Word has spread that the PC version of the upcoming Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena would exploit the DRM (Digital Rights Management) copy protection.

This does come as quite a surprise, especially seeing that major publishers like Electronic Arts have already suffered under their usage of DRM, for instance with games like Spore. Naturally, something like this could happen again, because the players took action in their own hands yet again. At Amazon.com, the customers rated the game with the worst possible grade in order to express their frustration about DRM.

At present, you will only be able to install the game on up to three computers. However, if you reinstall your operating system or change major hardware pieces, you will lose one of those installations. It´s little help that Atari tried to save the day by saying that players could get more activations if they have "a legitimate request."

Atari said in a public statement:

We will see how well Riddick will sell after this. Gamers remain very concerned about this development, seeing that it will be next to impossible to sell the game again at a later point, or to even use it yourself after a couple of years.