Actually DRM crippled games makes honest people more likely to pirate a game, as it comes with the added benefit of no onerous DRM.

So DRM has the completely opposite effect of what was intended.

I wouldn't buy any game ever that was saddled with DRM , period.

This is certainly a positive step in the right direction whether it's been forced upon EA by angry legit consumers or by one of the executives having an epiphany of common sense that draconian DRM only causes more piracy.

The point is that these draconian DRM measures don't prevent piracy but only serve to punish legitimate buyers. OTOH, simple verification measures such as CD-Keys provide an obstacle to "casual piracy" which provides a certain "value" to legit buyers who don't have to go through cracking methods to make their game run.

As far as the argument here of no DRM in a game called "World of Goo" being pirated a lot. I would argue that no DRM is as bad as too much. As I said before, a Game-Key provides a means of ownership and by providing software without serializing it may turn it psychologically into Donationware. It also could mean that while the product may have some enjoyment, it's listing price doesn't properly reflect it's inherent value to it's user base. Frankly, two things are important here. Pricing correctly for perceived value and providing an incentive or reason to pay. Do you think most people would pay for food at the store if a local farmer is giving it away? In this instance, a Game-Key is a form of incentive and it would behoove the industry to come up with more ways to make people want to own and keep their individual serialized copy of a product.

SO what if they are ditching DRM on one game. Overall their policy is still to insult users. Check out the reader's digest of what the CEO thinks about consumers who had problems playing any of the EA games.

http://whatthefaq.com/2009/03/29/ea-arrogant-jerks-or-just-misunderstood/

I have little interest in the Sims universe, but Sims 3 looks stunning, and if this holds true, I'll buy the game just to support EA's efforts to publish games using the ol' CD Key method.

EA if you continue down this path, I expect my view of your company to start to change for the positive. Just keep up the good works and my library will be full of EA-branded games eventually. No shame in saying that, I've been avoiding EA games for the DRM reason.

When the old, white hair, multi-billionaires owners and share holders of EA sit down to discuss strategy, what do you think they are talking about? The only think that matter to them in their confined ivory tower of power: MONEY. Customer satisfaction? Only if it impede money. Better services? Only if it impede money. Customer suggestions? They don’t give a single fuck, unless, of course, if it impede money from flowing in their pocket. As soon as a substantial amount of money and man are involved, the only common denominator left to EVERYTRHING ELSE they do is Money, capital M.

Those people would sell their own mother on E-bay for a profit. If they do that DRM removal, it’s because it’s good for them and their bottom line, and nobody else, period. Appearance of good disposition is only a fortunate side effect for them. Never forget that terms like ‘’public relation’’ and ‘’marketing’’ are only the new, sanitized, politically correct version of the expressions ‘’Mass control’’ and ‘’Propaganda’’.

Bottom line? Never trust anyone with 1000 times more money than you will ever have, and that on top of it, tells you that what he does, is for your own good... really...

Ramon

well this is no doubt a publicity stunt right before the release of a game that would otherwise be ignored by outlets like the inq. EA has killed off any franchise that would make them money like, madden, nba, hockey, NFS, SIMS, MOH, and any rehash they think off. I mean really think about it, its like the video card market. You release a new version of your product every 6 months, therefore putting a shelf life on every product you release. The people are left wondering why black edition is next to underground and carbon. Or pacific assault next to allied assault and so forth. Then to make things even worse for EA they provide plenty of wood for the second hand sellers (that are a rip off) to keep warm. You can buy a used game for $25 when the retail is only $35, what are you going to buy? Even if it is a rip off.

When the game is released I will be the first one in line to purchase it. I'm sick and tired of not being able to buy select games because I don't have internet access at home right now and I can't go online to activate certain titles. I've missed out on certain grade A titles over the last couple of years because of this issue and the game companies have missed out on my money, as well as the money of other consumers that are not online.
I think this is a smart move by EA, definitely a common sense thing to do, and I think the customers out there will reward them for doing this.
Not all of us are trying to cheat game developers out of their hard earned money.

With all this talk about dropping online activation, there's another form of DRM they failed to address. That DRM is writing special code in the game when a crack is used. Game companies are now leaving all kinds of trigger bugs when an overriding CD crack is used. Actually I have no problems with this at all but it's still DRM in it's most basic form.

I love the idea of removing DRM.
Disk checking methods are a pain these days as well due to the low quality manufacturing we see on retail products.
But, truth be told I use no-disk cracks for every game I own. I don't understand why software companies have to take the guilty-before-innocent stance on piracy.
Also consider that piracy isn't the only problem the game industry has. Remember the fuss about used games sales? That's probably more along the lines of why they have DRM in the first place.

