sprocket i/o

So, my coworkers are chatting outside about how great Spore is. They mention that the CD comes with both Mac and Windows versions, which is atypical of EA, but exceptionally relevant to me. So, I watch the videos, read the reviews, and then decide to go buy it. They also mention that it is available for direct download, so I figure that this would save me a trip to the local game store. So, I start the process by clicking on this button from the Spore website:

Which leads me to another button:

Soon I see the holy grail, it is indeed available as a direct download for $49.95:

Then I am asked for what language the game is in:

And voila, it is added to my cart:

Yay, Spore for the PC is soon on it’s way! I had to laugh at the Comic Mischief bit here. Here is where it got ugly. It insists on using something called the EA Download Manager. It provides a nice link to click to download it, but .. it’s an .EXE file. What the heck am I supposed to do with this:

So, I fire off a friendly note to EA tech support, asking “I just bought Spore online for my Mac, but the EA Download Manager only works in Windows? Can I download the Mac version using a Windows machine?“. Their reply was swift and must have been automated:

QUESTION: When will Spore be available from the EA Store?

Answer: Spore and Spore the Galactic Edition will be shipped from the EA Store on the release date posted. If this date falls upon a weekend, it will be shipped the next business day.
Spore is currently available for PC as a Direct Download pre-load from www.eastore.com and will be available on the date of release. The Direct Download is typically available after 10 AM PST (Pacific Standard Time)

Oddly enough, I never got an e-mail notification for this message. Today, after doing research and finding other people in the same boat, I elaborated and asked: “That didn’t answer my question. It’s available for PC, which I have, but it seems to be Windows only. When can I download it for my PC running Mac OS X? I never saw anywhere that said that I had to have Windows to download this game.. ”

Looking around EA’s site, it seems that the gaming industry has redefined the term PC (Personal Computer) to mean a machine running Microsoft Windows. Nevermind anyone running Linux or Mac OS X. While the button I clicked on was advertising a product that was available for PC/Mac, the resulting product appears to be Windows-specific, although none of the pages said the word ‘Windows’ anywhere. Only later after sending this off did I notice that the System Requirements page for the Spore Direct Download are different than the System Requirements page for Spore.

So far, it appears that you have to download the Mac version from another company: Direct2Drive. If you buy the physical CD, you will of course still get both a Mac and Windows version of Spore. In effect, the download version is charging you the same price for half the product. I’ll post an update once I get a decent answer from Electronic Arts. So far I feel like I have been bait and switched.

Update

:

After I posted this, I stumbled across Matt Balara’s blog, who ran into the same issue. It seems that if you ask in a particular format, you will be refunded.

Update 2

:

After a week, they finally refunded my money. Yippy!