EA released the long-in-development Spore this weekend, packed with repressive DRM.  Gamers have responded by flooding Spore’s Amazon with one star reviews (more than 650).  EA limits Spore to only three installations.  Uninstalling the game does not increase that number, leaving paying customers to prove they legally purchased the game to EA for permission to play the game.

All this happens in the name of preventing piracy. But Spore has been available on Bittorrent sites for almost a week sans DRM. This leaves paying customers to deal with restrictive DRM.

EA knew a public relations nightmare was brewing when it announced the DRM back in the spring.  After public outcry, EA removed part of the DRM requiring a validation check every 10 days, but EA kept the three installs limit that is frustrating gamers.

So piracy is running free and paying customers are pissed off.  How is DRM supposed to work again?