Writin_Reg

Electronic Arts: What Is the Problem?

One word as to why EA is failing - SECUROM 7.

It could have the best games in the business, but if Securom 7 is on it - like all EA games have since last summer (2007) and you get bit by the nasty side of this draconian DRM, you are going to avoid that companies games like a plague.

Myself, I love EA's games. My now grown family loves EA games and have been buying their games and investing in their stocks since the early 90's - then they switched to Sony DADC rootkit-like DRM and damaged my pc. EA's reply is denial, denial, denial. So they are being sued by not one but three different lawsuits due to this Securom 7 and the damage it does to pcs that EA refuses to acknowledge. In fact their CEO had the nerve to call all it's buying, money spending consumer base pirates if they complained. Like we should just dismiss the fact their DRM borks new pcs, and say thank you - may I have another.

No thank you!!! I love your games EA, but don't like you very much and can't stand your DRM. So I'm not about to buy your products - anymore, and I sold your stock - thank goodness back while it was still in the high 40's. Oh and EA, I'm not alone. There are many of us casual gamers following suit.

Simply put, you want us back - drop Securom 7, but rest assured we are not going away - we just aren't buying your products, your stocks, or you BS explanations and excuses. What's more we are many and we tell our many friends.

That Mr. Everiss is what is wrong with EA and erts stock.

Ultizen's Lan Haiwen Discusses the Latest Gaming Industry Developments

The Ultizen game publisher may find his success in this market may depend on the DRM he decides to go with as people are totally fed up with EA and it's use of dvd-rom damaging Securom. EA can blame their big xtock loss on Take-two, the economy, or anything else it wants to blame it on, but after a year of people fighting to play their EA pc games with this horrid Securom, they have just plain had enough. Might I add the one star ratings found on EA's Spore is mild to the numbers of unhappy gamers at game forums. You won't see much on EA's forum because they hide and delete most of the complaints they get there and their other official sites, they also give ban warnings if you post in any of the general forums where the general public would see the unhappiness.

So I say welcome to a new game maker, and as a pc gamer I do hope they also work on pc games, but I implore them consider the consumer because we will no longer buy even the best game out there if it has DRM that damages our pc components and drives and security programs.

Report from Inside Electronic Arts' Shareholders Meeting

I'm pretty darn sure that online site mentioned in the article is the site known as The Prism, as it is a site dedicated to helping gamers whose pcs have been made impossible to run properly, if at all, after players have ran any of EA's newly released games over this past year, and all because of EA's so called iron-clad contract with Sony DADC's SecuRom DRM. Between the shoddy coding of such games like the Sims 2, the change to Securom DRM, and nearly no customer support from EA (which by the way is not a toll-free call), players often go limping into The Prism seeking their help. I have been there. They are a dedicated group of amazing individuals that help players get back the full use of their pcs - of course sans EA's games, as there is just no way with this DRM to do both.

I would disagree with that CEO, EA does not listen to their gaming communities. Instead they bury complaints about the games and Securom from consumers off the main boards of each forum. I know at the Sims 2 board that if you post on their General forum about Securom, even to ask a question, the Simmasters on that site threaten to ban the posters for doing so. I have heard the same thing is happening on the Mass Effect game forums.
Many of EA's customers that have been with this companies games for as long as ten or more years recieve hardly more than grief from EA. I was even hung up on for calling for tech support for my own pc when Securom disabled my dvd-rom and one of my two firewalls among other things, on my pc. I got told by a very rude young man at EA that "Securom doesn't do that" in a loud and gruff manner, then he slammed the phone down. In the end a technician at a pc shop which reformatting my pc, confirmed that Securom did do that. EA was no help to my technician either, as they told him they did not have a tool to remove Securom from my pc, which was why there had to be a reformat to begin with. It does not uninstall with unstallation of EA's software.

I just know one thing a lot of customers are awfully angry with EA over this move to Securom, and main kernal memory leaks from broken coding in games that are never fixed. To add to insult EA has even began using an even harsher form of Securom in this new seasons game that give customers a limit on the amount of times they can activate their games, and even their offline games must have an internet connection to activate. Customers are not happy and angry customers will stop buying EA products in the long run.