footsy

Or get the crack and forget about the whole activation thing.

chutz

I do, however, have a friend who does IT for
this local university. He comes over all the time
and tempts me. He's the one who introduced me
to Grand Theft Auto 3. It was, of course, a
pirated version. When I realized I loved it, I
went out and got myself a copy because I like
the manuals, I like having the hard copy. I like
to re-visit games the way I like to re-read old
books, like the Catcher in the Rye, or The
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

So I am saying this: I love games, I buy them.
Piracy has always been like the Dark Side.
I buy games because I want to support developers.
This form of entertainment is a plant I want to water.
But this sort of shit breaks my heart.

Sullyville

Sure, I never opened my PC case, that's why I have been building them by myself for the last, oh, 15 years. Never mind about that. 'What' you say, someone actually takes the side of the IP-holder, or creator of the game, they must be incredibly stupid, uninformed, running on 6 year old PC's they never upgraded, biased, taking corporate bribes, complete PC noobs OR they may just not be 14 year old spoiled brats who throw a hissy fit every time something doesn't come their way for free, or doesn't work the way they want it, or feels entitled to a game even if he doesn't agree with the license that comes with it. It may just be someone with enough sense of reality to realise that PC gaming is dying unless publishers find a way to protect themselves from piracy. It may have been someone who applauded Apple for offering legal music for download in the first place rather than curse them for using copy protection. It may have been someone who didn't feel entitled to every piece of music on the planet for free, just because Napster managed to survive as long as they did. It may have been someone who prefers to support developer for the work they do, rather than punish them for trying to protect their IP.

Grow up, will ya, if you don't like the way 2K is handling this, don't buy Bioshock, your loss. Pirating the game will only make it worse next time round. Copy Protection isn't something that is just gonna go away, especially not if people are reacting to it in an immature fashion like they are doing now. PC gaming has 2 options at the moment, dissappear or protect itself, since the third option most of you seem to favour (the honor system) doesn't work with people who have limewire/azureus permanently running in the background while ripping DVDs for their buddies.

Kwyjibo77

Dougman

Dougman

So either there's a bug, or 2KElizabeth fed us bad information.

banichols

will this work?
1. install and activate
2. create a disk image (ghost)
3. ununstall and deactivate
4. restore thedisk image with activated game.
5. play

otherwise:
6. keep the disk image to always be able to uninstall in case of total system crash/virus/dead harddisk

thethingcalled

palindrome

AbyssUK

L_K_M

A fairer approach would be the 'rule of thumb' for alcohol consumption. Two in the first hour, and one every hour thereafter. Except using months, or such.

No trickle install serial is going to 'succeed at market' in the warez scene. Achieving the publishers goal. And 95%+ of legitimate users will be entitled to a re-install by the time they need it.

Fair for both sides.

myztry

igorthefiend

[www.nofrag.com]

igorthefiend

Latonone

Even though I agree with you on most parts, that is the most horrible argument against piracy EVER, and also the one used most often.
Do you really think that the 30000 people downloading the game would have bought it if they could'nt DL it ? It is the same for the music industry saying : "oh no, look at that they downloaded 450000 songs illegaly, that is so much money lost." Wrong!
Only a minority would have bought the song instead of DLing it if they couldn't have it for "free" (even if illegal)
The idea is, you can not convert "free" illegal stuff, to 60$ legal stuff in a 1/1 ratio. Not even in your wildest dreams.

Bioshock will sell millions, and piracy will help its advertising, like someone DL it, and tell his friends: "It is awesome I tried it!" And among those friends some will buy it, some other will also DL it, and tell about other friends how it is great etc, and so on.

I am not saying piracy is a good thing, but as a Lead Game Designer myself, working in the industry, I can tell you one thing, It is not as bad as you can think, not even close.

Lauraliane

I know because I don't know anyone on earth who just loves calling up customer support everytime they install a game to play it again a few monthes or yrs later, on a different computer.

And man it must be easy seeing everything in black and white. How clear it is...I must be a pirate! Nevermind my 2 month pre-order for the CE of the game! I'm a pirate and don't matter because I think the limited # of activations thing sucks. Awesome.

upstart

Let me ask you this, if you don't agree with a car dealers' policy, do you guys go out and steal their particular car to protest against it? No you don't because you are little cowards and only steal stuff were you are certain you won't be caught for it. Once the prospect of doing jail time comes up your 'ideals' and 'willingness to take a stand, to set an example' all of a sudden don't seem so important. People pirate, not because it sets an example to the developer/distributor, but because they get away with it, no matter how you put it. And as long as that happens, distributors are going to try ways to fight piracy, succesful or not.

