Spore DRM Explained
- Scribbled on May 11th, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Casual Gaming, Industry News, Mac, PC, Press Release, Strategy
Maxis VP Patrick Buechner sent out a press release to media members stating that Spore’s DRM would be quite reasonable – and for once, I agree. In fact, it’s pretty good. The way the DRM functions is as such:
- We (Maxis) authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first
time. - We’ll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new
content or a patch for their game. - The new system means you don’t have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
- You’ll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
- You can play offline.
Very nice. Unlike Mass Effect’s demands.
[UPDATE: The people have spoken, and they're not pleased.]
June 12th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
[...] Spore! Spore DRM Lets hope they keep it this way instead of the previously mentioned "phone home" type [...]
June 18th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Try it out, rather than taking their word for it.
Spore Creature Creator comes with a “Download Manager” which can’t recognize the demo from the paid version, hides the downloaded installer and is really DRM – it must be running when you play a downloaded EA game.
Spore CC will not run if you have Process Manager running – a legal task manager provided by Microsoft these days. This product is infested with DRM to the paying customer’s inconvenience.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Steve, you are full of crap. You can uninstall the download manager after installation. You can copy the install files anywhere else before that.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:20 am
EA has already stated that Spore, and all future EA games, will have the same drm as Mass Effect. They took out the 10 day authentication but they did NOT take out the 3 install limits. Others have said the demo “phones home”. I won’t be buying this game with this crap on it.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 am
[...] the only such examples, but they’re the kind that I think don’t get enough attention. Plenty of people are talking about the onerous DRM requirements of the new Spore and Mass Effect video [...]
July 18th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Spore can be installed 3 times. The Spore web site says “it can be installed on 3 computers” not 3 times. The book that you get with the game dose not says any thing about the install limit. If you are not aware of this and go over the 3 install limit EA’s answer is for you to buy a new game.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Unless they remove the 3 install DRM I can’t see a reason to buy the game.
I purchased mass effect, and without ever realizing it I wasted my 3 installs on trying out windows vista and going back to xp. Well no problem I thought, I found a FAQ which stated I only needed to contact EA to get a new install.
Heh.
The EA phone support in Denmark, well isn’t. And it’s almost been a month now since I tried reaching them through e-mail, and no answer. So I made a thread on the official mass effect forums, thinking I’d get some help there. But no.
Yep…
August 9th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Yeah, i bought Mass Effect aswell not knowing this. And just canceled my preorder for Spore cause of this 3 install limit DRM. Also because i’ve read countless times from all across the globe how troublesome EA is to communicate with.
It’s propably not even going to stop piracy from removing that nasty DRM, ending up with a better product. Which sucks, because this impact will goto Maxis, who did all the good work. Not to EA who ruined it.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
If a game has limited activations, then you don’t own it. If you don’t own it, then you can’t sell it, or even give it away to a friend or relative. I don’t want a DRM system monitoring me on my own computer. If piracy is a problem for EA, they should track them down and prosecute. SecuROM DRM treats the customer as a criminal and EA is using this “hook” to limit consumer rights – it’s absurdly unfair!
August 25th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
EA Customer Support states that EA can be contacted by the user and have, on a case-by-case criteria, their activation count for Spore reset when the activation limit is depleted.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
This is absolutely ridiculous, it has a few pros but far too many cons, I dont feel confident buying a game knowing that if I format my harddrive 3 times in the next 3 years for whatever reason, the game will refuse to work, meanwhile EA count on me buying another copy.
Look on the internet, all this has done is scare away a lot of customers, and maybe even make some convert to piracy to get this game.
I want to buy the game, and never worry about having to buy it again, not have some message appear and say ‘You’ve installed this game 3 times, its unfortunate that you had to format your harddrive because of a virus, reinstall of the whole system, and by your little cousin screwing your computer up, just pop down the local shop, spend another £30 pounds, and you are fine! Best Wishes – EA’
A little extreme, but Iv been really put off for a game I have been waiting for for atleast 2 years, thats all I have to say.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
If you call EA, you could bypass that. They’ll allow more than one installation on a case-by-case basis.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Quite frankly I don’t trust EA to give me an extra installation code through their customer support services. The case-by-case basis probably means you need to save your receipt and then maybe mail it into some service center and then they’ll send you a new code. I got tired of that trick back when CompUSA use to advertise computers with 400$ worth of rebates.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
This is from the Official Spore Website:
—-
Q: Do I have to reauthenticate after the first time my game is launched?
A: Reauthentication is required only if you make significant changes to your PC’s hardware, reformat your hard drive, or in some cases, upgrade your Operating System. MULTIPLE INSTALLATIONS OF THE GAME ON THE SAME COMPUTER DO NOT COUNT AGAINST THE NUMBER OF COMPUTERS THE GAME CAN BE INSTALLED ON.
—-
I think I can live with that, as long as I can reformat my hard drive as many times as I want without any problems.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
I’m still confused. This means that we can’t install it on three computers, uninstall it on one of those computers and then install it on a fourth computer?
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
[...] as your account and your console are registered together correctly. Considering the outrage over Spore’s DRM… Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
September 25th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I have a simple question… Let’s say my friend has two installations left, and he lets me use one. Is this without consequences? Except for the loss of an install, do we still get everything Spore has to offer?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I think you can have up to 5 accounts. Not sure.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:18 am
So I´ve actually bought the game.
Just make sure you always uninstall a version before formatting or otherwise changeing your setup… so no matter what. May it be a new cdrom, new version of XP/Vista (SP) or anything… tried that and a new XP SP needed a fresh spore-install.
So my girlfriends creatures keep on showing up in my games and vice-versa. Which is a pitty for her, as I prefer predators and she lovely litle fluffy creatures and gets eaten by mine all the time.
First of all… you can install it on several computers … as long as they are 3 or less in numbers
And for this one Install for me and one for my friend/gf/grandma whatever.
Well you CAN install it on the other persons PC, but you can´t create a new EA-Account
If I contemplate my spore expirience I can only recomend pirating it! Ok you will miss the tons of Penis-Creatures invading your worlds (except when you only accept creatures from friends)… but this is a feature I can definately live without.
And overall spore is a fun game for a week or two, but thats it as far as it goes.
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
OK, so what if (like me) you go to your local games retailer (GAME) in Sydney, pay $139.99 for the Galactic Edition of the game and decide you don’t like it? What if you want to sell the game on eBay or give it to a friend?
You can’t!
It’s an absolute disgrace! Esentially I have a $140 dorrstop because EA won’t let me uninstall the game and give it to someone else. Can anyone name me another product that I can’t give away or sell? It’s my RIGHT to be able to sell the game, I OWN IT!
I will never buy another EA game and, as a matter of fact, am following this issue up with the Department of Fair TRading in Sydney.
Will keep you posted on the outcome.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Um… they don’t WANT you reselling the game. That’s the POINT.