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Traces of SecuROM will be left behind even after uninstalling GTA.
Many would claim that DRM is bad, and perhaps rightly so. But it's unfortunately a necessary evil in the videogame biz (at least it is if you ask almost any company this side of Sins of a Solar Empire publisher Stardock). SecuROM in particular is frequently employed by developers in order to prevent pirates from illegally playing their games. This tends to lead to backlash from the community, as we saw illustrated quite well with Spore, where a class action lawsuit was filed against EA and Amazon customer reviews took a nosedive -- and that didn't stop the game from being pirated, either.
In spite of that, Rockstar has decided to use SecuROM with this week's release of Grand Theft Auto 4 on PC. Calling it "the most effective form of disc based copy protection," Rockstar provided details to IGN on how the game's DRM will work.
Steam will be among the digital distributors where you'll be able to purchase the game, and while that won't spare you from SecuROM's wrath, you will at least be able to get out of needing a disc in the drive -- a requirement for the disc-based version. The game needs to be authenticated online once installed, but only needs to be activated once per computer. You'll be able to authenticate on a separate computer with an internet connection should you be unable to get online with your gaming rig. (You'll be missing out on that 32-player multiplayer if that's the case, so you should really get that sorted out.)
Unlimited installs prevent a number of issues from arising, and the only situation where you'll have to re-authenticate a computer would be following the change of two "major" computer parts, such as your CPU and graphics card. Other than that, it should be a one-time thing -- even reinstalling won't require you to re-authenticate. However, if you uninstall the game, traces of SecuROM will be left behind:
As part of the uninstall process, the Rockstar Games Social Club application and the GTA IV game can both be removed. Shared software and plug-ins, such as Games for Windows Live, Adobe Flash and Direct-X may have to be deleted separately. In regards to SecuROM, deleting GTA IV will remove the active functions if it is the only application that requires SecuROM, but some traces will remain, such as a registry entry and file, which allows you to reinstall without re-entering your authentication code. We are working with SecuROM to post information on our support pages regarding how to remove these inactive traces of the program for users who wish to do so.
There's no doubt that will have people up in arms. But I can't help but be most interested in Rockstar's claim that playing a cracked copy can result in issues other than potentially picking up a virus. The game itself will play differently, with the changes ranging "from comical to game-progress-halting changes." I can't wait videos of those to surface.
We'll be following the situation closely in the coming weeks as we look for any backlash that results from SecuROM once again making its way onto the computers of gamers everywhere.
