Gosh, all that hoo-hah about Bioshock’s limited number of installations and activation process seems like a long time ago, but I suspect it’s still an open wound for some folk. A vocal portion of Bioshock’s players were angry – “Ken Levine personally kicked my girlfriend to death” angry. Will they be any less angry now 2K’s lightened its infamously ruthless DRM (as promised many moons ago)?
Oh, probably not. Nevertheless, it’s progress.
“all activation restrictions, including install limits, have been removed from BioShock PC as of today. You don’t have to patch or install anything for this to go into effect for your copy of BioShock – it’s already done!”
So say they, and hooray say we.
Regardless of how crazy-harsh the DRM seemed at the time, removing it just 10 months from the game’s retail release isn’t bad going in the grand scheme of things, really – at least if you compare it to something like Blizzard removing the CD-check from Warcraft III 5 1/2 years on from release. [Edit - that bit was written before I ascertained the Securerom checks were indeed remaining in Bioshock. Leave me alone, meanies.]
Seems as though the game will still phone home when you install it before you can play, however – let’s hope the activation servers aren’t quietly switched off in a couple of years, or that 2K eventually provide an executable to bypass ‘em.
Edit, as there’s more to this story. So much for a quick, sleepy Sunday morning post to keep you bickersome lot fed until normal weekday service resumes. Sigh. 2K’s community manager Elizabeth Tobey, battling against the bellows of a number of Angry Internet Men, clarifies the situation further down the thread:
“Our other methods of copy protection remain. You will still have to activate your copy, and you will still need to keep the disc in the drive. SecuROM has not been removed — just the activation limits on number of installs and number of computers you can install BioShock on simultaneously.
As I promised that the activation limits would go away, I can promise that if we ever stop supporting BioShock in the ways you speak of, we will release a patch so that the game is still playable. I believe, as you seem to, that BioShock will be the kind of game we will want to revisit 5, 10, 15 or more years from now. I want my copy to be playable, just as you do, and so does 2K.”
And later still:
“I am not 100% certain that BioShock will be playable until the end of time, but I am very confident that our company knows how amazing this game is, and will respect that, and our loyal consumer base who loves this game right along with us.”
Well, it will be definitely playable until the end of time (or at least until a future version of Windows drops DX9/10 compatibility, or lizard-men take over the planet), but that’s because of third-party cracks that bypass the activation nonsense. I sorely hope 2K drops the online check come the budget release – it really will be silly to have to dial up the mothership for a £5 copy of Bioshock circa 2009.
As a sidenote, I also hope the PC version gets a patch to include the new levels, foes and introduction reportedly in the upcoming PS3 port. I couldn’t give a hoot about the extra Plasmids in the last patch, but more Rapture would be many splendids.
Anyway, I haven’t revisited Rapture in a while because I’m forever having to reinstall Windows for my tech writing, so had no idea where I was up to in Bioshock installations and really had no appetite for phone calls to 2K tech support. Perhaps this sudden unchaining may be my cue to see how the thing feels almost a year on, now free from the distractions of hype and backlash.
This seems a fine opportunity to post the below again. We don’t necessarily agree with the sentiment, but we definitely agree with the funny:
(Its creator is unknown to us, but we pinched it from here).
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its all a balancing act. I balance the DRM on my games to maximise revenue. Games aren’t super profitable generally, so you have to do that. If I can sell games to X people who would have otherwise copied them, and only X-1 people who would otherwise have bought the game refuse to do so, then it’s a win. ideally I’d find a way to sell to both groups.
The reason there is so much ranting, is that both sides have radically different opinions as to which number is higher. People who refuse to buy a game due to DRM are VERY vocal, whereas (not surprisingly) the casual pirates who end up buying bioshock are not at all vocal. These are the people not prepared to wait or go to massive lengths searching for eventual tricky cracks, so they aren’t the sort of people to get all aggressive about their principles regarding DRM. You also have to factor in a lot of people who make endless loud forum posts saying “no sale then” who then do indeed reluctantly buy a copy.
