I don't cheat myself, but if someone wanted to cheat on a single player game, why would EA care? It's not really any of their business what people do on their own.

This is Lame, Didn't EA learn from Spore?

So when my Craptastic er... Comcastic internet connection goes down again, I guess I'll just read a book or something. Not like I actually wanted to play that came I spent 50-60 bucks on. EA just has no freaking clue how to run a successful gaming company anymore. How many more ways can they find to alienate their customer base?

Yaay, another game I wont buy... I swear these game developers dont like their customers at all and are willing to treat them all like thieves... And for what, because someone who will never buy their game steals it? I dont agree with playing a game you dont buy, but I also dont agree with DRM and working in policies that only hurt your loyal customers... Yet again I will let my wallet do the talking... There are many times the servers are slow or are not responding, and I wont be able to play the game. It only takes once to really piss anyone off to the point of frustration... I would rather not put myself in that situation and just buy games from developers who listen to their customers and sell them something they want and wont stop working on them the second something is out of line...

Does that mean that the game has a service that runs at startup and communicates with the internet at all times? Does this mean my computer must be turned on all the time. No thanks, there's enough big-brother-ware on a Windows PC, I see no reason why these game developers should be considered that trustworthy, or that capable of secure programming.

And to think, I bought C&C3 twice, Kanes Wrath twice, Red Alert 3 twice, along with every past command and conquer game (even the gold editions) and I wont buy C&C4 no matter how many times they say it will be the last one on principle alone...

so when your ISP borks and it's not your fault...say regular maintenance, lightning storm, or rats chewed your cable line, you can't play the game??!!?

or how about laptop users who want to play during a trip?

this new gaming "requirement" is making me VERY VERY angry on one of the most anticipated game....

Just a mean for cable companies to charge you overage fee.

Given the success of WoW it seems that there is a huge market where requiring the internet is not an issue.

Pirating is absolutely an issue here. It's much easier to get a cd key that works offline illegally.

Add another "FREE" game I'll be downloading once the hackers find a way around this; and they WILL. My reason: I play games mostly @ work (yeah, I'm lucky), and our firewall blocks EVERYTHING so obviously I only play single player stuff.

Thanks Blizzard/Activision & EA, 2009/2010 will surely feel nice on the wallet.

This is so ridiculous. I know plenty of people without internet that do own gaming computers.

I'd like to know where they got their numbers from, because the only areas I can think of where everyone has internet is big cities, which is about 5% of the world's land mass. There are many places where you have to use satellite or 3g options, both very bandwidth limited and expensive.

Granted that most folks have high speed internet these days, but what if someone has no internet? Or if they want to play on their laptop and can't get WiFi or whatever for some reason. This is just stupid in my opinion.

Someday we'll need constant internet for our shower to work, so someone can constantly monitor the water temperature for us or something ridiculous like that. I know that's an outrageous comparison, but who knows what will come in the next 50 years or so.

I have no doubt that the piracy groups will be this protection and find a way to trick the online checks. So who does this hurt in the end? The gamers that actually paid for the game.

The idea that one should be required to be connected to the internet at all times when playing the single player portion of the game is absolutely absurd. If the game constantly checks for a connection then even just a small bleep can ruin all that you did before your last save.

Well this is stupid, instead of getting it I will get the cracked version that will have this "feature" removed! I hope they lose money because of this "feature."

"C&C4 will require an "always on" Internet connection, however the game will ship without DRM."

thats like saying "we're going to outlaw driving, however we will no longer police traffic infringements"

this IS DRM! its the worst type yet! and the truly think it isn't!??
JUST BECAUSE WOW HAS A BAZILION PLAYERS, DOESN'T MEAN WE ALL PLAY EXPENSIVE, BORING MMOS!!!!! and we DON'T all have net access all the time, you CAN'T make a game that requires net access and expect it to be played at lan's.

maybe they are right tho, its not like starcraft or diablo was ever popular at lans............

one less player here,, if it happens. But this is such a horrible idea that it will never happen.

Bloody EA I have payed for two and tree of the same games just so I could home or net party there games with my friends for years then they brought in DRM and now they want internet conection all the time Well I am still boycotting EA The way the world econimy is going I cannaot aford to be spending the 4 to 5 thousand a year like i use to on computers and games So I have limited internet access and the games now I choose two or three a year now makeing sure one of them is a role playing long term game with months of constant play and more visits to my arcives to play old games that dont need the conection to the internet
I am on my 4th run of Obivion with a different carecter with my 2nd run on the X3 terran Conflicked I have cut out EA games with C&C, Red Alert and all those old good war games So I still refuse to pirate any
Again well done you bunch of Donkies :-)
Gazz

Sounds like DRM to me.

right...

My personal opinion is if the game is good enough, and the price is right, this type of DRM is okay with me. I'd rather this internet connection requirement than a STARFORCE root kit or the like. I truly wanted GTA 4 for the PC but will not buy because of the rootkit DRM.

Uggh. If it was a 1 time purchase, cool. If there was the ability to 'demo' with 'limited abilities', good.

Not sure I trust EA to make the 'right' choices.

If this is only intended so that it'll update your stat? they should think about their customers who don’t care how many times you win or lose the game or cheated the game.

"how about laptop users who want to play during a trip?" well I'm that person.

Another disappointment with EA for me. If it wasn't for C&C I would have stop purchasing their products since The Sims game. May be this time it definite no-no.

Well another stellar franchise's run at my household is about to come to an end. Yeah, I love C&C - have them all, including Dune - but I am not going to put up with this crap. What if my internet is down, or I am downloading data and bandwidth is being used? This is simply ridiculous. It's like they want us to pirate the damn thing. For years now I've been hearing that PC Gaming is dieing, and I just laughed; but now I am starting to believe it. These greedy bastards are the ones that are killing it for us. No problem though, I have accumulated many games over the years that can hold me over til these jackasses come to their senses, that is if we can all stick together on this and not give in to the shit they are shoveling to us. Don't piss down my neck and tell me its raining. A spade is a spade, and a DRM is a DRM. Let them take a bite out of their shit sandwich. I myself am staying away from it.

Oh! man, one good reason for this "always on" is like to alway cheack that you have a valid key for your copy. Good bye to the guys who download a copy from bit torrent site and copy the crack over the original exe program.

I think I understand EA, they selling game to make money, not to make fan. If this business model make more revenue for them, all the game release after this will use this feature.

Good bye, pirate guy.

i want to slap ea.

Another stupid move that will hurt legit buyers more while pirated copies of the game wont have any of this BS.

What about us in the military that deploy? Quite a few of us bring our laptops there with games, preferrably new games. We don't have internet out there to connect to. Thanks for the support EA! =/

Wow, the gaming companies are trying their best to kill off PC gaming for good. I have always purchased or requested/received as gifts what I considered to be the best PC games (Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to name just a few). Everything I see happening with PC games recently is totally driving me away from them .... the DRM nonsense with Spore, no LAN in Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2 and now this crap. It's complete nonsense what these companies are doing. When I purchase a game, I should be able to install it and play it without the internet and I shouldn't be limited to 3 installs. It's ridiculous that with all these advances in computers and networking that the companies are stepping backwards and giving us crippled software.

I'd like to know what benefit I'm getting for my single player mode if I'm going to be spending my precious download quota by simply running the game. Also who cares if I cheat on a single player mode? Perhaps cheating is my way of enjoying the single player to the fullest. Seems to me this is simply a DRM device. Sorry EA not gonna waste my quota just so you can be sure I've bought my copy. It's a shame really because I did want to buy this one...