Former Maxis worker sticks it to EA: “Your DRM is screwed up”

I’m so glad that EA is getting all of the bad press on the SecuROM/DRM issue.  They say it’s to fight piracy…yeah right!  I can’t believe the shareholders who own stock in EA/SecuROM have their heads so far up their behinds they can’t even review a few articles to see how horrible the DRM is. 

In fact, a new article popped up today thanks to Sponge interviewing a former Maxis worker, Cliff Harris in which even he admit’s the Spore DRM is a screw up. 

“Firstly, SecuROM didn’t even work, as the game was pirated before release. Secondly, this game was much anticipated by gamers as one of the most significant releases of the year, so the idea that you could not have a single worldwide release date, and expect people in North America to resist the temptation to pirate it was just silly.

“Also, they have thrown away a lot of the goodwill that gamers have towards Will Wright. I understand why they think the DRM is a good idea, but they haven’t even tried to make it ‘good’ DRM, by defending their position, making it clear when and if the DRM will be removed, or abandoning it the day it got pirated.

“From a PR point of view, this is a disaster, as they have come across like they have their fingers in their ears and aren’t listening. Ultimately I think it’s sad, because this was a very original, high budget PC game release that could have been a great shot in the arm for PC gaming. Everyone loses as a result of this, EA, Maxis, and PC gamers. the only people celebrating this are the people who make a dishonest living from selling advertising impressions on pirate websites. It’s a totally avoidable disaster.”

That pretty much sums it up in a nutshell.  And you know what?  After all of the bad reviews coming from Spore’s DRM, EA decided to still use it with their upcoming game, Red Alert 3 but expand the limit to 5 installs.  YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG, EA!