I was at the dentist today with some time to think and I finally realized what Troonguard is all about. DRM, and EA having plausible deniability for wasting money, and nothing else.
EA is pushing this as a AAA title. They agreed with Bioware when they asked to not have anything but the most minor of DRM, pretending to be pro-consumer while hating them just as much as they always have. The reason that EA supported this is not because they have decided to listen to the game companies, or the players, but because they wanted a stalking horse. They knew the game was screwed and a black hole for money after so many rewrites and directors/producers, so they decided to make it useful for other purposes, without essentially losing anything in the end. They let them pos the neg hole of this game to the extreme, and they knew the pos loaded media would lap it up like the dogs they are because it fits their agenda.
They know the game will fail like no tomorrow because of the pos loading, but, in the end, they will blame it on the lack of DRM, everyone just pirated it rather than buying it. The media will jump on that narrative like a starving dog with a steak because they can preserve their narrative of the game being amazing and now they have an out for why it failed. EA will use this as the pretext for putting Ultra Hyper Mega Denuvo Triple Pozzed DRM from that point forward on all their titles. When anyone complains they will just point to Troonguard and say, "Look, we tried it your way, with a genuine AAA title, and the pirating was so severe the game tanked. We can't ever do that again! Do you know how much money that cost us?!" EA will say it was rampant piracy that destroyed the profitability of the game on their earnings call and write it off.
EA gets to save face on spending all that money on a total turd, push ultra DRM for all time moving forward, and have a "plausible" reason on its face for why they had to write it off, those damn pirates! The media gets their ultra pozzed game and they get to blame and hate on a group they already despise, the pirates, without having to admit the game failed from the pos loading rather than piracy. The pirates will make the game available, but 5 total copies will actually be downloaded, and the pirates will be able to show "Look, a whole 5 copies were downloaded! We weren't responsible for this game failing, it was just a piece of shit and EA knows it!" EA won't say anything in response to them and issue a press release that the pirates are just desperate to cover their asses. The media will not report the pirates position on the situation. The normies will believe the filthy pirates are attacking companies, causing inflation, eating babies, etc... So all the bad guys win, and the innocent party, the pirates, get blamed for something they didn't do. In the end, for EA, it is a win/win/win situation all around. The second best possible outcome for them next to a game actually making money.
Feel free to give me all the hats if you think this is just a transient episode of paranoid schizophrenia.