This is great. We really needed companies to see that they only punish the legitimate users of the product. You can get just about any game out there for free, and cracked. These people are already downloading products that are multiple gigs in size, so I don't think they mind a little bit a hassle for a crack. It's really easy to play pirated games, not to mention most major titles have a patched install on a few torrent with secure-rom removed.

I've said this once, and I'll say it again. Use Steam. Great service, and it deters most pirates. They'd be having fewer issues that way.

I've spoke to friends of mine when EA spoke about limiting the number of installs, and some of them were more inclined to pirate the game, because he's end up doing it anyway with the constant reformats.

I don't understand how damages for these three lawsuits could possibly amount to millions of dollars. The combined cost of three high-end PCs would be thousands, certainly not millions. I agree that SecuROM is a nasty little program and EA needs to explore options to control piracy. But still. $5,000,000???

Don't understand?? Are you slow or, did you eat paint chips as a kid because it is prett obvious at this point why people are so pissed off. I say sue the !!!@ out of them at this point. I had to reinstall my OS because of Far Cry 2 locking up in mid the other day and it screwed my OS up so bad I had no choice but to reinstall. That is one of my fu@@ing installs?? Because their game is buggy to hell and back that is one of my installs?? The funny thing is they patched it with a 40mb patch the other day and it still does the same crap.......... Sue Sue away people.

1. The Spore lawsuit was the first lawsuit; it is not a new suit
2. There is an additional suit against EA for Mass Effect
3. The high damages are because they are class action suits -- they are on behalf of everyone who bought the game, who would be entitled to his/her money back. Spore sold more than one million units, so $5 million is probably low.

Sorry Claudia I don't mean in insult a lady as that's just disgusting when it happens. But I have to agree with truhighroller on this. These companies are installing root kits in your kernal of your OS. You are not notified that it is installing so it shows willfull neglect. Being unable to uninstall or update it shows negligent responsibility for their product. If I was a "h@cker" and I install a root kit or just a virus without you knowing it... I go to jail or slapped with a fine. Big companies call it a standard way of doing business. We the consumer have no say so and they WILL NOT listen or support ANY issues indicating their is a root kit installed on your OS. Their CEO and higher ups makes MILLIONS and workers make ....what $10 bucks an hour? SUE SUE SUE their ever lovin panties off their heads I say. STF'ers DOWN!! I don't care how good the game is, they root, we h@ck&C@cK 1t babyyyy! no root or steam it I'm fine with that as most are. Kudos Tindytim steam rokz!

TSM

Maybe microsoft should sue for tampering with the OS of their customers?

See maybe I might be on the suers side, but then I'll on the same side as immature spazs like badboy4dee(what a surprise there...)

People would listen to you if didn't act like a immature ADHD kid who didn't get their meds for a week.

I take pride that I never pirate anything, and I stand on my moral high ground when my friends and family mock me.

Yesterday, I went out and bought Fallout 3 for PC.
I am an adult, former hardcore gamer, who is now limited in time for playing.

get home try to install the game and do some playing.

Securom error as I try to install the game saying I have emulators running?? and a link to a website that would not work (Guess the server was over burdened)

got the game to install, but still go the error when trying to run the game.

$70.00 after tax, many hours of trying to get onto the Securom website or trying other things (I removed my copy of Nero, and cakewalk pyro which I use often when I make music.. nope)

$70 + 4- 5 hour of frustration = no playing and unhappy consumer.

I still have not played the game, as I gave up last night trying to get onto the securom website to get the patch they have.

two words for this crap
second word rhymes with eew and the first one starts with "f" and ends with "ck" and it is not firetruck!

note, the mocking of my non pirating ways has gone up because of this.

no, no ,no!!!!

THE SPORE TRIAL EDITION HAD SECUROM ON IT?!?! WTF1!!!!!!!!!!!

NWO I GOTTA FORMAT MY HDD?!?! NOO WTF SERIOUSLY?

O and the newt...

its not securom that installed on yoru hdd, fallout 3 has a minimal securom protection, there is probably something wrong with your dvd-drive... lotta people had this problem, strange problem considering they only have a disk check...

Its a class action lawsuit, so if they win anyone who purchased the game would share in the damages. So if 5 million people claim damages on spore each person would get less then a dollar.

