Ironies of ironies. It seems that Spore has been downloaded, illegally, over an estimated 500,000 times on BitTorrent, which puts Spore on track as becoming the most illegally downloaded game in history.
We pause as everyone catches their breath from laughing and making rude noises.
EA decided to put SecuROM, an anti-pirating routine, on Spore in an attempt to prevent illegal copying. Immediate reaction from gamers was overwhelming at Amazon.com, where the game received 2,016 1-star ratings (the lowest score) out of 2,216 reviews. Among other things, gamers balked at the 3-limit installation of the game on their PCs.
Although the PC community has given a big two thumbs down on the DRM placed on Spore, EA is turning a deaf ear to the complaints. Mariam Sughayer, corporate communications manager at EA, said that since less than 25% of PC users install games more than once, and that less than 1% tries to install their games more than three times, there is no reason to change policy.
You wouldn’t know it from the complaints found on Amazon.com, and all the illegal downloads of the game.
Does DRM work to prevent piracy? In the case of Spore, it seems to have made the practice more popular. It is evident that publishers need to protect their games, but over restrictive DRMs is not the answer. If anything, it has caused a backlash of major proportions through illegal downloads.
If EA decides to change their DRM policy on Spore, they still may be able to make a few bucks before most of their sales disappear to pirates.
[via efluxmedia & Washington Post]
