http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173495

It seems that for Electronic Arts and Maxis, it's a case of once bitten, twice shy. Rod Humble, executive producer of the Sims series, has confirmed that The Sims 3 will not use digital rights management (DRM) for copy protection.

"The game will have disc-based copy protection -- there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed," Humble explained in a post on The Sims 3 website (via Eurogamer). "We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future."

For those with short memories, EA and Maxis ran into a big public opinion debacle when Spore released last year, as players lashed out against what many argued was an unreasonably strict use of DRM in the game. Clearly, it's a situation they'd like to avoid repeating at all costs with The Sims 3.

The Sims 3 launches on the PC on June 2.

This is great news for me, since I was not planning on buying the game because EA is well know for their DRM.  Now that they say there is no DRM (except cd-key) I am considering it again.

So they learned, haven't they?

Sims 3 will still be downloaded millions of times simply because it's the Sims.

i can'nt to play it.

sorry is i can't wait to play it.

Also another good news is they won't put this crap on Dragon Age (which for me is milions times more important than anything sims related)

After seeing the new Dragon Age trailer, I'm not sure I'll be buying it anyway.

Don't worry it's just opium for masses to draw them into buying hardcore RPG.

I hope they have finally realize that the drm was turning people off to buying legal copies. When the free version has no limited installs, no online registration for a single player game, no rootkits or unwanted processes running in the background, no online authenticate check everytime you start the game and no leaving the drm in the computer when you uninstall the game. Why would anyone pay for the hassle and the risk for a game that may screw up a system and be a general pain in the ass to get working. If they keep a cd-key only drm i will be buying more pc games instead of getting them for the consols.