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EA Kills Command & Conquer: Tiberium
Fans of real-time strategy series, Command & Conquer have some disappointing news today as EA Games has announced the death of the long-awaited spin-off title, Tiberium. Read more
Are You Tired of This Yet? More Spore DRM News
In the never-ending flow of DRM backlash against Spore, the game’s publishers, EA have just been hit with a class-action lawsuit. The suit is being filed by Melissa Thomas on behalf of herself and all other Spore purchasers in the state of California.
The basis of the claim is that the digital rights management encoded on the Spore disc violates the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law. Thomas and her lawyers brought up the fact that the game automatically installs a DRM program called SecuROM without properly alerting consumers.
EA is being accused of ’secretively’ installing SecuROM and the DRM script which limits Spore to three installs (later increased to five). If the lawsuit is successful, EA will have to refund all plaintiffs the $49.99 retail cost of the game plus damages. While this may not seem like a lot, it’s certainly enough to give the company’s pocketbook (and reputation) a further hit than what it’s already suffered from the release of Spore.
EA Backpedal on Spore’s DRM Issues
Earlier in the week we reported on the backlash EA has faced since the release of Spore and it’s extremely limiting DRM coding. Now, in response to the overwhelming anger caused by the move (which limited installing the game to only three computers), EA has announced the imminent availability of a patch which is set to increase the number of systems Spore can be registered on.
Wait for the punch-line though: the installation limit is set to receive a massive increase from the measly three computer cap to the huge and generous new allotment of five. Yeah.
Considering how many thousands upon thousands of Spore torrents have been downloaded since release the expansion of EA’s DRM regulation probably isn’t going to make a big difference. Although it is heartening to see that the company is at least aware of the massive mistake they made, they sure aren’t going about the right way to fix it.
We’re guessing that years down the line, Spore will be used as a textbook example of how not to release a major title.
Spore Copy Protection Backfires
EA has been reeling in light of the one-star Amazon ratings and general backlash against their long anticipated PC title, Spore. The game, created by industry leader (and Sims designer), Will Wright was published with a security feature that limits the number of available game installs to three, a fact which is making consumers furious.
Gamers don’t want to be told what they can and cannot do with a purchase, leading to en masse illegal downloading and the aforementioned negative ratings (regardless of the game’s actual quality). TorrentFreak, one of the most popular BitTorrent hosts, released information that the title has been downloaded over 500, 000 times since release which demonstrates the high number of disgruntled DRM opponents.
EA Walks Away from Take-Two
Electronic Arts issued a statement today that they’re giving up the ghost in offers to buy out Take-Two Interactive. If EA had been able to purchase the development company, oddly enough, the next installments of Grand Theft Auto would have been released through the former firm.
Take-Two wanted more than the reported, $2 billion offer but EA decided they didn’t need the company that badly and refused to go any higher. President and Chief Executive of EA, John Riccitiello apparently thinks he’ll be just fine without the acquisition this holiday season.
Spore’s on its way! For real this time!
Spore is finally on its way. Are you ready?
For a game that was supposed to hit store shelves in 2006, and then again in 2007, the Spore dev team is set to release the highly anticipated game this September.
For those of you unfamiliar with the premise of Spore, here’s a little recap: You create a being, allow it to evolve in different live stages and then you see what happens. That’s pretty much it.
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