So here's an issue that's cropping up and the
2K Forums are hot about. Seems if you bought
BioShock on the PC you are limited to how many times you can re-install it legit or not. Say you install it and your hard drive dies or you decide to move the files to another location. The copy protection will limit the amount of times you can reinstall a game. So far it seems 2 is the magic number but this is a very big issue for some people like me who use games to benchmark products. In the end these things do more damage to regular consumers as those that pirate software won't be stopped anyways as they always find a way around these things. Sure, you'll stop the small percentage of folks that like to lend their software out to others but is it really worth it to piss off a vast majority of consumers?
-Update- It seems you can get by this as long as you install the game while connected to the Internet. Still this is an issue that needs addressing soon. The following is from the forum:
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.
