To many PC gamers, Spore's most gruesome creation has been its digital rights management and copy protection implementation. EA's attempts to thwart piracy by limiting the number of concurrent installations hasn't sat well with users, a complaint they've expressed rather publicly. According to information obtained by MTV Multiplayer, that will be changing. A patch, coming in the "near future," will allow Spore owners to "de-authorize" a computer that has had the game installed, much like the DRM structure that Apple's iTunes uses. Will that satisfy the masses? According to EA, those masses demanding multiple installs aren't really all that massive.EA data shows that, at least for some recently published EA titles that require software activation, about 1% of users ever even attempt to install and activate on more than three machines. One could make the argument that Spore power users, those with three machines to install the game on, might be the one's most particular about its restrictions. That info is just one of four myths (or mistakes) that EA is hoping to clear up, as thousands of internet denizens have cried foul over the game's anti-piracy policies. One of the biggest, software activation via the internet, may not be as dire as you might think. While the EA response to some of Spore's biggest WTFs are definitely worth reading, the rough sales data may be more interesting to sales figure aficionados. Well over 400,000 Spore activations have been counted. Read on to see how that compares to activations for the Spore Creature Creator and Mass Effect. ‘Spore' DRM Update - EA Loosening One Restriction In ‘Near Future,' Offers Defense [MTV Multiplayer] Update: EA has contacted us to let us know that the numbers in the story are a sampling of the people who have bought "Spore" and should not be interpreted as a representation of sales data for the game.
We may earn a commission from links on this page.