PC version of BioShock cannot be activated, yet
Well, there it is, it is now just after 1:30pm (August 21, 2007 US eastern time) and it is still impossible for a majority of new BioShock owners to activate the game.
Reasons vary from the activation servers being down from the amount of activation requests to overloading and taking down the server. Whatever the case is, I don’t care, I bought a game and I want to be able to play it now, not in a few hours.
Needless to say owners of the PC version of BioShock are outraged over this situation and that includes myself since I just picked up a copy and it refuses to activate.
Also, the 2K forums discussing the issue are between down and running extremely slowly, which seems a bit suspicious to me because either there are so many people having the problem that the forums crashed or so many people were complaining that 2K just took down that thread. As of right now, the whole forum is down.
Congratulations 2K, you’ve managed to annoy everyone who has purchased a legal copy of BioShock but can’t play it. Perhaps next time, you’ll avoid that partnership with STEAM which is probably part of the problem. STEAM was down when Half Life 2 first came out and no one could activate it but this problem with BioShock seems worse.
This activation scheme also means that you will need an Internet connection just to be able to play the game. And there are some similar hardware restrictions built into the game that Vista also has, meaning if you change your hardware then you may have to reactivate the game.
Once again the consumer is being punished more than the pirates thus driving some to piracy so as not to put up with all this pointless stuff.
[UPDATE:] 2K may be enforcing the same 4pm activation time for retail copies as well as STEAM downloads of the game. That’s my best guess at this point but I will be unable to confirm this myself. All I have to say, it had better work when I’m up bright and early tomorrow.
[UPDATE 2:] If the activation system is still not working then contact the support email address listed in the manual activation page with your serial number and the code provided and you should receive an unlock code, at least, I have been sent one. I cannot test it right now but will do so first thing tomorrow, this post will be updated with the outcome.
[UPDATE 3:] This may be of little help for those of you that still have activation troubles but it seems emailing support with your serial and “unlock code” number will get you the code you need to activate the game with, I don’t know if automatic activation is working yet or not.
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15 Responses to “PC version of BioShock cannot be activated, yet”
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August 21st, 2007
[...] PC version of BioShock cannot be activated, yetTECH.BLORGE.com, Australia - 11 minutesThis activation scheme also means that you will need an Internet connection just to be able to play the game. And there are some similar hardware … [...]
August 21st, 2007
I preloaded through steam. At 4pm release time it still has ‘unreleased’. I restarted steam several times with no luck. At 4:15pm I restarted again and it started decrypting. Now it has going back to downloading and says its at 80%. Would have bought it in a real store if I’d known what a hassle this was going to be on steam.
August 21st, 2007
Well, as of about 2:30pm or so I couldn’t activate my retail copy either so it seems everyone is having a problem…
August 21st, 2007
And now I can’t even check because I’m away from my desktop…
August 21st, 2007
Yeah it is 4:56 on the 21st, still nothing. Really really annoying.
August 21st, 2007
Yeah, I ordered this game earlier today after pre-loading it days ago and as of right now (6:30 PM!) I still can not play the game that I legally purchased. I am thinking of trying to demand a refund and just go pick it up in a real store.
August 21st, 2007
Anyone having trouble activating retail copies?
August 21st, 2007
Same here. Bought a retail copy a few hours ago, got home, installed, updated drivers, pressed PLAY and….
“activation process has been terminated.”
Those bastards.
The idea that I bought a game (which I now OWN) and have to F*cking “activate” it via the internet is bad enough. Now they even screwed that up.
August 22nd, 2007
[...] The activation problem [...]
September 1st, 2007
i brought it today installed it wont fucking work can not conected to the sever send like dozens of e-mail to get ativation code sure they say its a gud game but how can u tell when u cant play the friggen thing i tryed image’s wont work try to find some cracks nothing it sucks so i am gonna get a refund
September 5th, 2007
Don’t worry. Wait for the crack. Hell, even legal owners will be working on it if they can’t play their game. I will not buy games that need activation so I suppose I’m stuck with old titles. At least there are lots of them and they’re really cheap… and I can avoid the ones players found boring.
September 5th, 2007
What happens in a year or so when these companies don’t exist? I can still play my games of yesteryear but I bet you won’t be able to play Bioshock. I agree, don’t buy the games. Activation will disappear overnight. Yea, lets plan a Boycott. First week of November to start with. Anybody?
September 8th, 2007
What is freaking retarded is that people even today are having problems with playing Bioshock. I just bought the thing and for whatever reason it dislikes my internet connection even after going through countless steps to attempt to fix even calling tech support, so now I’m stuck waiting on my unlock code from securom which has been a good number of hours. And call me crazy, but since the unlock request code changes each time, I am skeptical to shut down my computer or that program for the night should they not get back to me. Regardless of whatever comes of this or how good the game is, I am not buying another fucking game from any of the companies that had a hand in this bullshit.
December 30th, 2007
BIOSHOCK, game of the year!!! Sure, after multiple installs, the game starts ok, then only weird shapes and what might be water/fire. Asked for help from the game gods, and as usual they are more demonic than godlike. NO HELP!!! I changed compatibility mode to Windows 2000, which worked with PREY and a few others, but this game is nasty. I then deleted it and now after five days, I am back to what might be water/fire. What is an old gamer to do, I mistakenly deleted steam out of frustration and forgot the pet name and password, GAME GODS are in the process of making me pay for that one, big time!!! any help out there???
February 27th, 2008
@#$%ing securerom it gave me nothing but trouble. I managed to activate it through the steam servers then it asked me if i wanted to play it, then it loads for a sec and stops dead nothing, wtf. What ever happened to buy and play, i cant tell you how mad i am grrr, taking it back pronto.
Bioshock game of the year my ass. Eldeerscolls Oblivion, now that was the game of the year, it is completely open source for modding, no online activation needed either.