Sweet moogly oogly, I can finally buy this game now and retire my..uhum...*DEMO*...version. Now if they would do this with SPORE before its released.

Azriel77

@Grecaun: I thought that too, until the new patch came out that fixes the widescreen issue that I never had a gripe about anyway. And to my dismay, the respawn chambers were fewer this time - it actually makes the game alot more intense and fun after cranking up the difficulty as well. So I did actually play it again.

On the topic of DRM though, it's silly. It's much more rewarding to us as consumers to get dropped little sweeteners after the purchase, map packs for online play blah blah whatever. Stuff the pesky pirates shouldn't be able to get their hands onto.

suntorytime

*waits for Mass Effect to drop DRM and wait for Spore to get released and drop its SecuROM.

Megan Fox iz Hot ^-^ -ph15h

What??? You mean I can install Bioshock more than 5 times now.

Yay!!!!

hk458

Amazing turn of events. DRM is more effective at pissing off paying patrons than preventing piracy...

ppppp...

Arttemis

I installed Bioshock on my computer, heard about the DRM, played through it and said whatever. I doubt I'll ever really want to play the game again.

Don't get me wrong, its a good game, it just doesn't have any replay value for me. I doubt I'd find anything interesting when I went through it. I mean, the only thing that changes when you re-play the game is the ending, and I can imagine the other ending already, or I can look it up on YouTube.

A game has to have a great story, or at least a story I want to try to remember. While the story behind Bioshock was pretty nifty, it wasn't something that was going to make me drool and say, "NEED MORE NOW!".

Grecaun

YES! *hugs his copy of Bioshock*

This warrants another play.

Krackatoa

I'm mostly concerned for the lady under that desk in the picture.

banana-3

Freakin' awesome. That DRM is total shit. I had this game installed since it came out, and about a couple months ago I was going to fire it up again for another playthrough, when it wanted me to activate the game. Yep. To activate what I've already owned since launch. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that anymore. Big Daddies, here I come (again)!

Tyber_Zann

I was pretty pumped to play this when it came out for the PC, but hearing about the insane DRM killed my interest in it entirely.

It was sorta surreal; I don't think I've ever had my interest in a game--that I was actually excited about--completely vanish like that before.

Yeah, I know it's been a year or whatever since it came out, but now I'm actually looking forward to buying this one at last.

happyfish

Isn't it ironic that a change that will allow for more piracy, will likely lead to greater sales? I know so many people who were against getting this because of the DRM, now they'll be happy to purchase this. Piracy is still a huge issue, but SecurROM isn't the way to fix it.

LittleBigPlaneteer

if i were stoned i might forget this is a year late.

deathtastic

Well, I guess that means I'm going to reinstall it again.

I legitimately purchased it, but went through a few crashes and reformats without remembering to use my revoke tool.

Not sure how many I had left once I thought of it, so I didn't bother.

Harmatia

You hear that EA? That's one down. You guys are next.

Rebochan

Yippie Skippie!!! Although I've already beat this game last year on my 360...but still, I'm happy for everyone else.

themadman123

Ya hear that, Ubisoft? Now when are you removing Starforce from all those games you don't sell anymore?

Dave Silva

ITS A TRAP NO ONE TALK ABOUT PIRACY! RUN!

*cardboard box's away*

Raziel Dune

Oh the wicked witch of DRM is dead!

zoesch

To celebrate im installing it on every single computer I can find....regardless of wheter or not it will play it.

Tom Clancy's Samuraidino

@TechnoDestructo: Agreed. A lot of people bought Sins of a Solar Empire because of the DRM (or lack thereof).

.endejas.

This just goes to show... with enough bitching, anything can be achieved!

crice

Thank GOD. I had a couple of random crashes, and I've installed four times already. I hadn't installed it again because I was planning on getting a new rig later this year, but now I don't have to worry. Even better because I just bought a BFG 8800 GT OC to tide me over until I get the new computer.

