Why doesn’t EA emulate the Apple way?
October 16, 2008Firstly, big kudos to Bethesda Software for not implementing an EA-style DRM scheme for their latest release. Nevertheless, software piracy is still a major concern for many major gaming companies, and understandably so.
Many gamers have stated if they reduce the costs of games then they would consider buying. I’m not sure that this argument holds water with me, because it misses one very important fact - that humans (particularly gamers), are a self-centered greedy bunch and will continue to pirate stuff because it’s free. Piracy is prevalent for the same reason the stockmarket crashed - because some (if not most) people are greedy.
So what’s one possible approach then? My preferred approach would be similar to Apple iTunes. The iTunes software allows 5 activations. You use up an activation whenever you install your account on another PC, or upgrade your OS or hardware. Sounds like EA, right? But there’s one big difference - when you use up all 5 activations, you’re allowed to reset your activations and start all over again. What a great idea!
iTunes has been around for a very long time. So why didn’t EA implement a similar scheme? It’s funny how people are screaming about how bad DRM is, but no one ever brings up iTunes as an example. Probably because iTunes implements DRM in such a sensible non-intrusive way that doesn’t punish the consumer.
Perhaps EA should think about that before releasing their next game. And call Steve Jobs.