This is awesome!!! If companies that use securom keep getting hit with lawsuits they'll likely stop using it.

What EA needs to do to save their butt, is make a patch that removes and disables the secuROM virus.

I agree with the guy up there. Steam would solve 80% of these problems, if not more. Plus, it makes PC gaming much, much easier to use for those people who don't know what a gigahertz is. More user friendly, less piracy - the only deterrent I can see is that it would pull the gaming world into a Valve controlled monopoly...but hey, they manage hundreds of games right now, and I don't see people talking crap about it.
I love Steam. No CD keys after the first install, no time spent hunting down discs and such. Steam makes life easy.

Erm, I hate to tell you Ryan but you're a bit behind the times. At www.ReclaimYourGame.com we've been tracking this issue. The current tally of lawsuits filed stands at four (from two different lawfirms, with at least one other lawfirm also researching the matter).

You can find the relevant links to filings and attorney contacts details at
http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/ind [...] &Itemid=57

anti piracy methods like securom are a waste of time

if your game is good people will buy it, simple as that

anti piracy isn't a waste of time... its necessary for businesses... but is securom/drm crap the answer... No. No its not

Anti piracy = steam or a BETTER version of DRM... one that would allow a certain number of installs and you can't play the game till you register online... not via some software... I know its not perfect... but who wants to hack a game and stay offline... anyway and then once a certain amount of time goes by like a reasonable amount... couple of weeks maybe the install is then removed and you can install it somewhere else... the problem with that is then you say... well what happens if i want to re-format and then re-install the game... the thing that needs to happen there then... is good customer service...

they need a good idea... and good support... and currently... only steam offers that

It's true what's been mentionned in here; if it's good, people will buy it. I've bought 100% of the games made by Blizzard, I've bought the Baldur's Gate series, Doom series, Quake series, etc... I've spent so much it's crazy, but the headaches pirates have to deal with with patches & re-hacking the executables & stuff I never had.

I've dealt with SecuROM a single time, and I've had to format completely. Since then, EVERY SINGLE GAME that has SecuROM that I was interested in, I've, well, I've gotten them on "special", yet I still buy other games (most recent were Sins of a Solar Empire & The Witcher)

Screw you up the a$$ EA & Sony. And with the decline of the PC gaming industry because of said piracy (or so they claim), I hope to god hackers unleash their fury on the consoles & hack it to hell & back. I can't stand friggin console controllers for ANY game, KB + multi-button mouse FTW.

Psychonauts
Zack & Wiki
Snatcher
Beyond Good & Evil
Ico
Rule of Rose

Are only a few of the many counter examples that prove that great games don't always sell well.
Just because a game is good doesn't mean it will sell well. Halo was the pinnacle of mediocrity, and it's become a flagship title for the Xbox brand selling over 20 million copies over 3 games.

Marketing, "gritty" graphics, and some mediocre gameplay will get you loads of sales. Doing something original and innovative will be taking a huge chance even if the game is great.

Not a bad idea. This would be grate and Microsoft has very good lawyers & money .

I think you all overreact. It's the complete opposite of the spectrum with game companies overreacting about piracy on the other end.

Actually, they'll just stop making games for the PC and go all console - like a LOT of developers have done. Either way, consumer loses. On the plus side, it opens the door for smaller game developers who are willing to dedicate their time to making great games and sell them at minimal profit instead. Begone EA, give the little guys a chance again and maybe PC gaming will spring back to life.

I'd like to respond to now: It's all about marketing. Halo got huge because MS backed it with tons of marketing. Furthermore, Halo IS a great game. It captured sales, which is a testament to that. Good marketing and a crappy game aren't going to win sales. Bad marketing and a good game can still capture sales. Bad marketing and a bad game won't capture sales, and Good marketing and a good game will capture A LOT of sales. Halo is this last one. It had great marketing AND is a great game. It's easy to pick up, fun to play - and it has multi-player, both on and offline. It even had co-op. One of the first games on console to have all of those things, along with fluid movement that was easy to control using a controller. I think you're jealous, or you've never played Halo. I'm a 28 year old PC gamer who used to play Halo2, got tired of the hackers on console, and went back to PC gaming. I have a good idea what I'm talking about.

