EA gives DRM the flick

The Sims 3 to be without invasive DRM, says Electronic Arts. Woohoo.

The biggest gaming company in the world, Electronic Arts, has hammered what could be the final nail into the coffin of overbearing Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Announcing that the next installment of best-selling entertainment franchise, The Sims 3, will use a simple CD key for copy protection, the game's executive producer, Rod Humble, may have set up a sea of change in the way software developers fight piracy.

"To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed," Humble wrote on the Sims 3 website. "We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorisation server access in the distant future," he said.

EA recently came under fire over Draconian DRM systems built into its much-hyped evolve-'em-up game, Spore, which restricted the number of installs allowed per user and hobbled large portions of the game's content if no persistent Internet connection was available.

EA main man, John Riccitiello, has openly admitted he's no fan of DRM, yet it still comes as a surprise the company would choose to make such an announcement on such an important release.