Eg har sett på EA sine herjingar med kundane, så eg valde å sende ein mail til Crytek:

I really looked forward to Crysis Warhead. It seemed like a great present to friends and my self this christmas. Alas EA put their DRM on it. It’s obvious that the ones that makes decisions at EA or Crytek about how to protect a game can’t be playing games themselves. Just as the ones that decides on Windows Media DRM don’t listen to music.

I still play Half Life (1) from time to time and it’s 10 years old. The visual experience isn’t great, but what a game. And just remembering the first time I played it and the good old Voodoo2 in SLI. It brings back great memories. It’s many upgrades and computers since the first install of Half Life (1).

I tend to replay great games. The first time I might be able to play at low detail. I upgrade the computer to be able to play it with more «bells and whistles». With the activation scheme on Crysis Warhead this is not possible anymore. I’ll run out activations a long time before 10 years have gone. And how can anyone guarantee that the activation servers are still there in 10 years time. Just look at how many on line music stores that have closed leaving the music lover high and dry. Having to have the DVD/CD in the computer to play is just fine by me. I pay for my games and I’d like to keep the good ones around for a loooong time. The ones that I don’t like I’d like to give away or sell to someone that might get some pleasure from them. EAs system hampers all this.

As a developer you’ve got to address this. Cryteks games are for hard core gamers. You can’t put Crysis Warhead or similar game on a computer bought at the super marked or on a laptop selling for a couple som hundred euros. The hard core gamers marked consist of people that like to be able to play and enjoy games at a full detail. They upgrades their pcs or buy new ones very often. Activation is like a ticking bomb. It’s bound to go off (in the right sense of the word). If you loose the hard core gamers thanks to your distributor, loosing Crytek is a great loss for the gamer. I have yet go play Crysis, but I have played Far Cry and was just awestruck buy the graphics. I’ve been a hard core gamer, but as a family man time just keep ticking away faster than ever. Playing games happens from time to time now. But as the kids grow up I need more pcs. And with new video formats I’m still bound to upgrade or buy new ones just to be able to edit them. A game for me has an equal long life as a great one as Half Life (1). With Far Cry it was just last year I had upgraded my pc to enjoy it at high detail. With Crysis Warhead it’s just like Windows media DRM music. You can’t move it to your new computer.

As a closing, may I ask you what went on when you or EA decided to put the same DRM on the version that’s distributed on Steam? I’m not going into a discussion on Steam and that way to distribute a game, but it seems that this wasn’t needed. The game is protected by a personal account. On what computers I’d choose to play it should be totally irrelevant as long as I’m not logged into Steam by more than one instance.