I just bought and registered Peggle Nights and its telling me I only have 5 activations. Will there be a massive outcry and if not, why?
What other affects does the DRM have? Will they try and charge you an extra $7 for the privilege of downloading it again in the future? Does it require a custom downloader to run in the background? How much did the game cost in the first place? If you buy it on CD, does it have the same limitation? Does the DRM cause the game to crash on some people’s computers?
The original Peggle also had a 5 machine install limit, at least when purchased directly from Popcap. Not sure if the Steam version had the same restriction.
But who would even uninstall peggle?!?
I just checked with our release management as well as our customer service teams, and both of them said that this limit is the same limit we’ve had for a very long time on all our games.
To my (and their) knowledge this has never been an issue with our customer base.
But hey, the good news here for those who don’t know is that Peggle Nights is finally live!
Sweet. Congratulations, guys.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking here, but there’s nothing tricky going on here at all. This is the same DRM we’ve used for quite a while in all our products.
We’re not looking to make any extra money beyond the initial purchase price. In the extremely rare instance that a customer legitimately burns through those activations (like if their machine keeps getting reformatted for some reason), then those users can contact our customer support people and work something out. But I’ve been told this basically never happens. 5 activations per customer has seemed to work just fine for our customers.
Not at all. Once the game is installed, no online connection is needed to play, and we don’t have some crazy PopCap software that runs in the background. Though of course if you buy it from Steam, then Steam continues to run, just like with all games on Steam.
$19.99. That’s been the general standard for our new releases.
If you order a CD version from our website with your purchase, I’ve been told that does need to do an online validation and does have similar activation limits. But the boxed retail versions does not require online activation, or so I’m told.
Certainly not to our knowledge. We’ve been using this DRM wrapper for a long time, and stability and compatability on the widest possible array of systems is something that’s extremely important to us (and for that matter, all casual game publishers.)
Well I’m definitely not buying it now.
(Until it comes out on Steam…)
Doh, I meant those questions rhetorically for Rob – while the complaints re: Spore’s DRM mostly revolve around the # of install limitations, it’s not the only factor in why people are miffed about it. It’s the one they yell about most, though.
Thanks for the straightforward answers though – the reasonable approach on all the other questions is why I don’t balk at Popcap’s install limit – EA manages to add enough other annoyances such that, when added to the install limit, I wind up balking (at least at $50 – if Spore were $20 or $30, I’d probably bite).
All that said, I’ll probably hold off until it hits Steam also (Why? Because Steam’s pluses waaaay outweigh its minuses for me. And Rob – I completely understand that you like EA’s approach better than Steam, that’s cool, we just have different priorities :)
I’m feeling an aversion to buying Peggle Nights, but it’s not because of the DRM…it’s because the title reminds me of this
Any outlook on how far off you guys are from getting this up on Steam? Futile question (from experience) but I need to know how much time I have to get the 100% badge thingie on all the original Peggle levels and that is clearly a justification for leaking privileged information on a forum.
No, because it’s Peggle, a fluffy diversion bought at diversionary prices. People don’t expect to put Peggle on a shelf of hallowed games and pull it down again years later to play.
That said, I personally do think that’s lame, and if I’d known that the DRM was like that when I bought Peggle, I probably wouldn’t have – I’ve already blown three of my five installs, apparently, which sort of cheeses me off.
Too bad there weren’t user reviews warning me about the DRM; they would have been a valuable guide to my purchasing decision.
Hiro said he would ask abotu that here: http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1476303&postcount=261
Backlash? Maybe not, but a huge reason I don’t buy casual games is the install limit. I rebuild my system way too often for an install limit to make financial sense for me.
Hey thanks. Amidst all my frothing anticipation I apparently overlooked the actual subject of the thread.
Rob knows. He’s used Popcap’s DRM as an example repeatedly in the Spore DRM thread. He’s just being a douche.
How about a “Where’s My Damn Mac Version?” backlash because, really, where’s the Mac version?
And iPod Touch! If there was an iPod Touch version, I’d never manage to get anything done at work. Actually, yeah, don’t ever release an iPod Touch version.
No, you aren’t correct. First in the Spore DRM thread, my experience with Popcap DRM in the past was more strict as I had to contact their support to even get a second activation. I thought it was harsher than Spores. So now I learned its exactly the same as Spore’s. I don’t think its being a “douche” pointing out the mob is being hypocritical for damning one company and not another for the exact same practice.