Nope, it's a proven fact.  Not only do games with no drm generally sell better, but non starforced versions of games on steam sold better then retail.

It's a proven fact.  DRM only hurt the publisher.

Oooookay.  I guess I just dreamt that the recent games that have caused such hellstorms of anti-DRM posts sold rather well.  Thanks.

I was going to buy Mass Effect, which looked to be really good until I found it had DRM with it. You could only activate it only 3 times too. Year or two ago I bought Supreme Commander and Command and Conquer, Tiberium Wars and they are great games. They didn’t come with DRM. I guess DRM is fairly new.

They sold well like the early Starforce games did.

Try looking up older Starforce related game sales.  Some of them number in the 100's, (Not even 6 figures or 5) quite sadly.

Once word gets around about a product, kiss your ass goodbye.

People were fooled for a while about Starforce, just like they were fooled about Secu-rom.

But, the word is out now.

The requirement for activations is 'new'. Some form of copy protection isn't. I really hate putting the disk in the drive to play though.

Errr, Spore is directly target at casual players (people with less mind than sims players) to get more money (you know, rather than have a brilliant game). They don't care about DRM, Spore will make all the money they want it to make. EVEN IF every proper gamer didn't buy spore, it would make FAR more money than it would the other way around. Word up: Casual market is more prophitable than the true market. EA dons't think we are worth enough.

You evil, evil person. Some poor sap will buy the returned game and only have 2 (or 4) activations left... How do you sleep at night???

I guess it is no different to me registering an account and returning the game and then someone else buying it and not being able to register their serial...

It's really more of a reflection on EB's "rental" policy then any publisher I guess...

So what?  Casual players are people without much knowledge of gaming.  They aren't mindless sheep like you imply; casuals come in many forms.  Doctors, lawyers, dentists, people who don't have but maybe 1 hour a week at most to play a game.

These people still have a brain, and a bad game with bad drm will reach them, because word of mouth does extend from friends.

To put it bluntly, a casual player would buy maybe one game a year.  And they would buy a game that would last a long time.

The Sims 2 was a huge success because they could buy it, start a family, and play forever.

A casual gamer isn't as stupid as you think.  A game like bejeweled 2 or Peggle would be more exciting and longer lasting then Spore.

agreed... my wife who is not a gamer has been playing those 2 for at least a year or more now...

You think casual players have time to read forums all day? They may be put off by amazon but that isn't the only place to buy spore.

When I say less mind, I was just humoursly insulting a diffrent class of players, you need to lighten up, get some skill at the internet, lol. Im regularly insulted by console players and versious other groups I meet (not the idiot 12 year olds, the good people).

...

The 'word' about SecuROM has been out for years.  Games using it continue to sell hundreds of thousands if not millions of copies.  You've compared Spore to Daikatana in another topic which I think should be evidence enough that you have no idea what you're talking about on this subject.

In summation:

DRM = bad

Lying about how games using DRM are selling terribly and are a quickly dying breed = also bad

I don't know about ya'll, but I like to be able to pick up my game 10 years after I get them.  I still put Earthsiege 2 and Xwing Alliance on my computer when I'm in the right mood.  If I had the ability, I'd start an Airwarrior (not 2, not 3, just Airwarrior) server if it would let me.  I miss playing with buttloads of people, and buttloads of planes.  Duke Nukem 3d?  Come get some.  Star Control?  Wel...you get the idea.

In all fairness, SecuROM only recently switched from selling disc-checks to phone-home systems (BioShock was the first popular example).