Chicago (IL) - EA Games CEO John Riccitiello, speaking in a Q&A session at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money Conference, noted that 99.8% of gamers really don’t care about DRM.  

According to Riccitiello, the controversy over the DRM attached to its most recent release, Spore, was blown out of proportion. “We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8% of users wouldn't notice. But for the other 0.2%, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it.”

Spore’s Digital Rights Management (DRM), known as SecuROM, allowed users to activate the game only three times. EA later relaxed this number to five, but the activation limitations were only one of the issues that users had with SecuROM.

Another activity implemented by SecuROM was the installation of a service in Windows that would allow it to shut down emulation software. While this was intended to crack down on programs that would allow disc-copying, such as Alcohol 120% or Nero, there are may be multitude of legal uses for disc emulation - and those programs are also been affected.

Spore gamers reacted to the DRM by online campaigns such as giving the game 1-star reviews on Amazon.com. Amazon actually bowed to pressure from EA and reset the overall review rating. However, there are currently 374 1-star reviews for Spore on its site.  

DRM

Oct 16, 2008 13:30     

I bought the game and was unable to play it after calling EA many times for troubleshooting. Eventually I had to download a 'fixed' version of the game that would play. Although it is only .02% that have issues, .02% of customers who hate you is a lot to lose.
Cosmo77 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +11

Can I be

Oct 16, 2008 13:35     

The 00.1% that noticed, cared a little bit, but then moved on with his life?
Revrant report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

I didn't know about spore DRM till now

Oct 16, 2008 13:53     

anyway It's work without any problems (:
jone report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Bogus percentage

Oct 16, 2008 13:58     

I doubt EA did any kind of research into putting out the "99.8%" number. I have quite a few gamer friends, and in terms of the PC gamer crowd, more than half of them were put off by Spore's DRM. Of course, they're probably factoring in the console gaming crowd's population, which really has nothing to do with the DRM issue at all. But even then, 0.02% is an incredibly low number considering all the backlash on just Amazon's site. Maybe Tom's Hardware or Gamespot should do a poll, and we'll see how many people EA has once again pissed off. But I'm kind of part of above poster Revrant's group -- I wanted to try out the game, learned about the DRM, and promptly just kind of moved on. There are tons of other games to play, I don't need to worry myself about one that goes out of its way to restrict me when I pay hard-earned money for it.

Chuongster report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +7

well if they want to believe that go for it

Oct 16, 2008 14:25     

well if they want to believe that go for it, but I haven't bought an EA Game in 5years! Also, all my gamer friends (about 30) who actually wanted to buy SPORE.. once they heard of DRM on it they passed! That includes me.
well if they want to believe that go for it report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

Game DRM

Oct 16, 2008 14:31     

Given what I know about SecuROM I *would* have a legitimate problem today. I have Nero installed and use the CD/DVD emulator often enough that I leave it running. Hey, I don't enjoy swapping delicate CDs and DVD so I burn an image. I might be a minority but it's not like I'm doing something 'crazy' like running linux. Besides my bigger problem is down the road. Look at W-Mart and their music DRM. They're basically forced to either p*ss off a lot of people by killing their songs or perpetually support a DRM scheme for no return these days. What happens when I break out by C&C Red Alert (the original) or earlier game version and try to play? Oh, i plug in the CD key and it works. If spore isn't uber-tastic enough to keep the DRM servers alive for xyz years then what? Oh yeah, we buy a license which means no one cares what happens to the lowly customer. So yeah. At a guess, Spore was the most pirated game in the first week of release ever. TPB had thousands of seeders, and 5-digits of leechers. Clearly DRM is "working" eh guys?

ciscoopa report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +8

99.8% of gamers

Oct 16, 2008 14:39     

They must have used the same people that is telling Blizzard there are 11 million players on WoW. For those of us in the know, the US only contains a few hundred thousand of those alleged 11 mill players, while the other 10 Million are subscribers from Asia, mainly gold farmers. Who's accounts are now banned and deactivated. So, with 99.8% of gamers don't care about DRM I guess it's good for EA's PR dept. Especially when day 1 of Spore on Amazon, over 10k people gave it 1 star. Wow, it's good to know there are hundreds of millions of gamers out there. I didn't know that many exist. I really believe there's only a few million gamers, and the rest are just casual players, not gamers, but EA must be right, they have a solid figure 99.8%.

