In the past Ubisoft have earned a name for themselves as being ones to blame the woes of the PC squarely at the feet of video game pirates. So it comes as no surprise to read that Far Cry 2 will be using the same DRM as found in Spore, Red Alert 3 and other recent EA titles. Ubisoft forum manager bukowski113 has posted the details of the DRM on the Far Cry 2 forums.

-You have 5 activations per machine on 3 separate PCs.

- The 3 machine activations can be concurrent, but you must have the disc in the drive to run the game

- Uninstalling the game “refunds” an activation. This process is called “revoke”, so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.

- You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system)

- Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.

- Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you’ll always be able to play Far Cry 2.

While I obviously am not best pleased to see constrictive DRM methods used in this game, I will still be buying it. However I fear that this is going to lead to a similar backlash as to what happened with Spore with many people refusing to purchase the game due to the DRM. In fact I think that the DRM will do more harm than good and we will see more people pirate it as there will likely be a non-DRM version of the game on the usual suspects soon.

Furthermore EA CEO John Riccitiello has commented (as reported by Yahoo) on the use of DRM in EA games.

“We’re still working out the kinks. We implemented a form of DRM and it’s something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn’t notice. But for the other .2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it. I personally don’t like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.”

We have a policy at work, if we see a product on the shelf that we wouldn’t buy ourselves then we remove it from display. It is something which should apply for a whole lot of other businesses too. If the CEO of EA doesn’t like DRM then why of why would he insist on it being implemented in his games? He may have a point that only a minority of people will actually be impacted greatly by DRM, but even this is too much. It is more the fact that people shouldn’t be affected by the actions of the pirates. Hell I already know that people go out and pirate non-DRM versions of games that have it. These are people that had pre-orders in place or were just waiting for the game to be released before purchasing it. Due to the DRM they went and pirated it.

The game companies should realise that DRM is doing more harm than good and is contributing to the (overblown) problem of piracy on the PC.

EA caused an outrage amongst many with some dubious decisions regarding the DRM that came with Spore. It seems that they are starting to realise the damage they have done to the game with the DRM and are back tracking rapidly in order to appease fans of the game. It emerged a week or so ago that the install limit had been bumped up to 5, now EA are taking things a step further and changing the account system.

The long and short of it is this, you can now have five screen names for one account. You will have to go to the Spore website and set up the screen names there, from then on you will be able to log in to any of the screen names when you log into your account. Creatures will appear in the Sporepedia under the name of the screen name which created them. There is no current timeline for when this will go live, just a matter of waiting I guess. It obviously isn’t an ideal improvement, but it is a small improvement. More details can be found here.

DRM and the Piracy issue in general has been causing a hell of a load of debate, anger and frustration for many people over recent months. The issue has become increasingly pressing since the release of Spore and the announcement of DRM for Red Alert 3. I have seen threads popping up in forums all over the place discussing DRM and piracy within and seperate from the context of Spore.

The first thread, and I the biggest that I am aware of so far is this one from the PC Gamer forums. This thread has spiralled around for over a month now and has featured many arguments on the role of DRM in pushing people into piracy.

Secondly we have this slightly less extensive thread from halflife2.net where many people again deride DRM and the measures implemented in Spore. This has seen a craze of DRM related threads including this one revealing Crysis Warhead will be requiring online activation.

Finally we can see that the madness has even spread to the Football Manager forums with this thread discussing people’s fears that Football Manager 2009 will include some draconian DRM measures.

Read the rest of this entry

The copy protection DRM information for Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 has been made public on the Red Alert 3 forums by Executive Producer Chris Corry. It is…interesting, there are some things which I like the sound of, yet some things which I am still disappointed are being put upon us. The rundown of the DRM policies for Red Alert 3 now and a bit of analysis to follow.

- We will authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.

- We will never re-authenticate an installation online after the first launch. In other words, no reaching out to a central server post-install to see if you’re “allowed” to play.

- You will be able to install and play on up to five computers. If you uninstall the game while connected to the Internet, the entitlement will be preserved and that install can be transferred to a different computer.

