EA Locks Down Spore for US Users

My husband and I have been anxiously awaiting the Spore release for … oh … three years now.  We downloaded the Creature Creator and each made some weird-ass creatures and uploaded them to the Sporepedia to share.  It was crafty marketing to begin with… drum up some hype, charge people $10 for the Creator, and then use their creatures to populate the game world…    Still, it was with baited breath that we pre-loaded the full game and awaited the release time on Sunday.

Unfortunately, once I had logged in and begun to play, he encountered a screen asking for a product key.  I hadn’t ever been asked for product validation.  After some digging online, he found out he can only play the game offline unless we buy two separate versions of the software. Apparently we’re not the only ones to come to this outrageous realization.

Are you kidding me? You mean if (this is a big if, people) I had two kids, and they each wanted to play, we’d have to buy two copies?  And if the whole family wanted to play, we’d need umpteen accounts at $50 a pop?  As it is, we pay separately for our World of Warcraft accounts.  I understand that, at least in theory.  But for a non MMORPG game to pull this is ludacrious.

While I’ve read (see link above) that the policy in the EU is different, upon browsing the EA UK site, I find the same EULA.  Fix it, EA!

<end rant>