I was really looking forward to playing Crysis: Warhead, the new Crysis stand-alone expansion, due for release this week. I had pre-ordered a copy some time ago but, yesterday, I canceled my pre-order. Why? because, after reading the requirements shown in the backcover of the US version posted in Crymod, I don't like the DRM copy protection it seems it's going to have, with online activation required (and I read in Amazon's forum it will also have limited number of installs as Spore, another recent EA's game).

I buy a lot of games, I think developers deserve being paid for their work, and I really liked the original Crysis game (which I happily paid for). I'm sure I'd enjoy Crysis: Warhead, it looks great, but I don't like this new DRM methods, which punish the legitimate customer, in a lost battle against illegal copies. People with illegal copies don't suffer any of this, while paying customers have to. I don't want to be forced to activate my game online just to install a single player game on my PC, depending on an internet connection and the publisher's external server, when there's no real need for this requirement. The limited number of installations goes even beyond annoying, If Crysis: Warhead's DRM includes this too, it would be another huge reason for me not to buy it.

So, sadly, I won't be playing Crysis: Warhead, and my money will go to another game (I've pre-ordered Far Cry 2, from Ubisoft, which I hope won't have this kind of DRM and looks great) [update: Far Cry 2 DID include the same kind of DRM so, sadly, I canceled my pre-order too]