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Spore the most pirated game in history?

September 14, 2008 in News comments 6

Things are not looking good for Spore. It truly is ironic that in an attempt to stamp out the game being pirated using SecuROM EA may have made the game one of the most pirated titles in gaming history. Allowing only three installations and only one profile it seems likely that by enforcing all these safeguards EA may well have driven a large number of consumers to acquire the game illegally. With an estimated 500 000 downloads from BitTorrent.

If we can learn anything from the troubled launch of Spore, a videogame many people have been looking forward to for years, it is that binding products with digital rights management (DRM) restrictions hurts more than it helps. Spore, designed by Sims creator Will Wright, went on sale a week ago. It is expected to sell 2 million copies in September alone, and is currently the No. 3 best-selling game on Amazon.

But it also has one of the worst ratings on Amazon (2,016 out of the 2,216 ratings are one star) because of a concerted campaign by fans protesting its DRM. It has also been downloaded an estimated 500,000 times on BitTorrent, and is well on its way to becoming the most illegally downloaded game ever.
Bale Fire via washingtonpost.com »
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  • 4
    Dance Floor Killah Sep 15, 08
    Are you surprised? Because I'm not.
    • 0
      Final Blade Sep 15, 08
      Does sporn come to mind?
      • 2
        tekmosis Sep 15, 08
        What does that have to do with the game being pirated?
  • 2
    Gogetenks Sep 15, 08
    Neither am I. Frankly, I'm just annoyed with the restrictions, particularly the one-profile one. I bought the game legally, but if I run out of installations for whatever reason (already installed it on two of our computers, might have this one formatted due to several issues) then I won't hesitate to download it. It's a great game, and well worth buying, but I shouldn't have to put up with this bullshit. These safeguards get in the way far too often, they need to find a way that doesn't stop piracy at the expense of the consumer. Clearly, this hasn't been very successful anyway, and the people who bought it legally have to put up with it.

    Piracy protection should never, ever be at the expense of the everyday consumer, or else many people simply won't bother. I'm against video game piracy, but this is just annoying for the people who actually buy it legally, not those who don't.
  • 1
    Deathsythe Sep 15, 08
    You know its bad when only the pirates know ways around the actual legit purchased copy issues and protection.

    Now, I'm not calling for a boycott of EA, but we need to show them that these things are not helping them, but hurting them (because they are hurting us - the legitimate consumer)


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