Botched 'Spore' launch could learn from open source
If there is one thing that open source has taught us, it's that there are "users" and there are "customers."
Odds are that all of your customers will be users first, taking your software for a test-drive and then deciding if they want to pay for it. It's all about getting people to consume your software.
The video game industry remains one of the last hold-outs in the war against consumption. Instead of encouraging more use, EA royally botched the launch of Spore with a seriously misguided choice of DRM (digital rights management).
It's completely understandable that EA would want to limit the number of computers that you could install the game on. Every major software company has some kind of rationale behind its approach.
As CNET's Jennifer Guevin wrote:
Such digital rights management technology is intended to keep piracy to a minimum. But in this case, it seems to have had the opposite effect, angering would-be buyers and DRM opponents to such a degree that they are illegally downloading it en masse, apparently to make a statement as much as to get their hands on the game.
The Spore "self-destruct" mechanism is just plain, old offensive. I can't think of a scenario in the last few years when I wasn't reinstalling, changing hardware, or otherwise altering my computer system. To render an application unusable is ludicrous--and pointless.
Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage is a bit of a nightmare if you need to reinstall Windows. (I dare you to find your serial number.) Adobe Systems is slightly better with its activation scheme, provided that you can find your serial number and that you didn't purchase an upgrade version where you need the serial number of the version before too. However, you can eventually use the software again.
Maybe a better approach for EA would have been to consider a "community" and "enterprise" version of Spore, where it's usable but not good until you pay. Certainly the revenue lost from 500,000 unpaid users would have been offset by other means (advertising, for example). It's about time the video game companies caught up with the rest of the world.
Dave Rosenberg dishes up "Software, Interrupted" with nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs to open-source enterprise software companies. He is co-founder of MuleSource and currently serves as the general manager of Hardy Way. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can contact Dave via e-mail at softwareinterrupted@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @daveofdoom. 
My friends just downloaded a copy... because it was LESS HASSLE. I was happy to pay for the game because it looked so good until i found out about the complications.
What happens in 10 years when i wanna play Spore again... can i still call EA and reactivate or whatever trash it is your pushing.
EA.. Challenging .. Not Everything.. Just my Patience.
Ashley, Australia
Pretty much every successful MMORPG, MMO, MUD, M...Etc has offered some sort of trial version, using full capability, with a restriction on time only. Including that benchmark of MMO marketing and development, World of Warcraft.
If companies are to succeed in the current market, especially in an online, global market where the innocent act of downloading can cause a loss in profit, they need to start providing roducts/services that people will actually pay for, not begrudgingly fork out for because they have no other choice.
Take products like ZOHO, companies like Canonical.
Anyone can freely use their product or service, and for a fee, will be provided with red carpet service and support which keeps them coming back for more.
EA, get a clue, this is no the 1960s, you don't need a news stand to sell newspapers, and sure as hell, you don't need an overpriced pimp, aka games shop, to sell software, especially in a world where torrent downloads and "peer to peer" are seen as legitimate methods of legal software distribution.
I'm not actually opposed to DRM technology itself -- its how vendors who implement DRM manage it. I think makers of software, music, etc. should be paid for their work. The problem is that none of these vendors who use DRM stop to consider that while they want customers to be supportive of their use of DRM, they aren't supportive of their paid-customer population when those customers are left with unusable products. When DRM goes bad and the customer calls, they aren't sympathetic.
EA could easily have told consumers that if they register the product, EA will guarantee the DRM. E.g. go register your serial number & email address (or whatever). Later if you exceed the 3 copies, or if your media is damaged, or even lost, they'll re-issue additional installs or even replace the media because the customer can show that they legitimately bought it.
Instead these companies seem to ignore any arguments on the part of their consumers because, quite frankly, even when honest buyers of their software end up not being able to use it, EA makes more money by insisting they re-purchase if they want to continue to use it.
After dealing with DRM on music CD's I've purchased, I will be staying the hell away from this one. It's been years since I've been interested in a video game and I can certainly live without. Too bad, looked entertaining.
- by firefoxluva95 December 9, 2008 2:03 PM PST
- It's not the fact that you are going to install Spore 3 times on your computer as soon as you get it. It's the fact that accidents can and will happen. Computers may have to be reformatted. Also don't forget, people do upgrade their operating systems. That means you have to install Spore again. Wow so you install it on your computer (or it came preinstalled) that's 1. You decide to rollback to XP, the second install. You get another computer in the house and want to install Spore on that. You've used 3 installs. Windows 7 is coming and you decide to get that when it comes out. Oh my...now I have to call EA and be put on hold for many hours.
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(11 Comments)No, EA needs to realize we're human, accidents happen. People think they won't use up their three installs but they can never insure that.