I wish no DRM was viable, and in a few limited cases it is, in exactly the same way that in some cases you can leave the money on the restaurant table and walk out, but in most retail and entertainment situations, they demand money up front and use security cameras, and security tags to enforce that rule.
I find that using very weak DRM (I use an internet unlocked code with unlimited reinstalls and re-downloads with no time limits or restrictions, and support format shifting where available) is the best setup for my stuff, but I defend the rights of devs in different genres to use stronger methods where they think it makes business sense.
I’m still not buying Bioshock. Nor am I buying Mass Effect or Spore. I’m just not interested in having that crap implanted in my computer’s system, at any level.
Oh, man, I loved Bioshock. I’m so glad I bought it when it first came out. It had some sort of DRM you say? Couldn’t have cared less.
Reply to Al3xand3r
Dodgy off line mode in Steam? As long as you’re not half way through a patch you can play off line as long as you want.
Reply to Corbeaubm
What crap exactly? You mean half a megabyte that works as a bean counter? Trust me. You’re getting much worse in your computer just logging on to the Internet. Cookies, spy ware, transmitting your IP address, flash for youtube, real player for the radio, a hundred different codecs and god knows what hides in the stuff you choose to download.
Reply to fluffy bunny
My experience exactly. Seriously, securom is nothing.
The offline mode in Steam is dodgy because it occasionally doesn’t let you log on offline at all. I’ve had moments where my computer was offline for a while and Steam decided that my games hadn’t been authenticated recently and so it would lock me out, without letting me use my games. So I had no Steam-based games until my next internet access. It’s not all fine and dandy.
In another point, copy protection like this is always inane and silly, and I fully agree with Alec’s point in this article. Punishing everyone for the sake of stopping the few is always a bad idea.
The DRM should have never been in.
And I wish developers realized how much DRM (and SecuROM particularly) hurts sales. I can’t even begin to guess how many STDs are being wished on the SecuROM guys by a (totally unknown) percentage of the Mass Effect buyers.
Yeah, from me too. But only as a Company of Heroes buyer who bought the expansion only to discover that it applied SecuROM protection to the totally unprotected (and thanks to it usable without any stupid hassle) Vanilla COH, a year after its release!. YOU BASTARDS!
The only thing DRM schemes help is my bank account. By not buying games laden with that shit, I end up saving lots of money.
@Jonathan: Being a smart and proactive computer user can protect you from most of that. I take it a step further by using my Windows partition for nothing but gaming, doing all of my “real” work on a Linux partition that’s totally free of that garbage. But DRM shouldn’t be dismissed simply because it’s just another piece of intrusive software among many. The only way to change the system is to boycott it: don’t use Real Player, DRM’d products, IE, or anything else that compromises your personal computing experience.
Not having a computer with the necessary muscle to play Bioshock I never have (other than a few minutes’ look at a screen), and as such the reports of the SecuROM were always second-hand and perhaps exaggerated. So I dunno. I reckon I will buy it sometime, probably through Steam as I am lazy. (I’m just absolutely opposed to piracy in all ways. People don’t seem to realise that for small developers who are making innovative games virtually every sale can count. They say they only pirate from large companies but, y’know, every company has to start somewhere…) Steam-wise I have had no problems with it aside from occasional crashes which are just as likely to be caused by the wireless software taking a shit and dying than any kind of instability within Steam. Then there are the actual Steam crashes which happen less often than Windows going comatose with no provocation. So I’m quite happy with Steam.
Also, with nothing to back up this statement other than “a friend heard that…” I believe Gabe Newell said that all of Valve’s games would be Open-Sourced/Creative commons. Or an equivalent licence. But for all the proof I don’t have that could be utter bs.
@RichPowers: Good man!
Um, sorry Johnathan and Duoae. But installation credits were not automatically refunded when you uninstalled the game. We had to wait months for 2K to release the revoke tool. And then we had to refund our credits ourselves, manually. In the meantime, anyone who had used up their two (at first) or five (later) install credits had to call 2K to get more credits.
