According to EA

Changing positions…again!

Electronic Arts understands how an illegally downloaded copy is not necessarily a lost sale. The corporate communications department of EA, said that “Stepping aside from the whole issue of DRM, people need to recognize that every BitTorrent download doesn’t represent a successful copy of a game, let alone a lost sale”. Understanding this, the company is shifting its approach so that it rewards the customer rather than punishing them for the acts of pirates.

At launch, Spore had an installation limit of three installs and also a limit of only one account per game copy owned. If you wanted more, you had to call Electronic Arts and if you wanted more accounts, you had to buy more copies of the game.

Gamers set in motion a backlash, which included masses of Amazon one star reviews and anti-DRM creatures on Sporepedia. Electronic Arts resorted to the usual hard line, threatening to ban people talking about DRM on their forums, but on the other hand the company saw that most of the complaints were reasonable so they raised the installation limit and improved the methodology of the DRM. They also stated that subsequent patches would include a feature which allows for more screen names per game copy.

Electronic Arts emphasize the social and downloadable aspect of the game in order to fight piracy. Pirated copies can’t access the Sporepedia and can’t get creatures from other people in their games. So by controlling content and emphasising this aspect of the game, it will encourage more people to buy.

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