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A collective wave of delight cascaded over gamers the world over when 2K's Bioshock (Microsoft Xbox 360, PC) was finally launched last August. Gamers were required to download files from 2K Games' servers. But since we all know how that went, 2K Games came under serious flak.
Gamers were forced to sit through a lengthy installation process. To make matters worse, servers during the game's launch also went down and enraged gamers even more. Frustrations continued on, and debates over copy protection soon flared again.
At the recent Connect Games Asia Pacific Conference held in Melbourne, Australia; 2K Australia PC team senior programmer, Martin Slater, conceded to the fact that a lot of complaints were thrown at them regarding problems with the Bioshock downloads during its launch. In a keynote speech regarding Bioshock's development, Mr. Slater assured everyone that the same launch install patch strategy will not be used again for 2k's future games. But he stated that 2K Games will enact something similar in the future.
The reason? Piracy: the major problem of PC gaming at present. According to Mr. Slater, simultaneous game releases, much like the launch of Bioshock which was released for both the PC and the Xbox, publishers and major stake holders concerned must be vigilant as to not lose console sales to gamers who might rip off pirated issues or copies of the game.
That is why 2K went through such painstaking lengths just to secure themselves from these possible "Day One Cracks" or cases of game piracy at game launches. Aside from the case with the Bioshock downloads, another security measure that they implemented was when they choose not to include an EXE download in the actual executable version of the game in DVD.
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