Do you seriously mind having to call the company, in order to be allowed to play the game you bought? And what about people who didn’t live in North America? Their calls wouldn’t be toll free. They’d have to pay for the call.
Paying for the right to play the game you legitimately bought? That’s just swell, ain’t it?
And do you really think that someone’s first thought when they install Bioshock, is to go online and look for a revoke tool in order to get back their credits later? That should have been automatic, in the first place. Why did we end up having to do it ourselves?
Because the whole thing was poorly planned and organized, that’s why. 2K didn’t even have the decency to tell us about the limits before the game was released, or mention it anywhere in the game’s packaging. I still don’t know how they got away with this.
As much as many of us despise EA for using the same DRM: at least they had the decency to mention it up-front, before they released Mass Effect. (Though, that’s probably only because they learned from 2K’s mistake. If 2K hadn’t done it first, EA probably would have.)
Well, this just makes me feel like I must the the luckiest fellow in the world. Like im the only one who’s computer doesn’t die when I so much as look at it funny.
Now, I can understand peoples counterpoints of reformats and hard drive failures and such, but what? does that happen six times in the eight months the game has been out? If that’s the case you should probably stop bashing the game for a while, and possibly take a look at what else your running.
Oh yeah. I bought mass effect too. Didn’t even notice it get authenticated when I installed it, and so far I’ve been able to play as much as I want, without the disc. Maybe I’ll join your side when they do something with my games that actually affects me in some negative manner.
Just as a note, I don’t have an internet connection at home either, but I work around that.
As a customer, I don’t mind some DRM in software installation – basically one-time internet activation, registration codes, on-line verification when wanting to play on-line multiplayer
I don’t like these though:
- copy protection – I don’t care about “copy” part, but I REFUSE to play with CD/DVD in drive, in fact I haven’t played with CD in drive for years now, and I still haven’t played Gothic 2 (bought it 3 years ago) just because I haven’t found solution how to play it without DVD in drive
- rootkits and drivers (well, I have Securom 7 installed, apparently, and haven’t noticed any issues, so it isn’t bad it seems, but still I am avoiding Starforce like a plague)
What’s the big deal about being able to play without the CD/DVD in your drive? I could care less. As long as I can play the game without any hitches, I’m happy.
Reply to Rich Powers
You’re a fan of Art Bell I take it. Unless you personally march to the developer/publishers offices and protest outside their window I doubt they’ll get the message.
I don’t mind pirates who admit they just don’t want to pay. But pirates who try to blame it on people who have worked on the product for years really really tick me off.
Al3xand3r: Lumping together Securom and Starforce isn’t accurate. Virtually all retail PC games have a copy protection mechanism at least as “intrusive” as Securom (in fact, quite frequently it /is/ Securom). Starforce was a different kettle of fish entirely, in so far as it could (potentially) physically bugger up your hardware, and was briefly adopted by a few publishers (who had been using Securom, Safedisc, Macrovision, etc without complaint for years) on the basis that it undercut its rivals rather than whether it was fit for purpose.
Thanks for clarifying the point about comparative budgets. It is the case that fans of specialist games are more likely to support them financially. It’s not an issue of morality, just recognition that developers need to be rewarded for their work.
Your final paragraph pretty much exactly mirrors my view (and, seemingly, the market’s view) on how DRM can be responsibly used, which makes it odd that you seem to be railing against Bioshock’s DRM, which doesn’t violate these wishes.
redrain85: Uninstalling not refunding credits was an error.
I’m just amused by the comment that they’ll release a patched exe.
“We’re about to go belly up! Someone get on bittorrent and pull a cracked version, then publish it, STAT!”
Robin my final paragraph is in fact speaking against SecuRom because even if there are no reports of it raping people’s hardware like StarForce, there still were MANY people for who it could and did “cause problems” as I specifically state. Many weren’t able to play the game you know, and that’s unacceptable to me, even if it worked fine for many more. Or are we all going to ignore the first weeks with all the reports of people being unable to play and the slow as heck support with the revoke tools (which didn’t fix the problem of non activation in the FIRST install)? Why should people go through all that trouble to enjoy the games they paid for? So, yes, SecuRom’s implementation in Bioshock is far more intrusive and problem causing than the protection I state I’m “ok” with there.
