Has EA learned a lesson over the ‘Spore’ DRM controversy?

This is certainly surprising news and possibly good tidings for video game consumer advocates. The Sims 3 designer Rod Humble announced today that will only have limited copy protection as a part of the game. This is a sharp contrast to the DRM on Spore which was highly controversial for the limitations it set on users, Worse was the lawsuit that accused the DRM of being highly invasive. Instead, The Sims 3 will make use of the same disc-check used in games like The Sims 2, Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

While I’m definitely sympathetic to the concerns that motivate publishers to use DRM, those sympathies don’t include giving up my own expectations for security or a willingness to accept a product with less functionality (like, say, a game that I might not be able to install if I get in a nostalgia kick in ten years). Most importantly, I don’t want to have to turn over the security of my machine to a video game publisher, so they can ensure the game I’m playing is still the legal copy it was a few months ago. I would have liked to buy a copy of Spore but once I looked at what came with the game included, Spore just didn’t look interesting enough to accept the risks and inconveniences its DRM attached.

So this is thrilling news and I can go back to actually paying attention to news about The Sims 3 with anticipation.