Spore Suffers Poor Reviews Over DRM System

The long-anticipated video game Spore is falling under widespread criticism, and has scored surprisingly low in Amazon.com user ratings with a score of only one star out of five.

The much-awaited game, developed by Simms creator Will Wright, lets players use tools to help their creations evolve from single celled organisms to highly civilized creatures.

Electronic Arts (EA) released the game for sale in Britain on September 5, and on Sunday in North America.

Since then, hundreds have complained about the game’s copyright protection system, and many users have posted scathing reviews of the game’s restrictive Digital Rights Management (DRM) software on Amazon.com.

EA’s SecuROM DRM system, used to combat piracy and protect copyright, restricts the number of times the video game can be installed.

But many reviewers were angered by the system, which, according to  Amazon.com reviewers, permits only three activations of the game before requiring players to call EA for permission to install it again. 

Some reviewers wrote that it would prevent them from purchasing the product altogether, while others cancelled pre-orders. 

"It’s such a shame that the distributor of the game treats its own customers as criminals and attempts to do their best to prevent you from actually playing the game," one player wrote.

Another reviewer called the system “draconian”,  while others complained the system essentially meant the game was "for rent, not sale".

"The DRM on this thing is less friendly than my recent colonoscopy – you get three installs. That’s it. No install returned for un-installation, or anything else," a reviewer wrote.

"I have no interest in paying full price for a game that I will be severely restricted from being able to play at a later point," wrote another commenter.

Hundreds of complaints have also been written on various gaming Web sites and Spore fan sites, including EA’s official discussion forum.

Spore is not the first game to come under such scrutiny.  Previous games, including EA’s Mass Effect and 2K’s Bioshock, were also criticized for using stringent DRM methods, with some allowing only a limited number of installations or requiring an online re-authentication every 10 days.

On EA’s customer support website, an FAQ section addressing Spore’s DRM issue said:

For its part, EA has established a FAQ section dedicated to Spore’s DRM issue on its customer support Website.

"Games are authorized to your machine when you first install and launch the game,” it said.

"This system allows you to authenticate your game on three computers with the purchase of one disc.

"EA Customer Service is on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting Customer Support."

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