Besides, I’m buying my games dammit, I don’t want to call the company every time I surpass what they define as the sensible reinstallation limit, not to mention in this day and age you can’t trust long term support of especially single player titles, unless they come from studios like Valve since most companies go for the early buck and then quickly move on to the next titles so there’s a high chance that they will really not provide fixed exes or keep the activation servers up if they deem that simply not enough people are interested in the game anymore.
I reformat every 6 months or so, and no, I really don’t feel like uninstalling all my software beforehand in order to reclaim their activations or whatever so of course I’ll be against the use of such measures. All the games I buy have no problems with such actions even if they involve some sort of activation.
Also, other games in the past may have used SecuRom but I’m sure not all of them used limited activations or installs which would make me fine with them so long as it actually allowed all paying customers to play without hassle (how can indie devs provide robust measures that simply WORK and such big specialised companies can’t?). Like I said, I’m ok with one time activation and cd checks (since I can get no cd cracks) so long as they actually work properly. I’ve not purchased ANY games with limited activations copy protection involved and these days I get most of my “big” games via Steam anyway since often they don’t include the crappy original copy protection (though sometimes, apparently they do, and I avoid). I guess that will soon change and I’ll be getting them via Impulse, alongside the “smaller” games (aside from Steam exclussive stuff I guess) but that’s a tad off topic.
And on second thought, screw having to get no cd cracks also, CD checks are so backwards themselves, especially in an age where digital distribution keeps growing… My games should work out of the box even if I reopen the box (or rather, packed files) fifteen years from now, so long as I still use a compatible OS (of which the company doesn’t have control over and they state the OS requirements of purchase day so I can’t fault them for that), without having to scourge the internet for cracks that may not even be possible to find or download after so many years.
Yeah, the whole “CD must be in the drive” thing is fairly silly.
Course, I still remember “Open your manual to page 47, go to line 12, and type the 3rd letter of the 19th word” or “Turn your outer code wheel to *symbol that looks like four different symbols* and your inner code wheel to *symbol that I am absolutely convinced isn’t on the wheel* and type the word that appears on the column labelled ‘Squidadiddly’” so CD in the drive is pretty easy to me. ;)
Al3x: I’m not defending TakeTwo’s FUBAR but I recognise that it was at least not intentional.
Why are you still going on about reinstallation limits? I’d have thought it was an easy practice to boycott seeing as LITERALLY ZERO PC games currently available to buy feature it.
As for those proclaiming that they won’t buy any games for fear of them no longer being supported: how is the situation of online activation ceasing to be available any different from a publisher deleting a title from sale? Both cases amount to trivial inconvenience and no money changing hands at some future date.
I’m happy to trade online activation for not having to have the CD in the drive.
It annoys me from an historian’s viewpoint that these games might cease to be playable at some point in the future, but as Alec points out, that’s not the case as there are cracks for the activation within days of release. Sure, ferreting around the web for one 6 years on might be a pain, but you’re going to have to do that for the inevitable patches anyway.
Also I dislike the fact that activations aren’t automatically refunded, as I might want to sell on my game.
But all these other issues… well there was this guy on the Mass Effect forum, moaning that he couldn’t get the game to work and ended up re-installing Windows twice in a week and then was out of activations. Simple solution: take it back to the shop.
Product stops working, then product not fit for purpose, then product go back for refund or replacement. The EULA can harp on as much as it wants but we still have our statutory rights as consumers (at least in the UK). Screw calling EA for more activations. Game no-worky, game go back.
And y’know, if the problem really is that far-reaching, and everyone starts doing that, the publishers will soon junk any such systems when they’re having to pulp a boxed copy of the game for every DRM-fault.
To the makers of Bioshock: still not good enough. Remove the limitations on your game so that I can play it ten or twenty years from now, if I so choose, and I’ll buy your game. Otherwise, no sale — still.
thank you (usefull)