Strangelove

The DRM thing is sticky, and I can't blame them for trying. But it is good to see it go... Now if only would clean up Mass Effect.

Philonious

@Señor Vorpal Kickass'o:

This time with the horses only pulling FORWARD.

TechnoDestructo

@maraxusofk:

Removal of DRM is a reason to not pirate it.

DRM is a reason to give the publisher the finger and pirate it. (Or ignore it) It doesn't work, it was already available cracked, and all it did, all it does, all it ever will do is annoy legitimate customers.

TechnoDestructo

yay for piracy?

Dakobah

Yay.

GregoriusH

To further give the consumer what they desire, we're proud to announce the horseless carriage.

Señor Vorpal Kickass'o

I seem pleased.

vanderblade

even so i aint gonna pirate this game. this is too good a game to pirate.

maraxusofk

Maybe now I can finally get rid of the cracked files I was forced to use.

I can't believe I waited two weeks with the RETAIL PACKAGE unopened and sitting on my desk, purchased on release day, waiting for a crack to be released.

How's that old saying go...? Once bitten, twice shy?

glutto

Late much?
Publicity stunt to remind people that Bioshock exists?
Worked for me.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

Now, if they would do this with Mass Effect and put it on steam. I would buy it. I will NOT buy it from EA store or Direct to Drive.

Azriel77

Sweet now lets do this for Mass Effect and all future games as well.

Jacktherip

DRM should be made illegal. And no I'm not joking.

dowingba

@TechnoDestructo: Until it is done correctly. We should praise the publisher or developer which finally figures out how to lock the game to the customer without hurting the experience. That way the industry can step away from MMOs as the sole effective PC game type and make other experiences viable candidates for PC development.

sisedi

Finally a good decision.
If you want to get rid of piracy, give people a positive incentive and impetus to purchase your games. Getting too harsh with this SecuROM crap will simply drive them away. If I like a game/CD/movie/whatever because it's a great-quality game, I will purchase it in support of the product it is, regardless of what it is. If I buy my game and realize I can't play it at a friend's house because they think I'm a pirate, then honestly I'll just give them the finger and not buy it whatsoever.

Thanks for taking away SecuROM, guys.

Ryuk

Ding Dong the witch is dead.

mcderek3000

The pirates figured out a way to work around the protection a couple days after it's release.

Marios_shadow

Maybe I'll buy this to support such a great decision.

Rohit_N

I'm guessing sales have bottomed out.

Spartan1308™

SecuRom is still in Bioshock, and you still have to activate the game at install and keep the disc in the drive to play. As said though, the limit on simultaneous activations and re-installs has been removed. Still good in my book. :D

ChaosBahamut

Good of them to do this. Now if EA can learn and do the same with Mass Effect...

gokieks

Cool, good thing a buddy loaned me his steam account and I didn't have to worry about any of this.

Talleh

Late to the party but better then never.

GreyFoxV1

Yay!

I hope this starts a trend.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

@LittleBigPlaneteer: If you put trust in the people without hassle's then the people won't give you hassle's like buying it, give's me more of a incentive to buy game's from 2k now if they had taken it off from the beginning.

Mr.DuckSauce

Now I might actually pick up the PC version one day, provided the mod community gives me something I can't get with the console version.

No amount of possible additional nighttime interludes with loose Asari could get me to do that while SecuROM was in place.

Mikaze

Yay for companies finally making a step in the right direction. Of course, I bought it through steam so I didn't have any troubles with this. I think steam is the closest thing to the correct approach anyone has so far. Being able to install the game as many times as you want is a big bonus and being able to download from their servers is amazing. I've reinstalled half life 2 four times, each time from their servers instead of hunting down my five cd's. The only thing I'm worried about with steam is what would happen if their service were ever to close down.

Joebob-X

I don't get it at all. It seems the obvious thing to do with these limited activation DRM schemes is to say *from day 1* "well it's x activations for the first year as that's when piracy has the biggest effect, then we'll remove it".