Besides there are plenty of ways to make sure you don't have to activate after reinstalling, and for those of you 'thinking about the future, and what happens if you have to format/reinstall Windows', have you ever heard of making a drive image? I reinstall about every 3 months, it takes me about 20 minutes and when I'm finished my Vista AND my FSX are already activated, how about that? And all legal, with the tools built into windows, no 3rd party software required. And when I upgrade, I make a quick call to microsoft and hey presto, it is activated again (See, I don't have a problem calling someone to reactivate, because I have nothing to hide...)

Lastly, READ YOUR LICENSE, NO you are NOT allowed to install it on as many PCs as you want, nor have you been for any commercial game in the last 15 years. And what is the bloody point, you are restarting from scratch on 3 different PCs? Oh, is it for benchmarking, right, well the demo is free and install on as many PCs as you want!

Face it guys, the time of unlimited copies running on pirate versions of Windows is over, and thank god for that. You guys want freedoms you never had, and rights that were never yours, but you took them anyway at the expense of developers, only because technology allowed you to do so. A criminal life is almost always easier than an honest life (not only when it comes to playing games), but that doesn't mean we should all engage in it.

Rant/Preach over...

Kwyjibo77

It makes perfect sense now that Elizabeth has cleared it all up!

I Now understand that pirates have a tendency of going out to buy a legit copy of a game, visiting many unsuspecting user's pcs, and installing the game!

They are like the evil version of Santa Claus! Like if Santy came to your home through your chimney and dropped off a hot bicyle that was recently stolen!

But wait, that's not right, because the "pirates" would have to buy it to activate it in the first place....

So I am still confused. How is it helping defeat piracy? And I've never once heard of a pirate getting stopped by activation? Has it helped with all the versions of windows? Nope, hey...it seems like all it does is cause a nuisance to legit owners.

Elizaaaaabeth please tell us some more how this stops the evil pirates and doesnt hurt us paying customers? Pwweeeeaase?

upstart

provoko

Sharpfish

I don't care how good any game is suposed to be this is just one step too far in an already shockingly shitty launch for PC (and not too hot for Xbox either). And me a SS2 fan been waiting all these years for a 'follow up' but you gotta vote with your wallet man cos that's all they will notice.

Sharpfish

Sparkamus

Impurethinker

want to pirate? go pirate some shitty game, buy an official copy of BioShock, and you might just get to see System Shock 3 on PC in the future.

jobber

Hear Hear

It's really beginning to get tedious how you guys seem to be hitting on BioShock for 2K wanting to safeguard their Intellectual Property.

Please, just play the goddamn game and enjoy it. Quite griping please.

jobber

Personally, I don't know who to blame for this- I enjoy Civ games so this won't cost them my business, but it will make me pirate to get a better version after getting it.

arstal

- - - - -
Tyrell: [Tyrell explains to Roy why he can't extend his lifespan, only 2 installs] The facts of life... to make an alteration in the evolvement of an organic life system is fatal. A coding sequence cannot be revised once it's been established.
Batty: Why not?
Tyrell: Because by the second day of incubation any cells that have undergone reversion mutation give rise to revertant colonies like rats leaving a sinking ship, then the ship sinks.
Batty: What about EMS recombination?
Tyrell: We've already tried it, ethyl, methane, sulfinate as an alkalating agent and potent mutagen, it created a virus so lethal the subject was dead before it even left the table.
Batty: Then a repressor protein, that would block the operating cells.
Tyrell: Wouldn't obstruct replication but it does give rise to an error in replication so that the newly formed DNA strand carries with it a mutation and you've got a virus again... but this, all of this is academic. You were made as well as we could make you.
Batty: But not to last.
Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long and you have burned so very, very brightly Roy. Look at you, you're the prodigal son, you're quite a prize.
Batty: I've done questionable things.
Tyrell: Also extraodinary things, revel in your time.
Batty: Nothing the God of bio-mechanics wouldn't put you in heaven for.
- - - - -

Tei

But if you are going to deny yourself the pleasure of playing this game at all because you MAY have to call someplace if your computer catastrophically fails on you TWICE and the company that provides the keys MAY go out of business in FIVE years, that's a bit more than nuts. If that is how you think, make sure that you that you don't buy anything else in your life that MAY cause you problems in the next FIVE years and has a chance of not being supported, like...oh I dunno...a computer. Or a car which may have to be serviced by a dealer exclusively, a dealership which MAY not be in business. Gasp! The horror. End of the world!