Devon M report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

I'm fine with this figure

Oct 16, 2008 14:56     

as long as EA also recognises that 99.8% of their potential customers don't pirate their games, and therefore they don't need that DRM.
ET report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

99.8% not having problems *NOW*, but down the road...

Oct 16, 2008 15:38     

99.8% not having problems *NOW*, but down the road when they continue installing on subsequent pcs and it stops activating - then 99.8% WILL have a problem. I don't know about you guys, but I still play Warcraft 2, Diablo 1, DeusEx 1, ... from time to time. And I know I've had more than five pcs over the years. So this design sucks, limiting the number of concurrent, however would be fine.
hank report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

LOl

Oct 16, 2008 15:42     

99.8%, oh you can use statistics to prove anything 14% of all people no that.
Bob32 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

The context of such numbers

Oct 16, 2008 15:44     

99.8% of Spore players don't worry about DRM beacause they don't know what DRM is. And that's because 99.8% of people who do know what DRM is didn't dare pay to install it.
nke report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

only counted in those who bought?

Oct 16, 2008 16:13     

they must have only counted in those who bought the game instead of pirated it, not to mention they probably only used those who answered positively on their surveys. when will companies realize these softwarematic copy protections are only causing problems? why don't they stick to keys saved on a central server and perhaps unlimited amount of activations for all time but limited amount of activations per day (eg:2)

JohnnyricoMC report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

why?

Oct 16, 2008 16:30     

why should i believe this amount? how about having an outside company give a survey and find out. when you have 500,000 people downloading a cracked version of of torrents and 1 million people purchased the game, that's a lot of people angry about drm. oh and screw u amazon.com. how dare you reset the ratings. we voiced our opinion and you censor us? sry u lost my business. it's all ebay from now on.

Jonas report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Securom & Hardware

Oct 16, 2008 16:51     

I couldn't get Spore or several other EA games to load on my computer without disabling one of my SATA connections (Silicon Image). Luckily I was able to switch my HD over to a IBM SATA connection, but then I had to re-install every app for it recognize them as valid installs. Securom is crap, and their support is even worse, kept telling me I had CD emulation software loaded that was preventing the game from loading.

JS report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Uh, hell yes we have a problem with this DRM crap...

Oct 16, 2008 17:49     

We had a problem when Sony tried pulling this stunt, we have a problem with EA doing it. This DRM crap only hurts the legitimate buyer, the pirates crack it literally in hours.
Dozer42 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

I was going to buy the game...

Oct 16, 2008 20:03     

...but now I'll have to wait 24 hours for the crack to come out and just download it instead. Don't they understand that this kind of nonsense actually LOSES MONEY FOR THEM?!!
Charles report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

SecuROM=Evil

Oct 16, 2008 20:49     

SecuROM has never been trustworthy. Sony should be slapped for their shenanigans.
Señor Poopenmier report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

It's not that they don't care...

Oct 16, 2008 23:43     

it's just that 99.8% haven't had issues... So far...
nev report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Ha.. well they'll certainly notice down the line when they have problems!

Oct 17, 2008 02:41     

This guy forgets that the angry 0.2% are the ones who instruct everyone they know on technology issues...
Loosely_coupled report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

EA should stop showinv words down people's mouths

Oct 17, 2008 04:21     

Lemme list why I see wrong here: 1. 99.8% is obviously a made up statistic 2. Just because the actual activation won't be much of a problem doesn't mean people won't have a problem with what they are doing. 3. SecuROM is BAD(that could be an article in itself) I just hate it when I can't play my old fav's because I lost a cd key or CD
tuggums report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

disabling emulation...

Oct 17, 2008 06:04     

...is stupid enough to blow up into a class action lawsuit. They have absolutely no right to alter a host computer in that way to prevent copying. This sort of thing creates occasional support issues, people pay real money to have the emulator they did know they had, didnt know was turned off, turned back on by a professional that is not cheap. The arrogance is such that I am struggling for words here... EA thinks they have a right to make choices about attributes of my CD burner now? The technology industry, as a whole, has a very strong lobby that is resistant to any sort of regulation. It is things like this that make me hopeful that lobby is overcome in some ways; our lawmakers need to bridge the gap here. We need to protect our children, and we need to set bounderies (and make felonies of certain behavior) for companies that do business like EA. This sort of thing makes me boycott products and proclaim that I do to everyone that respects my opinion.