Oh, and the difference between PC gaming and console gaming is that PC gaming allows you to download ANTI-HACK programs. Chaos Launcher FTW! (StarCraft)

Seems like some of the posters are getting anti-piracy measures mixed up with the quality assurance, and thus getting off the subject of the OP and article. If the game is buggy, then that is a different issue entirely. The article and the lawsuits are regarding SecurROM, not how well the game was tested before it was released. But some people just like to complain......

I don't know if somebody already noticed and posted, but you said "install" or "installed" twice when contextually I'm sure you meant "uninstall" or "uninstalled."

Just FYI.

While I'm sure we can agree that 5 million is a bit steep, you at least have to admit that the costs can well exceed 10 grand. Sure the hardware may only cost 1k, but what about the rest? Let's assume that one of the users was using the same pc for work and gaming. Melissa might be sitting in her study trying to play spore and failing. No matter, she'll just do some maintainance on the webserver farm she's hosting in the basement - and during a routine task securom crashes her computer, and something breaks on the webserver. Costs manpower to replace, and costs excuses to the customers let down. Next up she notices her pc doesn't work properly anymore, and after a reinstall she'll have to order technician visits from various companies to get some of her custom built software back up and working.
That fictional story could easily cost considerably more than the hardware alone - just because securom doesn't work as intended.

Anyhow, no 5 mio is still too much if simply covering expenses is the point - but it isn't. Its probably meant like the woman who sued McD over too warm coffee.

While im not with mr moral high ground (whatever the hell thats suppose to mean) I do buy all the games i like (of course i download and try them first) Dont care what the moral nuts have to say about that i can show them were to shove it. Anyways i will never buy any game with secure rom on it dont care how good its suppose to be. EA should take a hint from valve. MAKE A GOOD GAME AND YOU WONT NEED YOUR TROJAN'S!!!! seriously sins of a solar empire was a awomse game. I downloaded it to give it a try. I paid for it 3 weeks later and pre ordered the expansion. what kind of anti priacy does it have? and that game is making money, Why? because its good. Not becuase you have to.

They wonder what is killing thier sales but then they put this bs program on thier disk. Sometimes i swear these people aer goddamn morons.I can think of two things killing thier sales.

#1 making the worst games ever.
#2 securom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


O and btw halo is garbage sorry i had to add that here btw im a 30 year old gamer and it still sucked ass.

All these companys are doing by moving to console only are making sure thier game gets pirated. Only now its not pirated on the pc its on the console which i have known tons of people pirating games since the original play station. its just as bad there as it is on PC only its the current excuse they have. When they realise how goddamn blind they are they will either think of a new excuse or realise they should put more then $5 in games and make something worth buying. Like i said before they need to goto valve's school of making a game that doesnt blow 101 and maybe they will learn something.

Ye halo sucks, but somehow many people don't agree. I was stupid enough to order halo 2 without trying it first - waste of money. Anyway ye, I too stopped buying games with securom. I would've liked a legal crysis warhead, but I can't really say I want my vista to be any less table jut because I want to try a game. So the first crysis must suffice (got it original, playing a cracked, rootkitfree, version).

It's sad really. Good games don't need that kind of protection imo. I still have the original obilivion disk thoguh I didn't have to order it to play it (it's not an online game), and I have a host of other singleplayer games that I paid for as well - because they are good games, not because I couldn't pirate them.

So either make multiplayer games like world of warcraft, where not running on official servers is punished by lack of content refreshment, or make games good enough that people will want to pay for it. Don't just rush stuff out the door, or be paranoid and even add security to trailware ....

In short - I'm with enforcer22 although I'm only 28 and not yet old (old=30).

lol ass

If pretty much every securom-protected game is being cracked within a few days of release, then why do the game developers keep using securom? It seems to me that the best marketers here are in securom. They're probably the ones scaring the crap out of the game developers about pirating and somehow getting their software included on so many big titles.

I purchase most of my games, I fully support the PC gaming industry and want it to last forever. But I also want to play my games without needing the CD and I will look for a no-cd executable for every game I purchase. What's wrong with that?

Take the message, game developers: Securom sucks, it's alienating your customers, and it doesn't stop piracy.