Copyright protection like this doesn't stop hackers and thieves from pirating this game, that is true. But it does stop the casual copyright infringers, like younger kids and people that don't use (or trust installers from) bittorrent. And it's how these developers make money, so they can bring you the next kick ass game.

Why not sell software on the honor system? You can download it for free as long as you promise to PayPal them $50. If they sold System Shock II that way, there probably wouldn't be Bioshock. They are introducing a possibility of slightly inconveniencing a slim margin of their fan base so they can protect their intellectual property.

What bastards.

dr-whoopass

No, not at all. This is one of the more lenient forms of copy protection and it does let you play on two PC's.

LORDofDANCE

Shumina

Tei

I'm going to load up my account on all four of my computers tonight and check if there's any problems with this at all.

1. Download and install Steam.
2. (Re)Download and (re)install Bioshock.
3. Start Steam in offline mode.
4. Profit.

r1nce

HeathenEd

STUPID STUPID STUPID.

You shouldn't need the Internet AT ALL to play a single-player game.

reddevil

evlyti

phantomdata

For example, years back when I played Diablo II rather hardcoredly over battle.net, after about a year of playing I log in one day to find 'Your account has been deleted due to a duplicate CD-Key detected.', after some back and forthing with Blizzard Customer support, and me actually sending a photo of me with my jewel/case box/receipt they still refused to believe it was legitimate.

HOW will the call to SecureROM result? and ifso, how will they prove that one of the copies has been truly lost due to HDD damage or whatnot? will it be invasive and 'ping' the software in the computer or some such?

-=shrugs=-

DasSqiud

justinroman

Much harder then using Bittorrent I'd wager.

And what happens a few years down the line? Will the number still be up? What happens if the company files for bankruptcy due to people getting tired of this shit?

I routinely play games older then 5 years. It's my right as a consumer to get that which I paid for.

60$ is not a 'rental' fee. It's a full blown purchase and I'll be damned if I can't use the title how I want, when I want to on what I want as so long as it not distributed further.

I don't want to phone home every goddamn time Windows requires a fresh install either.

realyst2k

nuro

blueraja

Sparkamus

dacrunch

1) Pirates will pirate no matter what (Titan Quest aside, I've yet to encounter an uncracked game).
2) Casual gamers will be happy with their one-install-then-throw-away-to-buy-madden-nfl-Halo-2008-hockey-plus-plus-roster-update. 3) Hardcore gamers will pirate*.
4) Lawful Good gamers will not play.

What other outcome could there be?

[*] Oh, you know you'll eventually at least crack the game. Two installs? You're going to tell me that you're a hardcore gamer who won't come back to this in three years (and five OS upgrades) when 2k aint honoring their "call us, we swear we'll unlock it" agreement?

phantomdata

I have a lovely piece of scheduling software that I paid about $1,200 for in 2003 or so that uses the same type of "remote activation key" setup - so when I upgraded my laptop harddrive last month, I had to "re-activate" my software.

Just like this it probably only would've required a phone call to explain that it didn't occur to me to "uninstall" all my software before upgrading my hardware (or a computer crash). I say "probably" because the company who supported the key system has been out of business for over two years.

The software creators sold the program to a new company who have no ability (or interest) in supporting an obsolete third party authentication scheme.

I love pulling out my old games from time to time for a little retro-gaming... I guarantee there's no way I'd be able to play through "Wing Commander II" if it required an Origin-based on-line authentication server to install.

The irony in this case is that piracy may be the only sure-fire way to guarantee an archival gaming record. Brrrr.

thebigsmoke

Totally. I don't understand the mindset that the right way to fight piracy is to punish everyone except the pirates. This is literally what they are doing. Talk about providing incentives for people to become pirates; at least pirates aren't treated like shit by these companies.

Tzepish

Shin-san

Told ya so.

Sure it's inconvenient to uninstall the game before wiping out your hard drive anyway, but it's not a big deal in the whole picture.

If going through the effort to uninstall a game helps against piracy then I'm fine.

Absent Blue

AxleMunshine

dr-whoopass

matt57488

My computers hard drives usually crash horribly before I reinstall something. At this point it's usually near impossible to boot the machine, never mind recover the install files from the hard drive then uninstall it.

This solution does not solve the problem that 2K has made for the purchasers of this game.

