"The install limit forSpore will be upped to five, from three, and EA promises it is working on a way to deauthorize the game on your machines so you can move your installs between five computers without having to contact customer service, an expensive proposition in places like Australia where the call costs nearly $3 a minute. Talking to MTV Multiplayer, EA claimed that it was rare for gamers to install the game on multiple machines, or almost unheard of for gamers to want to put the game on more than two systems.

Here is a look at the data EA provided, although it stresses that these numbers are a sample and shouldn't be taken as indicative of total sales:

Total activations: 437,138
Users activating on only 1 machine: 86 percent
Users activating on more than 1 machine: 14 percent
User trying to activate on more than 3 machines: 0.4 percent

If this data is to be believed, the newly implemented five-install limit should be more than enough to keep customers happy, along with the to-be-released deauthorization system. Still, the very idea of any kind of limit seems to gall many gamers, who believe this system turns their game purchases into glorified rentals. It's likely these new "loosened" restrictions will be hit with the same vitriol.

EA did confirm one thing to MTV: if the authorization servers are ever taken down, the game won't become useless. "If we were to ever turn off the servers on the game, we would put through a patch before that to basically make the DRM null and void," the company claimed. "We're never walking away from the game and making it into a situation where people aren’t going to be able to play it."

After all this madness, one thing is sadly clear: gaming DRM isn't going anywhere. "Without the ability to protect our work from piracy, developers across the entire game industry will eventually stop investing time and money in PC titles," Gibeau stated. The pirates remain in the back of the room, giggling. 

People can still get the game DRM-free if they pirate it, and they will. So why bother with anything other than an account registration? There's a UPC code on the back of every box, right? Let people make as many offline things as they want, but for games with online, make the UPC the serial code, and let that be their online authentication. Seriously. Anyone messing with the UPC code will get fucked over on many more things than just Piracy, so the government should be happy too.

It's not too little, too late. It's bullshit, and still bullshit. What the hell kind of statistics are those, anyway? People have activated on one machine in the first two weeks... What about a year from now? I don't understand how they can continue to stand by the fact that they're protecting themselves from piracy when the damn thing was cracked a week prior to release.

"It's not too little, too late. It's bullshit, and still bullshit. What the hell kind of statistics are those, anyway? People have activated on one machine in the first two weeks... What about a year from now? I don't understand how they can continue to stand by the fact that they're protecting themselves from piracy when the damn thing was cracked a week prior to release."

There is no justification for the stupid shit EA is doing. If you bought the game online you had to pay an extra five bucks to guarantee you could download the game for 2 years on those 3 limited installs.

There is no justification for the stupid shit EA is doing. If you bought the game online you had to pay an extra five bucks to guarantee you could download the game for 2 years on those 3 limited installs.

Yeah its too little too late. EA is making a really bad name for themselves now, this kinda shit is just bad press overall that a little patch ain't gonna fix.

Piracy wont kill PC gaming, it will keep it on a tight leash though

sweet.

I gave my copy to my sister today.

Kids game.

DRM is a necessary evil and it's not going away any time soon.  What I really don't like is when this stuff stops legit customers like myself from playing the game.

The deactivate tool should have been available from day one, yet again EA shoot themselves in the foot.  I think most people will be happy with this compromise, after all it's better than nothing.

I just hope EA learns from this experience but I won't hold them breath.

Will it stop this though: http://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/