Is Battlefield:Bad Company 2 declaring war on players?

There is only one thing PC gamers hate more than an obvious console port and that is any kind of DRM.

The arguments are long and passionate about the merits and drawbacks of Digital Rights Management (DRM) a generic term used for access control technologies that can be used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to try to impose limitations on the usage of digital content and devices.

Could war be declared between the latest First Person Shooter and fans as word comes from EA and DICE of a DRM loaded up not only with the upcoming game, but even the demo. The demo has only just been downloaded onto player's computers worldwide.

But DICE's lead programmer, Mikael Kalms revealed a DRM system making use of the controversial SecuROM DRM, that will be put in place for the final and beta versions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Reportedly, two versions of the DRM will be Available to players, off and online. The offline authentication is intended for those who don't have an internet connection or who aren't comfortable with the idea of an install limit and is a basic disc check system that requires the CD to be in the drive whenever the game is run.

The online option means you only need the disc to install the game, but limits you to only ten concurrent installs. Install credits are automatically refunded, so to speak, whenever the game is uninstalled - though you'll need to be online for both the installation and uninstallation. The online authentication only needs to run once though, then you can run the game for 10,000 days (27 years) before being forced to authenticate again.

A version of the SecuROM DRM will also be applied to the closed beta, which is only available to those who have pre-ordered the game. The beta is set to start on January 28th, while the full game ships on March 2nd.

This news follows the lovefest felt in a recent interview with Gamespot UK where DICE expressed respect for the PC gamer.