Andre Yoskowitz
19 Sep 2008 15:58
Mounting pressure and harsh reviews on Amazon have seemed to finally get through to EA who has announced that all Spore owners will have 5 activations now for their game, compared to the 3 users are currently allowed.
Frank Gibeau, EA Games Label president, made a statement this morning in which he said, "We've received complaints from a lot of customers who we recognize and respect. And while it's easy to discount the noise from those who only want to post or transfer thousands of copies of the game on the Internet, I believe we need to adapt our policy to accommodate our legitimate consumers."
Besides announcing the added activations, the company said they will also offer easier ways for users to receive additional activations, if they are "warranted." The publisher added that they were currently developing a system that would allow gamers to de-authorize a machine (perhaps before a reformat) and then transfer the authorization to a new computer.
Gibeau did note however, that the DRM was not going anywhere. "We're willing to evolve our policy to accommodate our consumers. But we're hoping that everyone understands that DRM policy is essential to the economic structure we use to fund our games and as well as to the rights of people who create them."