It’s hard to exaggerate just how much EA’s CEO, John Riccitiello, misses the point here.
I personally don’t like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.
That’s what he said at some hoity-toity media conference, referencing the Spore-DRM brouhaha. First, the pedantic tone—“there’s this problem called piracy out there”—doesn’t really help EA’s image. Second, and more importantly, pirates got off easy; the DRM didn’t affect them at all. Go check ThePirateBay (or your private tracker of choice) to see how many pirates are enjoying the game despite the DRM.
The importance of this DRM mess, the message to take back to EA HQ, is that DRM, ostensibly present to prevent piracy, did no such thing. It’s the people who went to the store and paid their American dollars who ran into all sorts of problems. They’re the ones who got bitten by the DRM, not the pirates.
And until EA (and the rest of ’em) realize this, they’re gonna have to deal with more and more angry Internet mobs.