I was sent a tip from WorldSims on the following Sims 2 BBS post regarding SecuROM in The Sims 3.  A user was browsing the EA Store and added “The Sims 2 Standard Edition” to their cart.  When they went to the checkout page, they were greeted with the following message:

Note to MAC users: To obtain full Launcher functionality, MAC users must download a patch which will be available on day of launch. The MAC version of the software will ship with limited Launcher functionality, which will affect customers’ access to online services, including redemption of Free SimPoints.

ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE REQUIRED FOR PLAY. TO ACCESS ONLINE SERVICES, YOU NEED AN INTERNET CONNECTION AND MUST REGISTER ONLINE WITH THE ENCLOSED SINGLE USE SERIAL CODE. REGISTRATION IS NOT TRANSFERABLE. EA ONLINE TERMS & CONDITIONS CAN BE FOUND AT www.ea.com. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER ONLINE. EA MAY TERMINATE ONLINE SERVICES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON www.ea.com. THIS GAME USES SECUROM ANTI-PIRACY TECHNOLOGY BY SONY DADC. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SECUROM, VISIT www.securom.com.

The strange thing about this is that both the regular digital copy and the Collector’s Edition do not have this message.  But it’s the same game in a different package, so I don’t completely understand.  I think that it is either going to come with SecuROM in all editions and they didn’t post this note for those two, or this note on the standard edition is a mistake, especially the Mac launcher text.  The game is still in the works and yet to have gone gold as that won’t be until May.  So why are they talking about downloading a patch for Mac users when they simply can use the existing 2 months to get the launcher to work?  Something is not right here…

We shall see in due time what exactly is going on…at least if the game does come with SecuROM, I’ll give EA small props for including the warning on the box for a change (hopefully).