How much did you pay for Spore?

[Puppeteer]

I'm starting to suspect that I went for a bad deal, as I am now waiting for mine to arrive in the mail from EA- they already have my money, so they have no incentive to ship it fast.

It's a tough call. Some product launches don't have enough product available for the demand on day 1, and sometimes shippers strive to deliver product preorders on the day of release (Amazon.com and Harry Potter books jump to mind here). Other times I think preorders are just a gimmick to grab cash early and lock in the business. Unfortunately you can't tell until after launch. In this case it looks like there's plenty of product for retail demand, and the preorders don't seem to be trying hard to deliver as soon as an eager buyer wants.

On the other hand, from my point of view distributors are getting pretty good at judging demand and getting enough product out there for release day. Even the Harry Potter books I mentioned, the preording was nice, but it's not like there was a shortage of books at the brick-and-mortar stores, either. The Wii console is the only recent product I can think of that it probably would have been better to preorder.

But I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bad deal as long as you get it a couple of days after release. If they drag their butts more than that I'd start griping.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Get the penguins onto 'em!

I despise EA's corporate greed and intrusive digital rights management systems. We must unite to destroy this great evil.

It really irritates me, it's just that so many of the games I love are affiliated with EA (Need for Speed, SimCity, Spore) that I lack the willpower to join a boycott. However, if EA does with Spore what it did with NFS and SC (I would direct people to Pro Street and Societies respectively) then I will certainly be supporting them no more.

 

[Aratirn]

I paid 49€ for my copy (September, 4th). Nice game by the way.

 

[Abaddon]

Damn no post today

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Abaddon, why are you compelled to post whenever there is the slightest lull?

 

[Abaddon]

Lull in what?

I am compelled because Spore hasn't come through the post and I am bored!

(oh, an 20,000 would be nice)

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Lull in forum activity.

I don't have the game either.

 

[Abaddon]

I guess its just because I am from the UK... the time I am online is going to be the Lull...

 

[Rub'Rum]

49 canadian bucks. I expected it to be more expensive.

 

[Macha]

€45 or so - with a 10% discount. So it's on the shelves for about €50.

Exact same here.

 

[Daftpanzer]

I've seen it in Woolworths store today, a short walk away, for £30.99. I could have saved £2, enough for a bottle of fine ale

Although, I don't know when they got it in store. They had two and a bit shelves full, about 50 boxes at least. Obviously expecting big sales. Not that I saw anyone buying there.

 

[philippe]

I wasn't intending to buy the game, but a buddy offered me a cracked copy, so i got it too now.

 

[Daftpanzer]

Any drawbacks with the pirate version? Even if so, sounds like you have the better deal, since you have no reinstall limits.

Makes me wonder what the DRM has actually achieved apart from decreasing sales revenue by introducing worry among would-be legitimate purchasers.

Still, I think Spore will sell enough that EA will see it as a job well done, and keep their DRM system going for their next releases

 

[Rub'Rum]

I just read that Spore became the most pirated game of all time on BitTorrent. Outdoing Crysis which was downloaded like 450,000 times since its release. I think Spore was downloaded over 500,000 times in the last 2-3 weeks alone. Only The Sims game can almost compete with that on BitTorrent, and they've been out forever. Some BitTorrent sites even encourage downloading Spore saying "This is time to fight back!" and things like this.

Someone at EA, or many people, have their heads up their butts and need to look out the window.

 

[Dale]

EA did respond to the DRM issue at GamaSutra the other day, but their reasons are bullsh1t.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20218

They compared their protection schemes to that of iTunes, and claim:

"EA has not changed our basic DRM copy protection system," said Mariam Sughayer of EA's corporate communications in a statement to Gamasutra. "We simply changed the copy protection method from using the physical media, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to one which uses a one-time online authentication."

Like I said, utter corporate bullsh1t.

I've heard that people who purchased Spore can download the pirate version (to support the DRM protest) and use your purchased serial number in it. SecureROM & DRM free, with full online abilities.

I might just try this out.

 

[philippe]

Any drawbacks with the pirate version? Even if so, sounds like you have the better deal, since you have no reinstall limits.

Well, obviously I can't go online, and do anything with all the online content, but on the other hand, spore isn't that "developed" as a game, that i think i'll keep myself buzy with it. It's just so dumbed down and flawed.

it's sad really;

 

[Osymandias]

60€ for the galactic edition an devilered on 4th September by Amazon.de

 

[PreLynMax]

The game and the guide-- $79.99.