Will Wright, the brains behind Spore, Civilization and The Sims, finally spoke his mind yesterday about the now infamous Spore-DRM brouhaha. It’s a strange reaction, I think.
It [the DRM] was something I probably should have tuned into more. It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore… I think one of the most valid concerns about it was you could only install it so many times. For most players it’s not an issue, it’s a pretty small percentage, but some people do like wiping their hard disk and installing it 20 times or they want to play it 10 years later.
Wright also notes how EA is moving toward an authentication model à la iTunes, whereby you authenticate and de-authenticate computers from being able to play the game. That seems fair, right?
Note that he also called the issue a small one, which sounds a lot like what EA’s CEO said the other day.
You sorta get the feeling that Wright is like a director who has to play by the studio’s rules, whether he likes ’em or not.