Didn't we go through this alreaady with Sony?

[strredwolf]

Bioshock comes with phone-home DRM, restricts installs to only two, uninstalls don't work. (Consumerist)

Short: 2K Games' Bioshock has SecuROM DRM software, which calls home to verify your install, but if you install it more than twice, it doesn't work.  Uninstalls are reportedly not freeing up the slots, and the policy is as fluid as a firehose being sprayed into a sieve.  2K says to talk to SecuROM who says to talk to 2K -- which gets nowhere.  

Comments

[uniformvixen.livejournal.com]

Oh noes!

Oh wait, they patched it already. Move along. :)

[uniformvixen.livejournal.com]

Or at least they did on Steam...

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

From what I heard, they only pushed up the policy to 5 PCs, 5 installs per PC. There's a link to 2KG's forums in the Consumerist report.

[uniformvixen.livejournal.com]

It's the way they're starting to handle games these days, unfortunately. Some are better implemented than others - when I installed it via steam AVG did no freaking out and I was completely unaware they were going that route anyways.

[felixnminerva.livejournal.com]

So do you know what's going on with the retail version of the game? Cause that's the one I was thinking of getting. And since you seem to use Steam and know PCs, when you DL a game from the Steam service, are you able to burn it to disc and save it for later? Or if you later uninstall it and want to re-install, do you have to then re-download it from Steam?

[uniformvixen.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't know much about it beyond my own experiences.. I didn't know they used that type of copyprotection, even, until I saw the problem with it patched by steam. As for making backups, yes, Steam's made that possible it seems. :> blorp.

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

This kind of activation scheme is exactly why I now purchase my games for consoles instead of PC. The only games I really buy on PC now are either games from Stardock Central that have no copy protection, or ones from independent developers who are generally less restrictive and will bump your limit up if you email them.

It really doesn't do much to stop piracy either, the professional pirates will have it worked around in no time, and once one of them works around it, its game over for the protection.

And the really sad part is that you get a better product by pirating it than by buying it due to these idiotic protection schemes.

[uniformvixen.livejournal.com]

Okay! n.n

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

There's always PacSteam and SteamBuster for those people that have paid versions. Hacking is not just for the people that don't pay. It's for the people that really want to own their own things, rather than leasing, which is what these companies are effectively doing now.