Spore 2008’s Most Pirated Game

It’s no surprise that Spore has been a bit of an embarrassment for Electronic Arts. While the game was favoured by critics, users lambasted its draconian SecuROM copy-protection system due to its limited number of installs and hidden root kits. Well, looks like EA’s radical attempt to put a halt to piracy of their games has backfired on them yet again. While I don’t like to use Internet memes on here, I think the term “epic fail” perfectly describes this situation. Spore has officially taken the crown of the most pirated game in history in terms of downloads per month. In the three months since it’s release, torrent sites have reported that the game has been downloaded illegally a staggering 1.7 million times. That’s approximately 566,666 downloads per month. The Sims 2, another Will Wright creation takes second place with 1.1 million downloads in 2008. (about 91,600 downloads per month) UBI’s Assassin’s Creed (which I reviewed here. My copy is legal, unfortunately I paid for it) rounds out the top three with 1 million downloads.

EA has said that not every download was successful. Many tech pundits suspect that a great deal of downloads were legitimate buyers looking to circumvent the ridiculous restrictions placed on the game. Regardless of the reason for downloading, it just proves that DRM as an anti-piracy measure is not working at all. With the amount of bad press EA has received over SecuROM, they have to ask themselves if it’s really worth it, or should that money be invested elsewhere. If they chose the latter, they might have better quality products on their hands that people actually want to buy. What a novel idea!

Source: TorrentFreak