Electronic Arts has decided to drop DRM for its upcoming The Sims 3 game, a stark about-face from previous titles which have had DRM that has been, at worst, called “draconian.”
In September, the Will Wright blockbuster Spore was criticized unmercifully for its use of SecuROM DRM that only allowed the game to be installed three times total. SecuROM also stays installed in your system whether you want it there or not.
EA CEO John Riccitiello, said, at the time: “We’re going to see an evolution of these things. I wish we didn’t live in a world where we had to do these types of things. I want it to be seamless and easy - but I also don’t want to have a bonfire of money.”
Rod Humble, Sims 3 executive producer, has explained that DRM should be a thing of the past, at least for high profile releases like The Sims.
“To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed,” he notes. “We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.”
The Sims 3 has an early June release date.
Result for: john riccitiello
Last month we reported about how gamers were furious over Electronic Art’s decision to add SecuROM DRM to the hit game Spore.
Amazon users went on a rampage and the game currently has a one and half star (out of five) rating with 3150 reviews, with all drubbing the DRM and not the actual gameplay.
EA CEO John Riccitiello has made some comments recently regarding the DRM and it appears that he also dislikes DRM but says piracy is too strong to completely remove it.
“We implemented a form of DRM and it’s something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn’t notice. But for the other .2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it,” Riccitiello said. “I personally don’t like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.”
What is the point of the DRM though? The game was leaked to torrent sites and P2P four days before its official launch date, SecuROM or not. The game sold extremely well, and was pirated in unprecedented numbers. So once again, why have the DRM at all?
Result for: john riccitiello
Last month we reported about how gamers were furious over Electronic Art’s decision to add SecuROM DRM to the hit game Spore.
Amazon users went on a rampage and the game currently has a one and half star (out of five) rating with 3150 reviews, with all drubbing the DRM and not the actual gameplay.
EA CEO John Riccitiello has made some comments recently regarding the DRM and it appears that he also dislikes DRM but says piracy is too strong to completely remove it.
“We implemented a form of DRM and it’s something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn’t notice. But for the other .2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it,” Riccitiello said. “I personally don’t like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.”
What is the point of the DRM though? The game was leaked to torrent sites and P2P four days before its official launch date, SecuROM or not. The game sold extremely well, and was pirated in unprecedented numbers. So once again, why have the DRM at all?
