Crassmaster: Spore was also a game that garnered a fair number of sales through sheer hype. That game was being talked up for what seemed like a good year prior to being released.
I pre-ordered it and canceled my pre-order when I pirated that Australian version that came out a week early. I will admit I did that, the hype was so bad since like 2004 that I went stir-crazy and saw that on Demonoid, so I hopped on it. Turns out Spore was a total lie, I was lucky to get a chance to try my 'demo'. Saved myself form biting the bullet but bought Spore and it's space expansion later on because my little cousin loves playing it. Cost me $70 but at least my cousin paid for half. Still felt like a ripoff to me.
They only released the Creature Editor (sold it for $10!!!!) and that didn't show the sucky gameplay, so it was EA and Will Wright playing their cards smart to get the most sales before bad reviews came out. So doesn't this all add up to Spore becoming a failed project, they predicted it, delayed an extra year then took the money and ran? I think so. Will Wright just sucks nowadays after he made Sims and he needs to be lit on fire.
EDIT: Oh yeah, DRM sucks. Spore was more proof that you lose more than you gain from DRM. Had to add this since this is the Ubisoft DRM thread. Oh and Ubisoft sucks nowadays, gotta add that too or else this would be an attempted hijacking of a thread by being off topic :)