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So as some of you may know or not know, BioShock was recently released a few days ago on both steam and in retail stores.
What some of you may not know is that BioShock implements a new online activation feature using the infamous copy protection SecuRom. Furthermore the game won't even give you the main executable to play until it's validated your disc and downloads it from the internet.
This DRM is not a rootkit -- despite what some people might say. The initial setup limits the game to 2 installs before you have to uninstall the game off a machine to free up a license. Here's where the problems start, first of all the activation server wasn't working, and still to this day there are some people who can't activate the game that bought it in a brick and mortar store.
Furthermore some people have already had issues installing which uses up all their installs (the limit of 2 was raised to 5 by 2k Games, the developer and publisher, formerly irrational games). For those frustrated customers who try the manual activation -- they get an e-mail address. Which floods SecuRom's support teams as they struggle to resolve the issues.
This is a shame, as BioShock is truly a good game with a horrible release. Why do publishers make foolish decisions with copy protection? Why are things like this not tested? Who knows, but in a world where piracy becomes more rampant, things like this punish paying customers. In addition, this only seeks to motivate crackers to circumvent the protection which in the end provides a less troublesome experience as you no longer have to deal with the copy protection.
Take purchased music for instance, almost all purchased music uses DRM, meaning you need to be validated with a license to play the music. If you want to burn it to a CD, or play it anywhere but your PC then you're hit with the fact that whatever medium you want to play on has to validate that license, which they can't do. So why would anyone buy music if it's less useful?
I would like to show a prime example of a smart company. Bethesda Softworks -- creators of the Elder Scrolls series, more namely, Oblivion.
Oblivion used no commercial copy protection, it introduced a simple DVD check to see if the disc was in the drive. There was no other method to protect the game from piracy. You would think their sales would be adversely affected? Wrong. Oblivion has broken records and sold over 1 million copies for both the PC and Xbox. Many of their users appreciate the non-obstrusive copy protection implemented. People buy good games. Rather than slapping them with a horribly annoying DRM protection why not spend that extra money on developing a better game to entice people?
2K Games apparently didn't put their users into the equation when devising their method of copy protection. A lot of it comes down to the publisher, they make these decisions. 2k Games was both publisher and developer, as was Bethesda. It appears this freedom of choice in such things was left to the wind.
I for one was looking forward to BioShock. However 2K Games will not be getting my money because they've proven to me the customer is the last thought on their mind when it comes to their games.
What some of you may not know is that BioShock implements a new online activation feature using the infamous copy protection SecuRom. Furthermore the game won't even give you the main executable to play until it's validated your disc and downloads it from the internet.
This DRM is not a rootkit -- despite what some people might say. The initial setup limits the game to 2 installs before you have to uninstall the game off a machine to free up a license. Here's where the problems start, first of all the activation server wasn't working, and still to this day there are some people who can't activate the game that bought it in a brick and mortar store.
Furthermore some people have already had issues installing which uses up all their installs (the limit of 2 was raised to 5 by 2k Games, the developer and publisher, formerly irrational games). For those frustrated customers who try the manual activation -- they get an e-mail address. Which floods SecuRom's support teams as they struggle to resolve the issues.
This is a shame, as BioShock is truly a good game with a horrible release. Why do publishers make foolish decisions with copy protection? Why are things like this not tested? Who knows, but in a world where piracy becomes more rampant, things like this punish paying customers. In addition, this only seeks to motivate crackers to circumvent the protection which in the end provides a less troublesome experience as you no longer have to deal with the copy protection.
Take purchased music for instance, almost all purchased music uses DRM, meaning you need to be validated with a license to play the music. If you want to burn it to a CD, or play it anywhere but your PC then you're hit with the fact that whatever medium you want to play on has to validate that license, which they can't do. So why would anyone buy music if it's less useful?
I would like to show a prime example of a smart company. Bethesda Softworks -- creators of the Elder Scrolls series, more namely, Oblivion.
Oblivion used no commercial copy protection, it introduced a simple DVD check to see if the disc was in the drive. There was no other method to protect the game from piracy. You would think their sales would be adversely affected? Wrong. Oblivion has broken records and sold over 1 million copies for both the PC and Xbox. Many of their users appreciate the non-obstrusive copy protection implemented. People buy good games. Rather than slapping them with a horribly annoying DRM protection why not spend that extra money on developing a better game to entice people?
2K Games apparently didn't put their users into the equation when devising their method of copy protection. A lot of it comes down to the publisher, they make these decisions. 2k Games was both publisher and developer, as was Bethesda. It appears this freedom of choice in such things was left to the wind.
I for one was looking forward to BioShock. However 2K Games will not be getting my money because they've proven to me the customer is the last thought on their mind when it comes to their games.
. But yeah, the copy protection must be really annoying.
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