Electronic Arts, the publisher behind the most pirated game of 2008, Spore, has now released a De-Authorization Tool which it hopes will help quell some of the anger consumers have felt over the game’s crippling SecuROM DRM.
The site says:
“By running the de-deauthorization tool, a machine “slot” will be freed up on the online Product Authorization server and can then be re-used by another machine.
You can de-authorize at any time, even without uninstalling Spore, and free up that machine authorization. If you re-launch Spore on the same machine, the game will attempt to re-authorize.”
Previously, buyers of the game were stuck with only a few authorizations and lost one each time the game was installed, even after hard drive failure or video card updates.
This is only important to those that have already purchased the game though, because Spore is now available via Steam without any DRM.
Get the tool here: Spore De-Authorization Tool
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The large publisher
Electronic Arts has announced that they have joined Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam, bringing notable titles to the service such as Spore, Warhammer Online, Mass Effect and Need For Speed Undercover.
In the next month the publisher will add Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Mirror’s Edge, and Dead Space as well.
Steam currently has 15 million active user accounts globally.
“We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam — a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry’s most successful digital distribution services,” added EA COO John Pleasants of the deal.
Also notably, it appears as if Spore will have its DRM removed, according to this post on the Steam forums: Does Spore still have DRM?
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Electronic Arts, seeing the huge popularity of Nintendo’s Wii Fit , has announced they will be releasing their own fitness game, EA Sports Active next March for the Wii console.
The game will have tennis, boxing, soccer and other sports which gamers can play using wireless controllers attached to their arms and legs.
The game will retail for $60 USD and will include a book on healthy eating.
Electronista says Sports Active “centers around a pair of leg straps that hold both the Wii remote and nunchuk in place as well as a single resistance band for the upper body. The set lets Nintendo’s own controllers properly track exercise across the whole body and also introduce enough physical stress to provide strength-based exercise.”
