Electronic Arts hops onto Impulse

When we talk about PC gaming as a big picture, it's virtually impossible to avoid the topic of piracy and how to fight it: being an open platform means being especially open to piracy, so what to do?

To some at least, Electronic Arts have become known in recent times the PC game realm as experimenters in this capacity, particularly this year. Between free-to-play microtransaction-based models like Battleforge, or advertising-based ones like Battlefield Heroes, or just the plain ol' digital rights management (DRM)-free games like The Sims 3, they're certainly starting to make a good name for themselves, at least, though many gamers are still more than reticent to take such moves in good stride.

Moving forward on this front, the company has just now signed onto Stardock's digital distribution service Impulse, following on their deal with Valve's Steam last year. This is particularly notable because Impulse is regarded by a fair portion of the gaming community as much more DRM and therefore gamer friendly than Steam -- whereas the latter often requires an Internet connection to play your game beyond the initial download (Offline Mode has its limits), Impulse requires it only for game downloads and updates, and the same goes for the client.

Sadly, EA's Impulse games -- The Sims 3, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Uprising, and Spore -- still have SecuROM protection, which many of us aren't fond of, in addition to regional restrictions it seems, but hey, it's a start. Also, Dragon Age fans may be excited to know that one is currently available for pre-order (and will be mostly DRM-free).

The news follows the launch of Impulse Phase IV on Wednesday, which sees improved performance and usability, a re-designed website (which borrows a disturbing amount of its look from Good Old Games), and "Ready to Play", a free program designed for quick and easy matchmaking.