@damage - I've never even heard of world of good (is that goo?). If it's goo, well, a large portion of the public just won't play it. It's not my kind of game. Now if you said something like Diablo3 just came out and has just a serial key, and look at it's bad sales you'd have a point. Most people haven't even heard of world of goo (if that's what you really meant). Hell, I had to look at metacritic to find out what it was...LOL. I'm not sure the sims will do so well either, as the last few were duds (even for lovers of it) and it's sort of burnt out if you ask me (and I've never bought one...it's just dumb to me). Tell my character to clean up his piss and take out the trash is just a complete waste of time to me. I'd rather blow things up in crysis etc... :)

But you get the point, we can judge this better when they try it with a BIG HIT game. Not little crap unknown titles (or even good unknown titles).

RE: techtre2003

I believe 3dBoy proved this one as a fallacy with "world of good" which ships without any copy protection or DRM at all, yet they have shown that nearly 90% of the anon submitted stats are from pirated version of a game that costs (depending on if steam have it on special) between $10-$20.

Pirate == hypocrite

EA has finally seen the light. I was boycotting them because of their SecureRom crap wreaking havoc with my PC. I want to F#$@ charge them for the wasted time I spent fixing it, especially since there was no indication the game had secureROM which I avoid like the plague. Anyway, I'll buy from them again if they come out with a good game, although sims isn't one of them.
Hopefully they'll start releasing games that actually work when first coming out. That would be a nice change also.

Maybe they are listening to the customer. Any forum you go to you will see people claiming they pirate due to DRM. "If it didn't have DRM I'd pay for it". So now it's time to find out. Maybe they're saying "OK consumer, it's time to put up or shut up".

But about the bottom line.

I echo what Paul said. They are doing this to reduce their costs not to appeal to customers.

DRM software isn't free. It has to be licensed, tacked on, tested, and updated.

It is no longer cost-effective.

They actually found that during this recessionary period that the whole world is facing that they need to cut back on costs.

They know it's not very favorable by anyone to have DRM and it's also very likely that it's cutting into their profits.

Since they don't really need it, they can take what their spending and put it into their pocket books.

I would imagine that in the next year or two these DRM companies will start being bought up by these gaming studios.

If not, the DRM way might just take a snooze and come back full force after its all over.

When Macro?Vision Stuffs ALL Colour Changes At Yopu, you Expect Defeat, Naye, Too Much Gore in Press, It Is Likely You Can Defeat It, Even With OLD Non RCA TV. Just Use SVHS Machine, Most Are So Powerful that STRIP Out Macrovision. Of Course, Your Puter Does Same.If You Gots DX.?.Then theres vhs/dvd copiers. Always stuff to defeat ANY Protection system or it would be Permanent.So TEST ALL Your Equipment, Plug & Replug, Till It Works or SEEK Specialty Equipment.STeWie drashek

I bought spore and used all my installs. That is...well, lets just say EA was less than happy to hear from me. Some of the best games are distributed by EA. I really don't like pirating anything thing as there is something about have the case, the cover art, Manuel and that pretty disk that makes me happy when I look at it. But I do not want to install spyware on my computer just so I can play a game with 10 hours of game play. I think making games a little cheaper would also go a long way to encourage people to buy games. Look at steam, you can't exactly pirate their games, but they are all under $30. You can get a bunch of games for $100 in a box set. I think with the economy in the sorry state that it is in, not many people are looking to pay $50 for a game. The Sims maybe because you can play it till you get board, not just till you beat the story....CAUSE IT DOESN'T HAVE A STORY!! I am going to mirror it with the current economy, not pay my mortgage cause my guy got laid off and have them foreclose on my house!! I'm sure he will get covered in the next stimulus, but by then it will be too late...

Lack of online activation is not lack of DRM. I bet they will still do whatever they can (including dodgy things) to make sure you have the original copy. Did you forget Starforce?

I call this good news. I've happily spent a fair chunk on games over the years but the recent DRM/rootkit/limited-activation nonsense disuaded me from purchasing several titles last year. Bring out clean versions of Crysis Wars and Bioshock and I'll buy 'em.

Sims isn't the sort of game for me, but if EA do this for other upcoming PC releases that I want I shall be very happy to buy them.

We all know PC piracy is rampant but DRM doesn't stop it in the slightest and there's no evidence pirates will pay for a game if they can't find it for free. Hurray for common sense from EA.

Copy protection (very different from DRM) needs to be such that you prevent the average person from making a simple copy. "Mom" can make a copy of a cd she bought and give it to all her friends but she still has to buy a dvd if she wants to give it to a friend. It's just hard enough that she cant do it with one click. (Clearly she hasn't looked hard enough.) A book wins the same protection. She can loan it easy enough but she can't give a copy away. A cd key and using the disc as a dongle is enough to prevent the same percentage of piracy as the most horrific root kit rom method.

Would it stop piracy really would it I very much doubt it there's people out there who will do anything to get a free game.

Scorungeing gits