Spore shrugs off DRM concerns to sell 1 million copies

Spore has grown from a Petri dish-sized idea into full-blown hit, as EA announced on Wednesday that the life simulator had sold 1 million copies since the September 7 launch.

Epidemic: Spore sales mushroom to 1 million; 25 million creatures created so far

There are 999,999 more of these things out there today...

EA pinged GamePro Wednesday to report that Will Wright's Spore has spread across the PC, mobile phones and the Nintendo DS to the tune of 1 million in sales since its launch on September 7.

Even more remarkable is the fact that the title did it while saddled with oppressive DRM and a related class-action lawsuit filed by disgruntled Spore owners. An Amazon customer review hijacking campaign waged by anti-DRM advocates also seems to have had little affect on the title's success.

"We're humbled by how quickly the community has taken to the creativity tools in Spore. It's amazing to see the sheer imagination represented in the hundreds of thousands of creatures, vehicles and buildings that have been uploaded around the clock since launch." said Lucy Bradshaw, vice president of Maxis and Spore's executive producer in a statement to GamePro.

The cheery remarks were a stark contrast to last Friday, when EA Games president Frank Gibeau issued a hasty "quasi-apology" to Spore owners. He then detailed the steps EA had taken to address the DRM debacle, including expanding the number of eligible machines from three to five. He also promised more leniency in extending additional activations, and implemented a de-authorization system, much like the one used in BioShock for PC, as was reported GamePro's Blake Snow.

Given the sales numbers today, we can understand why Gibeau was not fully committed to an apology, and why Spore forum moderators were so quick to silence further criticism regarding the DRM key, called SecuROM. "If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum," said one moderator, before threatening that a ban from playing the game was possible if criticisms persisted.

When one takes into account these sales numbers, as well as the 85 aggregate review score the title has received, it would appear as though a majority of Spore owners are pretty satisfied with their new creature-building experience.

On that note, we'll throw it out to you. Was the Spore DRM as bad as critics said it was?

Comments [14]

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war02orc

As I said in the last article, I have no problem with the DRM system if they implimented a de-authorization system. I have a problem with not being able to uninstall the SecuROM software.

greensabre

Spooty_the_Gameguru wrote:

No, the DRM wasn't as bad.

Yeah, I'm a little naive when it comes to PC gaming, but can someone explain why someone (other than pirates) would need to install the game on more than 3 PCs?

war02orc

I also have a problem with them threatening to ban play accounts for criticism. Criticism is guaranteed by freedom of speech, ban an account and be prepared for a huge legal battle.

CaptainSony

greensabre wrote:

Spooty_the_Gameguru wrote:

No, the DRM wasn't as bad.

Yeah, I'm a little naive when it comes to PC gaming, but can someone explain why someone (other than pirates) would need to install the game on more than 3 PCs?

There is no legit reason really. They want to be able to give it to friends for free. The only reason is either you buy a new PC or have to reformat the HD. The 5 times they give you now will be plenty

bluer57

That game allows so much freedom and creativity. The DRM is just the opposite.

ccrashh

Sigh. It isn't the number of installs, per se. What if you want to sell the game in a garage sale? Or give it to a friend once you have finished with it (and uninstalled it)? After 3 installs (now 5)...oops...no resale. And it isn't 5 PCs...it's 5 installs. What that means if you forget to uninstall (and thus "reactivate an install token") a SecuROM "protected" game before you change the motherboard and/or video card...or if your machine craps out and you have to reinstall on a new or rebuilt box, you lose an "activation token".

Yes, you are right. For the general, everyday user who knows nothing about a PC other than to click on an icon to do "stuff", 5 installs is probably more than enough. But for a gamer...a person who upgrades and tweaks all the time...the DRM is an incredible bother. You would have to ensure that you uninstall every game you own and is still installed on your PC BEFORE you do any hardware upgrades. This is crazy.

But that isn't the big problem...it's the fact that apologists (re: morons) install this game without understanding the ramifications. You are installing something (SecuROM) that will sit in your Root...hidden...and not easily removable...for NO GOOD REASON! It isn't stopping piracy, since the game was available, DRM free, almost a week before it was officially released. No, this is all about controlling re-use and resale, nothing more.

By purchasing this game, you are telling EA...hey...it's alright...we don't mind that you take such draconian measures. Please, keep doing it.

ultrazilla2000

This is just a preview of things to come. Companies trying to squash the secondary market happens all the time and more so each day. I'm kind of torn on the concept...I can see that they want to recoup the costs of making games and turn a nice profit (why any other reason to be in the business???), and that's hard to do if half the products purchased eventually come from secondary market, while new version sit on shelves offering zero profit. Just something we have to get used to. This will suck though, as I can't afford to buy games new with my current income, but that's not really the game company's issue, it's mine. A few weeks ago, I was in a Blockbuster just before closing, and I saw an employee destroying DVD's. When we asked what the heck she was doing, she said it was in their contract to destroy all extra copies of this particular companies movies instead of trying to resell them, and if they didn't, they would not be able to rent out their titles anymore. Messed up and such a waste! But then again, it's going to force some consumers to purchase these movies new so they will make a profit where before hand they wouldn't, so it does make good business sense. It's a crazy world.

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