Spore DRM loosened

PC News | De-authorisations allowed.

EA has released a patch that will allow Spore players to de-authorise PCs which no longer have the game installed on it.

Will Wright's latest life simulation created a big stir when it was released earlier this year, largely thanks to what was perceived to be some incredibly harsh DRM. Players could only have three installations of the game - ever - without having to make a phone call to EA's customer service department. The backlash was so fierce that EA even eased up on Red Alert 3's copyright protection.

With EA's new tool, the installation limit has been lifted from three to five, with each uninstall adding another install to the tally. Handy that.

In addition, many players were outraged when it was revealed that the game would only allow players to have one online account per copy of the game - a direct contradiction to the game's manual. EA said that a misprint was to blame.

Despite all the hoopla, we think that Spore is a pretty nifty piece of software.

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12 Comments

Passa

3 years ago

What's the point EA? The game was cracked and online 5 days before release, then three months later you release a deauthorisation patch?

Benza

3 years ago

Does anyone still care?

Eyce

3 years ago

Little Little Late Late.

Skiller

3 years ago

Is the tool external? Can I remove an activation without needing to uninstall the game (which in the case of a format is not possible)? If not then this is just another fail

Aftershock

3 years ago

A stir?

Hah. For those of us who tread the depths of hardcore industry watching and PC gaming, it was a burning-pitchforks thing.

snicks

3 years ago

It's an external tool... get it at http://www.spore.com/patch/deauthorization

Scratch2k

3 years ago

What if I installed this abomination on my PC with XP then reformat my PC and install Vista without uninstalling the game first, then re-installed with the new OS? Since the tool only de-auths the current install, am I negative one authorization without any way to recover it since it's the same PC but a different OS?

Jammers

3 years ago

I might be happy, if I hadn't got bored after a couple of days.

Maybe if I actually <i>wanted</i> to install it on many computers, this would be good, but otherwise meh.

I sometimes go back to make things, but the game itself was irritating and bland.

Gasleak

3 years ago

I don't think anyone cares about spore anymore, let alone the DRM Issues, in fact until this article popped up I had completley forgotten that I had bough that piece of crap that is Spore

lapzod

3 years ago

Benza wrote

Does anyone still care?

Only the people who complain about the DRM do. First they complain about the DRM, then they complain when there's a patch to fix the DRM.

in before negs

Benza

3 years ago

lapzod wrote

Benza wrote

Does anyone still care?

Only the people who complain about the DRM do. First they complain about the DRM, then they complain when there's a patch to fix the DRM.

in before negs

11 days late much?

And I doubt the people that complained about DRM still even care about this game, I don't know anyone who's still playing it.

lapzod

3 years ago

Benza wrote

11 days late much?

And I doubt the people that complained about DRM still even care about this game, I don't know anyone who's still playing it.

Never saw this when it was posted, only saw the bump of it.

And I'm still playing it, and know quite a few people playing it.

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Spore

Pre-order or buy:
PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  1/09/2008 (Confirmed)
Standard Retail Price:
  $99.95 AU
Publisher:
  Electronic Arts
Genre:
  Simulation
Year Made:
  2008

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