I agree, they will lose a lot of business if they include an install of SecuROM with their games. The only games that I tend to buy are The Sims games and Harry Potter, both by EA. I've never had any real issues with their games, and I've only had to reinstall The Sims 2 once or twice due to errors (lucky me, and cross fingers). I've been reading up on SecuROM issues (
Simmers Against Securom) with computers and it sounds to me like buying the games would be more trouble than it's worth. I was looking forward to buying Apartment Life because it comes out the day after my birthday, so I would have treated myself to it, and played it all weekend but it doesn't look like I'll be doing that now, unless they decide not to include SecuROM.
I think that if anyone has issues with these games, like the ones that are highlighted in the articles that I have read, they're not going to want to buy any of the expansions, because of all of the problems they cause and EA will lose a LOT of money on a game that without the SecuROM program, is sure to be an absolute success.
Why did they have to change their security software over to SecuROM from the much better, less interfering Safedisk?
Having SecuROM censure what we can and cannot use with our computers is a violation of our rights. Why won't they let us use our CD/DVD Burners to store precious family moments and back up our files in case we lose them? Why do they really need to disable firewalls, and anti-virus programs leaving us open to attacks if their precious program can't work with them?
Most of Simmers use their software legally, and shouldn't be treated like common criminals because they like play the games that they pay for and may have to reinstall it because it's buggy.