As we reported earlier today,
Electronic Arts'
Spore has remained at or near the top of the retail best seller charts for PC games since its release in early September. However, it's use of a DRM set-up caused a massive backlash against the game,
which EA tried to respond to.Today, EA's CEO John Riccitiello said that the DRM controversy was generated by a tiny amount of the game's users. News.com reports that Riccitiello, speaking at the Media & Money Conference in New York City, said that while he himself is not a fan of DRM, he implied that at the moment there's no better way to keep
Spore and other PC games away from PC software pirates. "We chose a particularly aggressive form of DRM, which 99.8 percent of consumers would never notice, but that two-tenths of one percent got incredibly focused and formed an online PR cabal," he claimed. "We can eliminate piracy by essentially blocking the online service from the pirate. That's the future of DRM. The present of DRM isn't quite there yet."
Riccitiello also said he saw
Spore's user created creatures and structures as the future of games, saying, ""
Spore is probably the industry's first big step in that direction, and I would encourage you to look out for
The Sims 3, which comes out this spring and which is another big step in that direction."