EA has released a tool which it hopes will bring an end to the controversy surrounding the authorisation limits packaged with its PC titles.‭

Ever since May last year,‭ ‬EA-published games such as Spore,‭ ‬Burnout Paradise,‭ ‬Mirror’s Edge and Crysis Warhead could only be fully installed on a limited number of PCs,‭ ‬as each game’s product key can only be authorised a set number of times‭ (‬usually no more than five‭)‬.

The system has proved remarkably unpopular,‭ ‬with a vocal complaint that EA’s own paying customers are the ones being punished for the publisher’s ongoing wrangle with piracy.‭ ‬Former Maxis developer Chris Harris described the initiative as a‭ "‬screw up‭"‬.‭

"From a PR point of view,‭ ‬this is a disaster,‭ ‬as they have come across like they have their fingers in their ears and aren't listening,‭” ‬he said.‭

Now EA has shown a change of heart.‭ ‬The company has released a downloadble tool that can combat its own DRM restrictions.

While EA’s‭ ‬De-authorization Management Tool‭ (‬DMT‭) ‬cannot change the number of installations each game is restricted to,‭ ‬it can remove individual authorisations,‭ ‬meaning that each game’s authorisations can be refilled and swapped between PCs.

The DMT doesn’t automatically uninstall games,‭ ‬allowing customers to simply re-authorise at a later date if they wish.

Links to download the tool can be found‭ ‬here.‭

A list of games affected by authorisation limits can be found‭ ‬here.

Last week,‭ ‬EA announced that it had‭ ‬abandoned plans to add any DRM technologies into its upcoming release,‭ ‬The Sims‭ ‬3.