The Consumerist has posted an article on another crippling feature of Spore’s SecuROM DRM which outlines how the game allows for only one profile per install meaning if multiple family members or friends living in the same house want to have their own individual online personas, they will have to purchase an entire new copy of the game.
The official Spore manual however reads that “You may have multiple Spore accounts for each installation of the game.” An EA spokesperson has posted however that the manual is a misprint and and there is only one profile allowed per purchased title. “That section in the manual was a misprint and will be corrected in future printings of the manual. There is one Spore registration/account per game/serial code so you are correct in that you cannot make multiple accounts at this time. I have sent your guys’ feedback to the game team though since I can understand the desire to share a game on a system that you entire family uses,” reads the post on the official Spore forums.
This latest news is very disheartening as it is common practice for most PC games to allow different user profiles with different saves in case family or friends want to both play in the same household but don’t want to buy a $50 USD game twice.
As if the game and EA’s use of DRM weren’t in the news enough already.
Result for: flv
Earlier this week we reported that Amazon users were slamming the blockbusters game Spore for its SecuROM DRM which only allowed 3 installations and required authentication to an EA server.
Over 2200 reviewers have given the game a 1-star rating (on a 1-to-5 scale) with most of the complaints completely against the DRM and not at the actual gameplay.
Last night and earlier this morning though, all the reviews disappeared and angry customers began slandering the company for apparently giving in. The company has said the temporary take-down was nothing more than a glitch and all the reviews are back up now.
“There’s just a glitch on the site that ended up wiping those reviews clean,” said Amazon.com spokesperson Tammy Hovey. “So we’re working on putting them back up. I don’t have any details (on what happened). But we’re working on it so all the customer reviews will be back up on the site.”
When asked if they reviews were taken down on purpose then put back thanks to the bad PR, Hovey added, “customers always have their opinions about all the products on our site, and we don’t censor them, whether they’re favorable or unfavorable.”
Result for: flv
In response to mass consumer complaints about overall “sluggishness” of their iPhone 3G handsets, Apple has released firmware update 2.1 which adds new features as well as “fix many bugs” that consumers have complained about.
The update should improve “the accuracy of the 3G signal strength display, as well as decrease the number of dropped calls.” The last point so much of a complaint that it even led to a lawsuit against Apple. CEO Steve Jobs has said that the problems only affect “a few percent” of iPhone users however.
Other users complained of their phone crashing after downloading applications from the App Store but Apple says that it should no longer be a problem as the update will make the App Store more reliable and installations of the apps quicker.
IW adds that “users with the updated firmware should have a reduced time backing up the handset before syncing with iTunes. Additionally, contacts and searches should load quicker, and the virtual QWERTY keyboard is supposed to be much more responsive.”
Apple also added that email reliability and speed would be enhanced, most notably with POP accounts. Security got a slight upgrade giving users the option to have their sensitive data wiped after 10 consecutive failed password attempts.
The update also brings the “Genius” playlist to the iPhone which automatically creates playlists based on the song you are playing at the time. It will not create music based on the iTunes store however, just on the music you have on the handset.
