EA Comes to Impulse!

By Island Dog Posted September 11, 2009 15:59:47

Impulse is proud to announce the addition of the Electronic Arts catalog to its growing library of games. Today sees the release of The Sims 3, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Uprising, and Spore.

In The Sims 3, every Sim is now a truly unique person, with a distinct personality. Will your Sims be evil, artistic, insane, and romantic kleptomaniacs? It’s entirely up to you. Influence the behaviors of your Sims with traits you’ve chosen and watch how their traits impact their relationships and the neighborhood around them. Combine over 60 personality traits to create millions of unique Sims and control their lives. The Sims 3 is available for $49.95 at: http://www.impulsedriven.com/sims3.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 continues the alternative history strategy series with yet another tweak to the timeline. Facing certain defeat, with the Allies at their doorstep, a desperate Soviet leadership uses its own experimental time machine to save themselves. Going back in time, they ensure that the Allies never gain their technological advantage, saving their future selves. However, like all changes to the timeline, this has unforeseen consequences. Fight as the Allies, Soviets or the all-new Empire of the Rising Sun in this action-packed real-time strategy game. Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 is available for $29.95 at http://www.impulsedriven.com/redalert3.

In Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Uprising, players learn what happened in the aftermath of Red Alert 3. This stand-alone expansion pack adds four all-new campaigns, more star-studded live-action movies to tell the ongoing Red Alert story as well as an all-new Commander’s Challenge mode where players must withstand the brutal onslaught of the world’s toughest commanders. Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Uprising is available for $19.95 at http://www.impulsedriven.com/ra3uprising.

In Will Wright’s PC masterpiece, Spore, players take an amazing journey of creation as they guide their creature through five stages of evolution. Unleash your imagination as you make fantastical creatures, vehicles, buildings and spaceships. Players can show off creations and everything you make can be shared and used by other players. Explore your world and beyond with Spore, now available for $39.95 at: http://www.impulsedriven.com/spore.

+80 Karma 113 Replies 5 Referrals

Whoa EA? [e digicons]8(|[/e]

What happened to not supporting Draconian DRM on Impulse?

SD are no longer the independent developer they once were. Now they're just like EA.

well, maybe they got EA to be like "well, maybe impulse is enough drm" and they got rid of it?

(wishfull thinking, prolly though...)

now... since I already have one of those games... can I get it onto my impulse account... (or somehting like that)

edit: just be glad Impulse is not steam... *shudders*

Emperor_Seth

reply 2

SD are no longer the independent developer they once were. Now they're just like EA.

Bwhahahahahaha....

Troll.[e digicons]:troll:[/e]

Rishkith

reply 1

Whoa EA? [e digicons]8(|[/e]

What happened to not supporting Draconian DRM on Impulse?

Some of the designers are using GOO, such as capcom on RE5, let's hope ea follows suit. I personally was suprised about re5 on impulse, definately a positive trend.

And once again only for america [e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]

Steam is the way to go for non-americans, it seems.

At no point did we ever say we wouldn't sell products on Impulse if they used a given DRM solution. Please do not confuse our own development and publishing principles with what we do as a digital store. They're two very different things.

The Gamers Bill of Rights (what you're likely referring to) or our numerous statements regarding the efficacy of DRM solutions have only ever been in reference to the products we develop or publish ourselves. It is our personal stance on the subject for products we have control over. We do not dictate to other publishers and developers how they must behave.

Impulse goes beyond just Stardock products.

Pbhead

reply 3

well, maybe they got EA to be like "well, maybe impulse is enough drm" and they got rid of it?

(wishfull thinking, prolly though...)

It is. Every single one of the games has SecuROM (and Sims 3 doesn't have it on the retail disc, although there is a disc check). No indication what will be used (if anything) on Dragon Age. I just don't understand what EA is thinking. Impulse should be protection enough.

And yeah, what Zoomba said.

I think it's neat that EA has come to Impulse. Perhaps they will see what Stardock has done, and take note (I hope). If they do take note, then EA's DRM regulations may, in the very least, lighten.

Personally, once I begin getting some more cash and managing my banking (teenager here), I think that I will get C&C RA3&RA3:Uprising, along with Genesis Rising, GalCiv II Ultimate Edition, SoaSE:Bundle, Evochron Legends, perhaps 'Aaaa: Blatant Disregard for Gravity', and Light of Altair.

Gonna need a lot of cash then.

Just checked Red Alert 3. It has Securom. So there's two forms of protection!!??!! TWO forms of DRM. Securom and Impulse.

Count me out.

At least Impulse by itself is tolerable. Adding to it is not!!

Coelocanth

reply 8

That the retail edition only has a disc check is irrelevant, since the digital version has Securom no matter where you buy it.