Maybe I'll just Ghost the install, but then why should I have to?

glutto

Every retarded, invasive copy protection they can think of gets jacked by 13 year olds in Russia within a week. Keep wasting money, gogo.

Providence

Installed on Computer + Neither of the two installs are used?

Lyrai

Tony Bullard

dacrunch

"so at least the criminals are safe, right?"

EXACTLY. Cracks will most likely EASILY get around this copy protection, so the people who purchase the game LEGALLY are left HIGH AND DRY. I find this absolutely unacceptable and utterly disgusting.

So what happens after two reinstalls hmm? My game is worth NOTHING? I'm no longer ALLOWED TO PLAY THE GAME I BUY WITH MY HARD EARNED MONEY. This is just disgusting and pathetic. I have no respect for these bastards now, what on earth are they thinking?

As usual it seems with copy protection, it just hurts the people who get the game the right way. Do people really need more incentives to download games illegally?

Passa

dacrunch

That registration key would most likely be flagged in the system; an unregistration of a non-activated key would seem like a definite red flag that implies the key has been compromised as an activation crack and the address generating the request would probably fall under whatever investigative procedures are set in place, if any.

Law

ShineyBlueShoes

Sorry but if you want our money, respect us.

MugiMugi

Sardu

DrcAnjel

Altima NEO

dacrunch

By the time the "2K" servers are "dead", there will certainly either be a widespread workaround, or an official patch to free the dependence on those registration methods.

What about when Steam's servers shut down?

StartingAces

jerrt

man, talk about video game companies making console gaming a better choice. but the same shit applies there. those systems just have this inherent hardware protection that helps make it easier for game developers not require all the hoops for console gamers. some day video game companies, movie companies, music companies will come up with real incentive based way to ensure people don't go the warez route.

jerrt

dacrunch

dacrunch

phantomdata

phantomdata

dacrunch

morfar

RPharazon

TheWP

However, I do wish that 2K or Irrational - whichever had this bright idea - would understand that in general copy protection schemes are much more effective at making life difficult for people who actually bought the game, instead of stopping piracy.

And game *can* sell well without any activation crap or StarFarce or whatever; Oblivion had no copy protection of *any* kind, and I think that it sold fairly well.

Melting_snowman

phantomdata

dacrunch

I'm not even sure where we go as Americans. Revoking the DMCA would be a start. At least in the days before the DMCA you /could/ legally download a crack to fix this "problem" and make a "backup", "time-shift" or "place-shift" your media to do what you wanted with it. Today though, the DMCA is so entrenched that we probably can't fight it off... and big publishers have too much money anyway.

The whole "vote with your wallet!" thing never works either. There's too many people who (hotcoffee...) don't care about consumer rights that they offset the rest of us. It just can't be done... at least, I don't think it can be done.

phantomdata

Sinnix

Also, why does the games industry think that increasing anti-piracy measures hurts piracy? There are hundreds of amazingly skilled crackers out there with nothing but time and the desire to crack your product and get the prestige... why do companies think that they can evade this by hurting their paying customers? I think that's the bigger question.

phantomdata

That last sentence is quite large and runs on quite a bit. I think that you're accusing people of being "untrained baboons" because they don't want to, or don't believe 2k that it will work when they do, have to call in to re-activate their copy of BioShock after the second installation. I'm quite certain that the trained baboon is far more likely to swallow 2k's line of BS in that "It's ok, it won't hurt.".

Also, I am sorry that you don't believe that the ability to run the game is a crucial feature and is "something that is nothing". You believe the same as the 2k publishing team. Big deal. We're bitching and moaning because we believe differently than you guys. We actually want to be able to install our game more than twice. Some of us actually go back and play our old games. Some of us re-install operating systems regularly. Some of us don't have enough disk space for oodles of games at once. Some of us...

To us, this means something. We've lost , in our belief, a critical right. The right to play our game where we like as many times as we want. I know that this doesn't seem like anything to you. There's lots of people for whom this /isn't/ a problem. There's lots of people who play a game once and throw it away. There's lots of people who only own one PC and will only ever own that PC. There's lots of people who don't even know how to reinstall their operating system.

That's fine. I understand that these people don't care, yourself included. It's ok, really. What I care about is the rest of us who are brushing into this issue. I've got a Vista and an XP partition and I like to run benchmarks against both of them (XP almost always comes up tops, btw). That uses up my two installs. What if one goes belly up? There have been periods where I've re-installed an operating system twice in one month.