Scott report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Shutting down your emulation software should be a crime, as is a crime intruding computers.

Oct 17, 2008 08:14     

I use emulation on CDs and DVD because optical devices have a short life (they are the less reliable, worst hardware in the PC world). Also CD/DVD is prone to damage by scratching, and emulation from an image on hard disk accelerates game load by orders of magnitudes. So, DVD emulation is a necessity, and a legal one. Unauthorized disabling of my software is criminal. Also, there are many reasons to install the software more than 5 times: -Windows upgrade. -Windows restoration (to a restore point). -Hard disk upgrade. -Virus destroying the OS, forcing to reinstall windows. -Installing on a virtual PC. -Periodical reinstall of the crappy/self degrading Microsoft windows. -Unistallation because you need the space/reinstallation because you want to play again, or enjoy an expansion pack. By the way, I think that that criminal policy, forces the user to buy a legal copy of Spore, and crack it anyway.

mm report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

I care..

Oct 17, 2008 08:58     

I wanted this game but I won't buy it with the DRM EA has put on this game. I don't pirate either so I will go without and just move on to the next thing. HEY EA...GUESS WHAT...NOT EVERYONE IS A THIEF!!! F'N A-holes!
joeschmoe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Pirates don't care about DRM either

Oct 17, 2008 09:22     

But for us players who care, we'll get our DRM free versions (and shell the original).
Nut report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

I agree 100% with Chuongster

Oct 17, 2008 09:49     

"I wanted to try out the game, learned about the DRM, and promptly just kind of moved on. There are tons of other games to play, I don't need to worry myself about one that goes out of its way to restrict me when I pay hard-earned money for it. "
09 F9 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

read this article

Oct 17, 2008 09:53     

its a great read about DRM gaming, movies and music http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/hated-and-broken_0 "Media companies can whinge and moan about pirates until the cows come home, but the simple reality is that while your paid-for version of a product is less functional and more annoying than the free pirate version, you're driving your customers into the welcoming arms of Bittorrent. "
09 F9 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Stats Update

Oct 17, 2008 10:35     

Have a look at Amazon.com for the latest stats, current stats are as follows. 5 star : 195 4 star : 119 3 star : 62 2 star : 139 1 star : 2675 All i can say is way to go EA. Yet another way you give gaming companies a bad name.
Mr. Statistic report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Well, Amazon has one more 1 star review

Oct 17, 2008 15:12     

Man, I've wanted this game ever since they said it was being developed (5 years or so????) Now that I've read this article, I've decided NOT to buy it. I suppose this is the future of gaming, but if they are going to install software that will disable other software on my computer (hmmm... virus???) then no thanks.
CadMonster report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Glass half empty

Oct 17, 2008 16:30     

The way I look at the statistics, 99.8% of gamers downloaded the game because of DRM, and therefore have no problems. The other .2% have problems with DRM because they paid money for it its its disabling their software and restricting their game play.
Kyle report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Interesting

Oct 20, 2008 10:17     

Amazon says there are only 2,579 1 star reviews... That's down from 2,675 on the 17th...
CadMonster report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Another sale lost, due to DRM

Oct 20, 2008 21:38     

They lost my sale, and endorsement due to the DRM. I was ready to buy the fancy collectors edition until I heard about the DRM. Looking further into the situation, I can't live with DRM like that. In-fact I prefer not to have DRM involved in my terms at all. If I own the game, let me have fair use to play it. I also won't be buying Far Cry 2 - thanks for saving me a few tanks of gas EA!
9Nails report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

mike

Oct 22, 2008 10:49     

The users might start noticing it if their computer breaks and they have to install it on another, or they have 2 computers and they reformat or something. EA is addressing small time piracy when you hand your friend a disc and get them to install it when thousands of people are downloading the game online without consequences and significantly less hassle. If you want to have a real incentive to buy your game make more involving online play where you have to log onto a server with a specific cd key. I dont know too many people who have cracked blizzards games so they could play online. All in all EA is going after the wrong kind of software pirate and making it a hassle for the little guy.

mike report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0