I hope to see the Sims 3 expansion up for preorder eventually too. I really didn't expect EA to come onboard, great news Stardock! (I can't stand EA Downloader, though I do prefer buying direct. At least EA Downloader works right now, but it's still crap.)

I was excited about this announcement, then I saw the SecuRom. Given that there is no disk to check, I assume this is the exact same Activations scheme they've implemented in their store and on some of their retail releases?

I guess EA doesn't respect Stardock as much as Valve. (EA did release some games on Steam with Steam's DRM only.) Admittedly, Steam does DRM the executables themselves while Impulse does not, so perhaps that is the reason. I guess someone needs to get EA to sit down with Stardock's Gamers Bill of Rights.

Sadnasser

reply 10

Just checked Red Alert 3. It has Securom. So there's two forms of protection!!??!! TWO forms of DRM. Securom and Impulse.

Count me out.

At least Impulse by itself is tolerable. Adding to it is not!!

So you just said two forms of DRM and only listed one. How does that work?

Impulse isn't loaded to play the game, and it doesn't load anything when you play the game, so it isn't DRM at all.

a) Stardock has the right to put whatever they want on Impulse

b) We have the right to buy or not to buy. I choose not to buy anything with Securom.

c) What Stardock does right, and the other services don't, is that they gave us upfront, without hoops, what you're getting with what you're buying. Steam sorta does this now also, Gamersgate is way behind on this. This is why all other things being equal, Impulse gets my business (the problem with Impulse is not enough things I want on there, but that will change)

Really, it isn't Stardock's job to crusade for us against draconian DRM. That's our job. It is Stardock's job to give us honest information on what we're buying, and they do. So is the waaaahmublance really necessary here?

In fact, this incentivizes people to use less intrusive DRM on Impulse: Capcom being the best example- they use Securom everywhere but Impulse, where they use GOO.

Quick question: On Dragon Age, is the DRM not finalized yet or is it not using DRM?

Also i don't think Impulse counts as protection, it's just a means of paying and downloading really. It's not DRM by itself.

I'm just glad 99% of the universe has killed off Starforce. Whether or not Securom is acceptable usually depends on personal ideology. Whether or not Starforce is acceptable depends on how often you had games refuse to work because of it. (Tages is only slightly better than Starforce, but at least it's better. Still worse than Securom though.)

Any chance to get Dragon Ages Deluxe (Director's) Edition on Impulse?

Since EA is brining Securom they should just leave [e digicons]>[/e]

arstal

reply 14

Quick question: On Dragon Age, is the DRM not finalized yet or is it not using DRM?

Stated on the BioWare boards by BioWare devs that it's not SecuROM or Tages, but just a simple disc check. Now, seeing as that was the same thing used on the Sims 3 and it turned up here with SecuROM, my money's on Dragon Age getting SecuROM as well. But only time will tell. I'm sure the info will be on Impulse as soon as Stardock knows.

EA games on steam don't have securom... cept for Crysis. God I hate EA

Woo EA on Impulse. Too bad EA have restricted their availability. [e digicons]>[/e]

Any chance to get Dragon Ages Deluxe (Director's) Edition on Impulse?

I think that deluxe digital edition is an exclusive EA Store offer. Perhaps they'll offer the extra quests as dlc later anyway.

Even beyond the DRM there is the issue of the rest of EA's multitudes of sleaze that as a company I wouldn't want to be associated with lest I be mocked at the next PAX convention.

Take for instance EA's appearance in today's CAD webcomic.

Rishkith

reply 21

Why is this a big deal all of a sudden? I understand a lot of people have a hate on for EA, and I'm no fan either, but they're not the first publisher to have third party DRM on an Impulse title. See Sacred 2 for an example. I don't see why the fact that EA has SecuROM on their Impulse titles suddenly means you lose respect for Impulse.

Rishkith

reply 21

Sorry, having EA spreading its abusive DRM around on Impulse just made me lose a lot of respect for it. Not enough for me to stop buying from it, but it will make me 10x more cautious about any purchase I make on there.

Even beyond the DRM there is the issue of the rest of EA's multitudes of sleaze that as a company I wouldn't want to be associated with lest I be mocked at the next PAX convention.

Take for instance EA's appearance in today's CAD webcomic.

I personally love that impulse puts the DRM up in the title area!

Congratulations stardock, pretty major development.

Too bad RA3 is north america only.... impulse is quite possibly the only way i would consider buying it

Thrawn2787

reply 17

Since EA is brining Securom they should just leave

So those millions of us who buy EA games and Stardock should suffer because you don't like them? Uh huh. I'm going to be scratching my head at that logic for a while.

Go tell that to a retail store chain, watch them laugh in your face.