EA gives customers middle finger with "lenient" Red Alert 3 DRM

EA has been dealing with something of a PR problem with Spore, as gamers bomb the Amazon ratings with one-star reviews to make their feelings known on the issue of DRM. Who can blame them? Placing a limit on how many times you can install a game you own, and doing so after the game has already been made available via the expected channels online in pirated form, is lame. EA wants you to know that it is listening, however, and the install limit for Red Alert 3 has been raised to five.

In other words, EA has decided to loosen the handcuffs slightly. We're supposed to be very happy at this "progress." Chris Corry, the Executive Producer on the game, has more details:

Life happens. I know it's unlikely, but for those unlucky few who install the game and have their machines nuked (virus, OS reinstall, major hardware upgrade, etc.) five times, EA Customer Service will be on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.

So if you use your computer like us geeks and do a lot of reinstalls, or simply uninstall and reinstall the game enough to hit the five user limit, you'll have to plead your case to EA's customer service and hope they grant you some more use of the game you've already paid for.