Spore Bungle
Submitted Friday, September 12, 2008 - 6:04:38 PM by Klaitu

Well, by now you've all read my spore review. Well, it turns out that Spore is at the center of a huge controversy.

I know you're thinking it's evolution vs creationism, but it's not.. the big hoopla is about the game's DRM of all things.

So, what's the big deal exactly? As it turns out EA decided to use the same copy protection as it did on Mass Effect PC (which in itself was a big deal). The DRM requires internet validation, and you are only allowed 3 validations until you have to buy another game.

When you buy the game, you're not actually buying the game, you're buying a license for 3 installations. Perhaps the most pressing problem with this is that it really cuts the bottom out of the resell market for the game. You won't be able to buy a used copy and know that you can actually play the game.

How big of a deal is this? Check out the following stats from amazon:

2,216 total reviews
73 gave it 5 stars
50 gave it 4 stars
21 gave it 3 stars
56 gave it 2 stars
2016 gave it 1 star

2016 of 2216, that's a crazy amount. People really don't like DRM on their stuff.. and I don't blame them. It might be a differnt matter if their crazy DRM system actually worked, but it doesn't. Pirated versions are already available that work just fine.

Special thanks to Randal who sent me a link about this. Very interesting stuff!