- This system means you don’t have to play with the disc in your computer. Personally, I think this is a huge improvement over our previous copy protection requirements, which have always required a disk to play.

- Life happens. I know it’s unlikely, but for those unlucky few who install the game and have their machines nuked (virus, OS reinstall, major hardware upgrade, etc.) five times without being able to do a clean uninstall first, EA Customer Service will be on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.

-You can, of course, play offline without impediment or penalty.

Read the rest of this entry

I always think of Valve as being a totally independent developer which runs its own show and does its own thing. That is true to an extent, but it must be remembered that EA has been involved in the publishing in several console releases of Valve games. The question must arise, would Valve be interested in being acquired by another company? In an interview with Gamasutra Doug Lombardi reveals that it isn’t out of the question.

If anyone is interested in acquiring Valve, VP Doug Lombardi is “happy to have that conversation,” he told Gamasutra.

“By the same token, the company’s doing pretty well, and we’re really happy with what we’re doing,” he added.

“So we’ll see. I mean, anything is possible.”

In regards to deal with EA and their thoughts on Steam Doug revealed this.

“EA was very progressive about saying, ‘We understand who you guys are. We understand what Steam is. We don’t want Steam to go away.’ Well, they might want Steam to go away, but they’re not asking us to make Steam go away.”

So while I doubt Valve are going out actively looking for someone to buy them up I think there is room for their relationship with EA to become even closer. As long as Valve stay true to what they are then they can do whatever the hell they want.

According to Chris Remo (of Gamastura fame) was at the Comic-Con at over these past few days and has revealed some interesting new plans from EA. The mega-publisher has revealed that they are planning to market pre-built machines as being Crysis ready. It seems that EA are intent ensuring that customers can buy a PC that they know will play Crytek’s upcoming Crysis Warhead.

Read the rest of this entry

According to an extremely over the top e-mail I have just received from EA, the Red Alert 3 public beta will soon be going live. As EA have mentioned before regarding this beta the sooner you registered your key the better.

Considering it is already the 26th of July does this may mean that the public beta will be going live sometime next week, however nothing is for definite in the world of EA and Command and Conquer.

Read on for the full e-mail transcript

Some might say I was calling for blood when I talked about the anti-piracy measures being implemented with Mass Effect and Spore, well now I can take back my outrage and let you all know about some good news.

EA have changed tact and the anti-piracy measures announced the other day are not going to be part of Spore and Mass Effect when they come out later this year. While both will still be using SecuROM and require an initial online activation the 10-day re-activation has been done away with.

Great news (with more infomation following) as it shows that EA have listened to the many complaints that were raised following the initial announcement and have changed tact to better cater to many users. Also this stops us feeling like we are being punished for legally buying games!

Read the rest of this entry

A new EA games division has been revealed to the world and is known as EA Blueprint being led by former Electronic Arts Los Angeles general manager Neil Young and that studio’s director of artist and repertoire for Electronic Arts Alan Yu.

The two execs are leading a small team in what the company calls EA Blueprint, a new division that will ally with small-sized developers, assisting them with strategic funding and project management.

The products out of EA Blueprint will be both brand extensions of existing EA games as well as original IP. What differentiates Blueprint from any existing business model at EA is where Blueprint games are destined to end up–across various platforms, but with an emphasis on burgeoning social networks such as Facebook, for example

An interesting new area for EA to explore, much more information on GameTap.

At the beginning of the month I pondered on how EA is Changing and now it seems that I was right. In an interview with IGN EA Sports boss Peter Moore talks about a new strategy for EA titles.

Moore: There will be more announcements that will be, if you will, licensed intellectual property that will be, quite frankly, looking at the more casual consumer that we see as a bigger force in the business. We need to do better on the Nintendo platforms, and we intend to do that. It’s a different type of game mechanic that the Nintendo Wii consumer, in particular, can play. Fight Night is a great franchise, you bet we’re gonna continue to create games like Fight Night. Round 3 was a phenomenal game for us and did around $140 million in revenue on a worldwide basis, but we think there’s a different type of consumer that loves boxing games and doesn’t want the authentic simulation game that we currently offer.

Interesting little interview, catch it here.