Right, I know... bitch when it happens - right? Try following that philosophy in life. You'll get real far by not looking into the future. Trust me. That bus is moving pretty fast towards you in the crosswalk, but it'll stop - right? You can bitch if it doesn't...

phantomdata

OR you could just not play it. Playing a pirated copy is only further reinforcing the need for pirate counter-measures (which almost never work -- but they can't not try).

BigWeather

Have you ever read the EULA of any piece of software you have purchased? You don't own that game or program at all. All you have purchased is a license to use the software. This has been part of most if not all standard EULA's since the late 1990's. If you don't believe me, go read a few.

Anyways, this has nothing to do with that at all. When you install the game, it hits an authentication server. You can hit that server twice to activate your product. You can uninstall the product, which also hits the authentication server and gives you back the ability to install it.

On top of this, if you are not able to uninstall, you can just call and get an unlock code from them that allows you to install the game.

I fail to see the issue.

hotcoffeeburns

It is about consumer rights, and consumer activism. Just because you're willing to write them away, doesn't mean we all do. I do not want to have to call an austrian company everytime I need to install the game. I bought the game, it is MY game to do with whatever I choose. Previous DRMs have caused serious system issues, collected information about consumers, and frankly ruined the gaming experience. ( Starforce anyone? ) At no point in this process do you actually own the game, if you have to ask for permission to play it.

It is also vastly illogical, DRM is meant to stop piracy by creating roadblocks that only encourage more piracy.

Omen

Termisk8er

axiomatic

Why? Pick one.

Dr. Steve Brule

By the way, bravo to all you people with the reading comprehension skills of a untrained baboon that have managed to either not get or conveniently overlook the posts explaining and showing that, once again, most people are whining and complaining about something that is nothing.

hotcoffeeburns

It's funny cause it's true.

internetnerd

igorthefiend

phantomdata

@brent_w: Well, the box does state that an Internet connection is /required/... and uh... ya. Like umcloud said, you're only partially entitled to the sweat of your brow. This is a new golden age of PC gaming... bend over or let fly the flag!

phantomdata

brent_w

I used to do that with Doom until the Uni supplied us with a legal emulated version that they had been granted access to redistribute which i now use.

Ah, the wonders of being a Games Art student.

Gofthick

phantomdata

phantomdata

Haha, nicely done, had me laughing.

Gofthick

umcloud

Waka in Japan

I actually still do that, being a train nut i've had MS Train Simulator for about 6 years now, never had to reinstall it as i can just keep it running on the ol' external with no hassle.

Ah, those were the days.

Gofthick

It'll be interesting to see if anyone cracks it. I don't think that Titan Quest ever got adequately cracked. A lot of the newer anti-piracy measures are worked into the game so that they're not apparent. *shrugs* I dunno, I haven't followed the scene too closely as of late.

phantomdata

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from sussing out which registry keys are updated and backing those up too... ;)

Jakey2.0

Gofthick

phantomdata

sand0789

phantomdata

Gofthick

This is a market that's so tiny that its basically not free. Non-free markets are typically unfair markets - that's why there's frequently government regulation in these sorts of things. What 2kgames has done here matches with an unfair and unethical practice. I will happily match that with an equally unfair and unethical practice and pirate their game. I don't need any further justification to fight back against someone who controls the market.

Additionally, you're comparing apples to oranges with your rental comparison. People aren't bitching about rentals... they're bitching about purchasables DISAPPEARING and being REPLACED by rentals. Yes, you are sort of paying by the hour for your rental game. Some of us *gasp* like to own things and use them in the future.

Christ... if I hadn't read this here I would've re-installed a few months from now and been majorly pissed.

phantomdata

Sorry, I meant I envisioned a bleak future with pay-to-play only. Renting is fine as an option, I just don't want that to be the only way to watch movies, play games, or listen to music.

doubtful

Yes, I know the 360 version won't have this problem, but I'm sticking to my guns here.

Why don't publishers realize that this makes pirated copies more valuable to the consumer? Basically, they're fucking over people like me who buy everything legitimately and encouraging piracy while doing so. I still refuse to pirate, but I'm also going to refuse giving any money for products that do this to me.

thenino85

K0MMIE

Iron_Dragon_2.0

Mezodon

demonwolf

empreality

I very rarely watch movies more than once. I never play video games through more than once. Renting makes sense in those cases, since I save a whole lot over what it costs to buy the thing. Maybe it doesn't make any sense for your usage habits, but it does for a whole lot of people.

