"Our other methods of copy protection remain," community manager Elizabeth Tobey elaborated. "You will still have to activate your copy, and you will still need to keep the disc in the drive. SecuROM has not been removed--just the activation limits on number of installs and number of computers you can install BioShock on simultaneously."

Tobey concluded with a promise that, "if we ever stop supporting BioShock [online activation servers], we will release a patch so that the game is still playable."

Original Story: Publisher 2K Games has disabled the installation limit built into the PC edition of 2K Boston and Australia's BioShock, lifting a restriction which allowed users only five simultaneous installations of the deep sea first-person shooter.

Last year, BioShock creator Ken Levine assured gamers that the DRM would be disabled when retail sales of the game were "no longer a factor."

"As promised, all activation restrictions, including install limits, have been removed from BioShock PC as of today. You don't have to patch or install anything for this to go into effect for your copy of BioShock—it's already done!" said 2K Games community manager Elizabeth Tobey on the company's official forums.

While many developers and publishers have purged their released PC games of DRM and other piracy safeguards well after release, the action rarely comes so swiftly as with BioShock, which hit PCs just 10 months ago.

Blizzard Entertainment, meanwhile, recently released a patch for its hack-and-slash RPG Diablo II (PC) which allows users to run the game without a play disc present, almost a full eight years after the game's release in 2000.

BioShock's SecuROM-supported copyright protection sparked community outrage at the time of its release, prompting 2K Games to increase the game's simultaneous installation limit from two PCs to five.

The Demiurge-developed PC edition of BioWare's sci-fi RPG Mass Effect also features an installation limit for three PCs, though uninstalling the game does not credit users for further activations of the product.

Thanks to JBT11 for the heads up.