BioShock Activation Revoke Tool Released

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

Here's a solution to a problem you likely didn't even know existed. The PC version of BioShock apparently limits the amount of times you can install the game on your PC. Like Windows, this number will cease to exist if major hardware is swapped inside your rig. The "Revoke Tool" exists to remove an "activation token", which means you are then able to re-install the game as many times as you like, assuming you run the tool after each install.

I don't know where to start on this one. Application activation is bad enough, with Windows, Photoshop and others, but now this foolishness has gotten into our games? Honestly, I don't think I could agree with someone as much as I do with Photoboy, from the Kotaku comments section, "These days you're better off buying the game and then just leaving it on your shelf while you download and play the warez version. At least that way your PC doesn't get infected with any shitty copy protection systems and you legally own a copy of the game."

<table align="center"><tbody><tr><td>

</td></tr></tbody></table>
Thursday it was announced (and rather quietly I might add) on BioShock's community website, The Cult of Rapture, that a downloadable tool is now available that will revoke one of your activation tokens. What does this mean exactly? Well mainly it means that you will now be able to erase and reload your copy of BioShock onto your PC as many times as you want without using up one of your activation "tokens" provided you don't make any major changes to your current hardware.

Source: Kotaku
​

 

[GameMasterNick]

Wow. Photoboy really does sum it all up very nicely.
I finished bioshock, then proceeded to do a reformat (which my computer desparately needed considering I hadn't reformatted since I got it with Win2k Pro Installed, two OS upgrades later, it was time for a reformat).

 

[Rob Williams]

Not that I agree with piracy, but the game companies are almost forcing people to go that route. Why install a game that you -know- installs things you don't want, when you can download it and not worry about a thing? Honestly, these game devs need to get a clue, and quick.

I'm just glad that the Steam version seems to avoid all of these issues. Because Steam is tied to a single user, it doesn't have to worry about illegal use.