http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/03/18/ea_follows_ubisoft_will_sell_titles_with_always_on_drm
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=239583
http://forums.commandandconquer.com/jforum/posts/list/35920.page
"Good job!", EA. And the same for you, Ubisoft!
That's the way it's going: punish the legitimate paying customers, while the pirates play the same for free and without the drm hassle.
EA titles for 2010:
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (C&C4 is the first using this online drm).
Crysis 2
Medal of Honor (2010)
Dead Space 2
etc.

To be fair, we don't know if it is going to be every title. As it stands, one can hope that it will only be the multiplayer-oriented titles that do this.

To be honest, like Activision, I am not fond of EA's games so I don't care.
But I hope Dead Space 2 will be left alone!

Yes, we don't know yet. That's why the thread title got an interrogation mark.
But it is already annoying if you're waiting for one or more of the 2010 titles.

They announced it long ago, so I don't think they are really "following". I think they were saying something about gathering information about strategies used by the players or some similarly unconvincing excuse.
We shall see how much further this method will go before being considered as complete failure by everyone (including the people that are promoting it now).

Afterdawn is the only source (on the entire Internet far as I can see) that claims upcoming titles will do this, and they don't actually cite anything, so I'm calling bullshit.

To be fair DRM on EA games are really something that EA probably doesn't choose, but the individual devs themselves. The Sims 3 had no DRM but BC2 had SecuROM. Mass Effect 2 only had a disk check. So any of this would either be speculatory or EA wants more micromanagey control of their games.

Seems like they are largely leaving it up to the devs, yes, which is awesome. That or just doing what's best for each game.

Yeah, I agree. EA has taken big steps in the opposite direction lately. They have one game (C&C 4) using this server DRM model, and now I'm supposed to just take at face value one sole little site reporting this to be the permanent way forward?

Given what they did to C&C4 and may do to other games by using the same DRM, I think we can rule out the possibility of them doing the 'best' for each title. It does also mean that Crysis 2 will probably be completely unplayable thanks to Crytek living up to its name by crying about piracy being responsible for low Crysis sales (which is bullshit).

I'm just glad that Bioware haven't used this system yet.
Given that they are EA owned, there is always the risk that the optional things like Cerberus Network could be made mandatory always-online style.
Mind you, they're still moving against second-hand gamers.

Sadly C&C has become a multiplayer focussed game first and thats the one instance where a lot of this online shit is more acceptable or at least mildly less objectionable
As I've said before, I'd love to take the developers of these systems and make them live in rural australia, then we'd see some interesting changes in their ideas of what an acceptable protection system is

Yeah but not giving second hand users free stuff but leaving them the option to buy it is a fuck of a lot better than just denying the concept of people wanting to sell their games once they've finished with them and taking every step possible to block the games from functioning

Better, definitely. But I'm still unsure of it.
I've only had Dragon Age with this system, and if I hadn't got any of the DLC for free, I don't think it would have bothered me too much, but having Shale was possibly the best bit of the game.
My problem is the potential for bad publishers to try and use this system to milk money out of second-hand game sales, or destroy them altogether, by making key game parts DLC.
Wouldn't affect me too much, I buy the vast majority of my games new, but there are others who may be affected a lot in future. Just being cautious.
This C&C and Ubisoft crap is far worse though for single-player games. I like the fact I can play 20+ year old games without too much hassle, but will any of us be able to play these games in the future?

C&C4 was announced to require a persistent Internet connection far before Ubisoft announced their DRM scheme.

What they think is best, I mean. :)
Again, this 'news' has no merit, so consider Crysis 2 unaffected.
AC2 may show up on GOG. :)
C&C4 seems like it might not be possible due to how the game has been designed.