There seems no point in keeping it after that from the only point of view that publishers care about - making money. There also seems no point in not mentioning from day 1 that it'll get removed, it's only hurting sales to not do so.

Heh, and there's also the crazy concept that if you have to patch a game 1 year after release to remove the DRM, some bugs might get fixed in the process.

fluffyamoeba

@thor79:
And yours is just one of many stories that are already on the bioware boards talking about how they've used up their installs just trying to get their system capable of playing Mass Effect. I personally refuse to buy a securom enabled version of mass effect(I would love for a steam version to come out, even if I know it's not going to happen). I've seen a friend have to reformat after installing the retail copy of securom, and for anyone who says it doesn't do anything bad to your system and that it is not a rootkit, they obviously haven't seen what it can do. I was actually trying to play a securom game a few weeks ago on a computer at my work only to find out that it thought I was running alcohol 120 or daemon tools(I had nothing like any of these programs installed) and would not let me play the game. If I wanted to get the problem solved, I would have to jump through hoops and contact them. Like I said earlier, steam isn't perfect, but it is a great start for giving the consumer power with the provided drm.

Joebob-X

better late than never

infi

@fluffyamoeba: Yeah because including DRM from the start does A LOT to stop piracy.........

The only thing limtied activations does is annoy legitimate customers...it does absolutely nothing to stop piracy. Really wish the companies would learn that.

Wish they'd do this for Mass Effect as well...used up my last install a couple days ago after installing Vista Ultimate 64 bit. (first install was on Vista 32, second install was after I upgraded my system...then I upgraded to 64 bit)

thor79

this is a good thing, although why not cut the time down to say 1 month? That way people will still buy legitimately and if you're really pissed with the security, you know you can wait just a month for ethical piece of mind. However, the pirates would also be waiting for when the month's up.

d_unique

I'll finally get to buy Bioshock. Today.

2K sympathy levels up by 200%

Reward the guys, buy their game.

lumpi

when attempting to protect goes horribly wrong

Orionsaint

This is a step forwards for PC gaming. I can finally buy bioshock now.

Solid_hedgehog

It's a step in the right direction, but it's still activation-based DRM. I'll still pass on it. When they patch the installer & executable to have no activation whatsoever, I'll consider it.

OtelloMarburger

I'd be fine with any DRM* as long as they promise to remove it 1-2 years after release.

*That doesn't screw up my PC.

Benstein

good news for PC owners! not really news for 360/ps3 owners!
hurray for Bioshock! really need to do yet another playthrough of that game.....

Crawl to China

The headline is misleading because Securom remains. They just removed the activation limit, but activation is still required.

canuter

I may have to fire up BioShock in salute.

antialias02

yeah sorry about that secuROM fanboys, both of you

mr_bigglesworth

@OtelloMarburger: I'm with you. Not buying until no trace of DRM is left in the installation.

EloraHRanma

Lol, EA will never remove the DRM on its games. It's EA (PS, fuck you EA).

durrem

finally, I'm going to buy this game

Serenade

I hope this game shows up on the top ten sales chart next week. Then we can say bye to crappy DRM in future games.

geoffcbassett

ding dong the witch is dead, which old witch? the wicked witch!

couldn't help myself...

MrFatalistic

Bioshock is only $20 on Amazon.com. Buying now.

Spann

I'll probably download this game, but only because I already purchased it for 360.

psychobaka

Well Im going to go out to finally buy the game now. I have heard nothing but good things about it but I refuse to buy anything that tells me how many times I can install it *except windows :(* due to me constantly playing around with my computer and upgrading it.

wuwtk

The fact that it asked me to activate just this morning is a testament to why things are still broken... after installation, it still must connect to the activation server, regardless of whether or not the activation server still cares about your unique system. How can we trust them to release a patch if the company is about to go under in 10 years?! The XBOX 360 and PS3 versions will still function. *sigh* THIS is why PC games are dying.

CZroe