Throtex

Can any pirate using this argument please tell me how this situation makes their actions any more justified? Let's even assume that pirating in the first place is morally justified -- how does this make it even better?

Throtex

Yep. ...I got one of those ATI X8xx cards. Works fantastic on EVERYTHING... 'cept this game.

Be warned. :p

wonder6oy

I haven't seen such whining since the day they nerfed hopping in CS.

Buy the game, love it... if they fix it, GREAT!

If they don't, you know what to do. The game is good, let the DRM vendetta go and enjoy the game. It's worth it. "

Okay, what??????? You are telling me I am going to spend $50 for a game I can only install twice (assuming this story is 100% true)? You must be retarded. That is a complete step backwards. That is like buying DRMed music and getting stuck with a certain brand of PMP.

DRM is almost never worth it. Especially in this case. It is well known that PC gamers will reformat and/or buy new computers. Heck, go back and play Half Life 2 with your new computer and it will look amazing with everything on high in a higher resolution than you played it before.

I just hope that this debacle is either misunderstood or fixed soon, because it is definitely a deal breaker for me.

OmegaRed59

Want to play Bioshock 2? That's $4.99 per hour. You can buy 60 hours for $285.00! Now that's savings!

doubtful

phantomdata

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me...

Raynre

BigWeather

hotcoffeeburns

Official word? Is 2k inducing us to infringe their copyright? Brilliant! People should hold him to that. :)

Throtex

hotcoffeeburns

Boo to whoever thought a 2 cap install disc was a bad idea. Way to burn money in the name of paranoia.

Pic0o

TBA

I'm still not buying Bioshock for the PC, but maybe I'll consider it in the future for my XBOX 360 (since it's still on warranty I don't mind...)

Seph Blaze

hotcoffeeburns

(a) you can have 2 simultaneous installations on separate PCs
(b) the uninstall process will "deactivate" the authentication for that PC
(c) if you forget to uninstall and have used up your 2 slots, "there is a chance you may have to call securom and get a key"

So yes, you can install it multiple times and repeatedly over different hardware, but almight SecuROM holds all the keys to your ability to play a game you legally bought a license for. The best part is that none of this stops the pirates from getting their free games - it just annoys the legit users.

baberg

In the month of Feb alone, my laptop crashed 3 times. The first 2 were recoverable, the last was not. ( the result of which was to run linux in favor of windows ).

Omen

Throtex

For example, games obtained with IGN Hitpoints "rewards" program only give you 2 installs. After that you're screwed. Have a new machine, a system crash or whatever, you're out of luck, you must get the software again with your points or actually buy it from Direct-2-Drive. Also, some titles from Direct-2-Drive had the same limitations in the beginning.

What is really funny is that companies don't seem to understand what many folks are commenting here: this kind of the so called antipiracy measures only screw "legal" consumers, since it is well known that the warez and cracking scenes know no limits, and for them SecuROM, Macrovision and other protections are just another game to play for them...

Seph Blaze

"hey guys,

first, let me say this. you DO NOT NEED TO USE THE INTERNET EVERY TIME YOU PLAY THIS GAME. it is only the first time.

second, you can uninstall and reinstall this game, and if, by chance, you have 2 computers you want to simultaneously play this game on, you also can do that.

if by some chance you are reinstalling this game without uninstalling it first, a lot, there is a chance you may have to call securom and get a key, or deactivate some older installations.

but if you upgrade your hardware next week, you'll still be able to play the game. if you revamp your system and need to reinstall bioshock, just uninstall it before you go through the overhaul, and then do your reinstall.

calling it "hardware fingerprinting" is a bit alarmist. we do not transmit any of your data to any companies.

really, the only people who will be concerned about any of these security measures are those who are rapidly putting bioshock on many pcs... if you use the game as you normally do, you won't notice this at all."

So, it seems it's not too big a deal.

Mpalm

Lant

But if everyone read what a person long above me is saying.

1. You can install it on 2 machines at the same time
2. If you want it on a 3rd, you need to uinstall one of the first installs.

But even if that works thats a sucky idea, I got 3 computer hooked up in my apartment and I want to be able to play on all of them!

cmd

If you UNINSTALL the game before doing a format or whatever, they are you fine. It hits the authentication server again and says that the game has been uninstalled, freeing up the install activations again. Its not that hard.

If you have a crash and have to emergency reformat or whatever, then you just have to call and they will give you an unlock code based off of one generated by the game installer.

hotcoffeeburns