2K have announced via their forums that the DRM restrictions on BioShock have been removed:

Good news! As promised, all activation restrictions, including install limits, have been removed from BioShock PC as of today. You don’t have to patch or install anything for this to go into effect for your copy of BioShock – it’s already done!

Enjoy your time in Rapture, and thank you for supporting BioShock and the 2K teams.

While it sure would be nice if it had shipped with no DRM, its at least encouraging to see the removal indicates that they've recognised that it's better for consumers long-term if there's no DRM.

I had no issues with DRM when I installed Bioshock at release...but I did buy it through Steam..hrm.

I don't get how they removed the DRM w/o a patch or something? Anyone with the game know what they did?

it would have had to be a contingency plan that was written in at the development stage really
either that or it just "expired" at a certain time and if no patch release renewed it, they could make such an announcement

I dont know anything about how it worked, but surely if it has an 'install limit' they would have to be running an online server that the game installer talks to ??

If so then all that has to happen I guess is for that server to always allow install.

I dont know anything about how it worked, but surely if it has an 'install limit' they would have to be running an online server that the game installer talks to ??

If so then all that has to happen I guess is for that server to always allow install.

What if you try to install offline? :P

I think teq is on the money.

I don't get how they removed the DRM w/o a patch or something? Anyone with the game know what they did?

I guess the activation servers just check the key now and be done with it.

What if you try to install offline? :P

I think teq is on the money.

We're still installing off read-only media, right? If we're offline and the disc itself is read-only and it allows offline installs, I could install it as many times as I want.

I may buy/play this now.

apparently computers have clocks in them these days

You will find if you follow the link to their forum and read the forum post carefully, that the DRM hasn't been removed, rather they have only removed the limit on number of activations. See the following clarifying post from 2K

[quote]Our other methods of copy protection remain. You will still have to activate your copy, and you will still need to keep the disc in the drive. SecuROM has not been removed -- just the activation limits on number of installs and number of computers you can install BioShock on simultaneously.

As I promised that the activation limits would go away, I can promise that if we ever stop supporting BioShock in the ways you speak of, we will release a patch so that the game is still playable. I believe, as you seem to, that BioShock will be the kind of game we will want to revisit 5, 10, 15 or more years from now. I want my copy to be playable, just as you do, and so does 2K.[/quote]

Too bad that in that 5,10,15 years if you scratch your disk you cant legitimately play it anymore.

why would you play a fairly average game in 5/10/15 years time?

Because in 5 years time every old c*** will be telling you how great games were back in their day and how game x is a great example of it. I am obviously hypothesizing because this never happens nowadays.

but bioshock never exactly stood out from the crowd. it was a better looking systemshock 2 but i'd still rather play systemshock 2 i think.

thats not to say people will be raving about s*** like gears of war either though.

speaking of epic games, whatever happened to the speedball2 remake, wasn't that supposed to be out by now?

turned out to be pretty meh, I heard.

I thought Bioshock was a fantastic game, way above average, but each to their own I guess.

Still doubt I'll be playing it in 5 or 10 years time though, I hardly ever replay old games, even awesome ones. Too many new games always coming out, don't have time to spend on old stuff!

tribes will be epic before bioshock

they shoulda remade Tribes

Tribes: Vengeance.

nF - yeah, the speedball 2 remake is available over steam.

It is pretty meh, as previously stated. Save game problems, detail problems (every player wears the number 13, instead of whatever number you give them, as one example), and load times are awful.

Still, it's abit of fun every now and again...