as the 2D version
120 fps at a given resolution is hard for PS3s? Ha! Long live open platforms *cough* PC *cough* and their upgrade possibilities.
Derrick, you’re spot on with Microsoft! This is the very reason why they’re giving their compilers for free: have people make software for your platform.
Loved how you guys covered the subject.
@Question of the week:
This is a tough one. I saw some 3d videos on youtube through anaglyph glasses, and I enjoyed the experience, despite losing the color information.
Dunno. I can accept no color and anaglyphs, since that doesn’t affect the quality of the 3D models, but that’s as far as I go.
As for Sony, well, they’re doing both of them, but with a bit more emphasis on selling their pwh stuff. Now if they come up with 120fps displays first, I’ll buy it from them. But that doesn’t mean I have to buy also a PS3. I’d rather hook it up to the PC and do some 3D gaming that way.
their *own* stuff … lol, it seems this is the “spelling fail” episode for a lot of us 😀
Last weeks QotW:
I forgot to get this in before the current episode, mainly as I listen to the podcast at work where I only have Internet access on my phone. However..
My answer would be chess. It comes on all the windows OSs, plus was around earlier and in the real life board form. Not to mention other online browser versions and themed versions. I remember playing it an old (5 and a 1/4 inch) floppy on my dads commodore64 so it’s got more history as a video game too.
If you were to use the logic the minesweeper and solitare have recieved small updates in graphics and game modes with each new OS, you could also consider them a series of games. In which case I would include Pokemon as a similar series with comparable playtime. Hell, we all know that series hasn’t changed from the original apart from minor graphics updates and themes.
This week’s QotW:
I’d imagine it would be better on some genres than others. A puzzler or platformer than isnt sold on the basis that it is ultra realistic or fast paced may suit 3D better than say the next Crysis on a “console”. Tho I think I’d take eyefinity technology over 3D anyday. (it is a pity nvidea does 3D and ATI does eyefinity. 3D in 5760×2400 resolution, now that would be F**cking sexy (<– added that just for Don to read out ^_^)
A chance to gloat about being a pc gamer. =D
If you are willing to pay you don’t have to choose as a pc gamer. We get higher end graphics than either the ps3 or xbox360, and we have had commercial 3D technology for over a year now that will transform hundreds of already released games into 3D. (link for game list of just nvidea setup: http://www.nvidia.com/object/3D_Vision_3D_Games.html)
Ofcoarse, on the downside, it comes at a price, so many of us dont have the required monitors, glasses, GPUs and supporting hardware. But if you factor in the cost of a new Sony 3D TV and PS3 + new games, it probably is still cheaper to give many of your games, (including high end ones like Crysis and Battlefield BadCompany 2), 3D techology on a computer if that is already your gaming platform of choice.
hmm above post came out wierd. One line missing and odd colour. It was ment to say after the first paragraph “the following is a little offtopic”. However I put it inside “” brackets so maybe that changed some coding??
ahh..
“,” and “.” shiftclicked brackets dont show up… also wtb edit feature for comments. sorry for the multi posts.
That’s ok, we all spell-FAILED 😀