EA needs to learn to STFU

Recently, I blogged about why I was adding EA to my boycott list. Now John Riccitiello (CEO at EA) has spoken up on the issue - and quite frankly, its another response that just pisses me off.

Its funny as the interview actually starts off okay. For example, this line:

Everyone gets that we need some level of protection
True - everyone does get this. I have stated repeatedly that I have no problem with DRM as long as it doesn't become intrusive. The DRM on Spore (and Mass Effect PC) was very borderline and was just uncomfortably into the realm of maybe a bit too intrusive. However, at the time, although I was annoyed, I wasn't pissed off. I only got pissed off when they gave their half assed response which really didn't take into account the valid concerns I felt I, and many other gamers, had.

[But it was] a minority of [anti-DRM] people that orchestrated a great PR program
And this is when the interview starts to go wrong. Yes, statistically speaking, the people who were up in arms about DRM probably were a minority (after all, sales of the game have been very good). However, the statement completely ignores the valid concerns that gamers had. I mean, its not like Spore was the first game to be hit with anti-DRM complaints.

Even if you ignore other publishers, when Mass Effect PC was released, the BioWare forums were up in arms and you had well over a hundred people stating that they wouldn't buy the game based on the DRM (this was before EA relaxed the DRM slightly). Just in case you weren't aware, EA had already purchased BioWare by this stage and must have known about the controversy.

What was particularly interesting about the Spore DRM controversy was that the game was being panned in the Amazon user reviews for having draconian DRM (I blogged about it here). What made this interesting was not that gamers were complaining about it on forums - but rather that they had gone out into the real world (for lack of a better phrase) and panned the game on Amazon which very possibly led to lost sales.

As far as I can tell, this was an ad-hoc and unplanned reaction. It wasn't a call to arms by gamers to pan Spore in Amazon. Rather, some people gave poor reviews for this reason and then the idea just caught on like a bush fire and spread. I'm not the only one to reach this conclusion (read here - and before you ask, I have no idea who he is).

This suggests, to me at least, that gamers are seriously pissed about this and that it isn't just a PR campaign by a couple of anti-DRM activists.

I'm guessing that half of them were pirates, and the other half were people caught up in something that they didn't understand
So I'm either a pirate or I didn't understand the issue. Way to diss my valid concerns - you arrogant c*$k sucking son of a b*$ch. In case its not obvious, it was this statement that really pissed me off.

None of the games I play on my PC are pirated - all of them are either store bought or legally downloaded (and can anyone explain to me why a pirate would even care about DRM considering that they don't have to deal with it?). I didn't buy or illegally download Spore. I already bought and completed ME on my X360 which is why I wasn't interested in the PC version.

So according to John Riccitiello, I didn't understand the issue. Here's news for you Johnny boy - I understand the issue just fine. What pushed me over the line into boycotting EA wasn't the shitty DRM on your PC games (although I will admit I was worried about it). I am boycotting EA because of the shitty response to valid concerns which I, and many others, have expressed.

If your view is that my concerns aren't valid and that they should be ignored, don't be surprised when I no longer support your company or its products.