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Levine reveals threats from consumers over DRM

BioShock PC restrictions prompted "nasty" attacks, says Irrational boss

2K Boston's Ken Levine has revealed that following the release of BioShock on PC he received threats from consumers unhappy with the DRM measures included in the game.

Following complaints, publisher 2K Games lifted restrictions for the game, which originally only allowed users to install the title on three machines, and only twice on the same PC.

"When we had the copy protection issues come out, I was out there talking about the product, I didn't run away from that. And frankly I got some nasty f*cking threats," Levine told PC Zone.

"I think it's important that somebody takes responsibility, and at the end of the day my job as creative director is to sort of be the arbiter of taste. With great power comes great responsibility right?" he added.

DRM solutions in PC games are a constant source of frustration for many gamers. The recently released Spore may have been praised for its gameplay, but users were quick to slam the game on Amazon.com, put off by the restrictions placed on the user.

Many users awarded the game one star on the site's Customer Reviews pages, labelling it “repulsive” and ultimately pointless due to the title being leaked on torrent sites days before release.

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.