Color me shocked. The outcry over the DRM on Spore has actually prompted a response from megapublisher EA. In a response carried on the MTV Multiplayer Blog, they say that a patch is coming soon that will allow end-users to de-authenticate the game on a given computer, letting you basically uninstall the game and get one of the 3 installs back. As if to demonstrate what a non-issue this is anyway they trot out some numbers to show how many installs Mass Effect, Spore Creature Creator, and Spore have all had and how a very tiny fraction of people did 3 installs. (I’m guessing that Mass Effect uses the same copy protection system Spore does.)

Other than that, they’ve promised that should they decide to turn off the authentication servers the game needs to contact to be playable they will patch the game to negate the DRM requirement for that.

While this response is impressive, there’s one thing that consumers deserve more than any of these promises: A clear description of all of every game’s DRM on the box. Go ahead and lock the game down seven ways to Sunday, but you’d better tell me about every one of them before I make a non-refundable no-recourse purchase. Until then, I don’t see why the anti-DRM folks should stop protesting.

Seen on the MTV Multiplayer Blog.