The folks behind Boing Boing have launched a new sub-blog on gadgets and technology that I’ve been following in my RSS reader and they have an entry on the continuing Bioshock DRM controversy. In it they detail an exchange between an angry (if someone moronic) customer and an official 2K tech support guy:
Nemesisdesignz wrote: I installed Bioshock on my laptop under one admin user, Everything works fine, but I then tried to switch users on my computer and whenever I launch Bioshock it is asking me to enter my serial again for the game.... IS THIS GONNA CHARGE ME TWO OF MY 5 Activations???? IF SO THAT IS GAY.... I need to know this ASAP before I attempt to play this on my pc under the other user… THis is a bug if the case be....so get yo stuff fixed!
The “activations” he’s talking about are the limitations that 2k Games put on Bioshock that prevent you from only installing the game five times, which was later amended to allow unlimited installation instances, provided you uninstalled the game before you reinstalled it. (Hard drive crash? Suck it up!) Here’s the punchline, provided by an official tech support jockey from 2K Games, which was later deleted.
2k Tech JT writes: The other way to view this, is one USER has purchased the game. Not the whole family. So why should your brother play for free?
It’s telling of the real motivation behind the DRM limits put in place by 2K Games which, honestly, comes as a surprise to no one. There’s no other reason to limit the number of installs of a single player game and it sure as hell isn’t stopping the pirates.
The lesson: If you feel the urge to buy a new PC game, wait a couple of weeks and see if you live with whatever DRM it ships with.