Consumer rights advocate blasts EA over Dead Space 2 DRM lockouts

New York-based right-to-repair and consumer rights advocate Louis Rossmann has strongly criticized EA for using strict, legacy DRM with a limit of five active installations. Previously, users could deauthorize their product keys using a deauthorization tool via EA support, but the company has confirmed that the activation reset tool was removed years ago. Despite this, EA’s 2011 title Dead Space 2 is still available on Steam for $19.99, with no mention of the removal of this support, which has infuriated Louis Rossmann.

Dead Space 2 owners get permanently locked out by restrictive DRM

In a new YouTube video uploaded a few days ago titled “EA Shows Why Piracy Is Completely Justified,” Rossmann went over the activation limit problem a gamer had shared with him via email. Dead Space 2 uses the TAGES SolidShield DRM system.

As documented by the Consumer Rights Wiki, Dead Space 2 owners are limited to five machine activations. Once all the slots are used, often due to changes to storage, GPU upgrades, Windows reinstalls, or hard drive failures, gamers are essentially locked out. This is because EA support has confirmed that it removed the activation reset tool years ago. Nevertheless, the game still sells for $19.99 on Steam, and the support page has not been updated to mention the removal of the Dead Space 2 authorization key activation reset tool.

Despite a broken DRM solution on Dead Space 2, EA still sells the game on Steam

Rossmann read an email from a German gamer who bought the game on Steam, only to be told that reactivating the game is entirely impossible. Rossmann didn’t mince words, tearing into the company. He put it very clearly and said:

“You (EA) can still take my credit card information and take my money for the game, but you can’t support me being able to activate the game. Like, it’s one or the other, man. You can just pull this sh**t out of your a** and make up the rules as you go.”

He displayed the Steam store page, which still carries the original disclaimer stating that players can deauthorize machines at activate.ea.com/deauthorize. However, clicking this link redirects you to the company’s home page.

Rossmann continued, “They actually still have the online disclaimer that they had when they were still supporting the game. It doesn’t say that it’s no longer supported in this f**king game description.”

Louis described the best-case scenario, stating, “I wouldn’t have a problem with this if they said, ‘We aren’t making money off of this, or almost nobody’s buying this. So, because it’s an old game and because we’ve chosen to get rid of the activation server, click this link to download a patch that removes all DRM from the game.’”

Louis explained that if EA truly wasn’t making money off one of its hit horror games, Dead Space 2, to this day, then the other argument still holds: there is no reason to keep such restrictive DRM in the game. Essentially, EA wants to “have their cake and eat it too.”

EA’s ‘hypocrisy’ cited as one of the reasons piracy is growing

Rossmann argued that this level of corporate hypocrisy across the wider gaming industry, not just at EA, is why piracy is growing. He continued, “And above all, it’s returning as a moral and ethical way to regain access to what you bought and paid for.”

For now, Dead Space 2 is still on sale with no forewarning of the DRM lockout cap, even though Valve’s refund window is just two weeks, often long before gamers discover the lockout. No major regulators have stepped in so far. However, the ongoing revolution in EU consumer protection rules is giving gamers stronger grounds to demand that companies implement fixes or issue refunds.

Until then, for many gamers, the only viable route seems to be turning to the digital high seas to play what they have already paid for.