that is speculation… if you look at the bioshock situation, now nearly a year later, they have done nothing regarding that. apart from increasing the install limit from 3 to 5 after backlash and making a “token” removal option. also from what some of the take 2 people have said they will not make a patch that does not require the internet for/during install. (at least for the next 2-3 years - if at all) and think about this, from a drm technical point that would make “sense”. in fact it would make “sense” for them not to make such a patch - ever. why ? because then, if nothing else, the “nasty” crackers could examine the code and see what’s what and then with bioshock 2 (et al) take less time to “crack” it. see, in case you don’t know, with bioshock, the main executable is not on the disc in the traditional sense. when you install it, at the end of the install you require the internet so it can finish the install. if there’s no internet there’s no main executable (and some other stuff) and the game data installed is quickly deleted. so with bioshock if it can not access the net during the install process the game is not actually “installed” - and required files are not copied/used/authorised. so if there would ever be a patch to completely remove the online authentication, (and not just that, but actually allow people to install the friggin game in the 1st place) it would have to be a patch that works this way:
joe has the retail disc from late 2007
joe gets the “mighty patch”
joe places his bioshcok disc into his dvd-rom drive (but does not run it)
joe runs the “mighty patch”
the “mighty patch” would have to start an install routine where it basically “manually” extracts the game data from the cab files located on the retail disc that joe placed in his drive, and places them in the correct directories. (thus the retail disc is simply a data respository) then the patch which now contains the main exacutable and whatever else files are installed from the net using the original install routine, and “connects” the dots. so the patch basically would turn the retail disc into what we now have - what is the status quo - a normal regular retail pc game. and if this was to happen, which i doubt, long after release (it hasn’t happened yet and it’s been nearly a year… so…) then people would rejoyce and proclaim it as the 2nd coming or suchlike. and “mormal” people like myself would just go:“holy shit, these whackos are happy that a company turned back control and “ownership” of a purchased product after a long time, after initialy fucking them with obscene drm - and now these same people are happy ??”
the “mighty patch” finishes installing, and in it’s crazy round about way actually does what 99% of fucking games do now anyway… (that is, install a pc game without REQUIRING the internet… holly fuck, eh ?!?)
joe can now run the game without needing to connect to the internet. (btw, bioshock too has the “normal” securom rings/protection on the retail dsic anyway - so the “mighty patch” could go two ways. one would be to actually remove the disc check thus making the game drm free, OR to dissable the internet check BUT still rely on the “normal” disc check)
if they do ever remove anything, in my opinion, it would be the install limit - and not the install routine. so at the end of the day a person who has the original retail disc from '07 would still REQUIRE the internet. and even if a million people could install that same copy using the same cd key/serial on a million different pc’s, i would still have an issue with that. because for me the issue is control. and never “owning” the game. just use the desert island scenario… if it fails that, then it fails “fair” consumer rights, in my opinion - and i will never be a party to such methods - EVER. and if for me that means the true end of “pc gaming” then so be it. (i have a big enough backlog to keep me going for a while… and then some, not to mention the replay value of many games…)
