everything is working at my end, so your server must be as shitty as your customer support, and that means it migth be the worst thing on earth.

I have payed for this game but it won't install and I ask you to fix this but get no help. is there a way to skip the download part of the installation?

Same here, dude. It's been 4 days and I still can't install it. I even have the installation always here stuck in that part and I try and try, but it won't connect to the goddman server. And I'm sure if someone here tries to help me they will go with the usual bullshit, like "oh that's because of the proxy address" but hell, no it isn't. And neither the anti-virus. The thing I hate the most is that the so-called "Auto patcher" is just an online activation of the game to avoid piracy. Fuck this things, I wanna play Bioshock, I've paid for this game, dammit. This happens since the game was released. I even read a comment on a forum (i've been doing too much research) and a guy (this was on 2007) was like... "What if I want to install the game 5 years from now?" Yeah, that's what's happening here and nobody seems to give a shit. Shame on you, 2K Games.

same problem here, i think 2k have taken down their server as it was a major problem for them at release. takes the piss really as they used a patch to fix the drm mess up they implemented in the first place without giving thought to retail disc owners.....

ive uninstalled my 3rd party antivirus, disabled all firewalls tried connecting via my phone as a modem incase it was my router but its definately a 2k issue. I'm a cisco engineer so I can definately say this is not a problem with my pc set up.... is it any wonder that people pirate this shite. i won't be paying for bioshock infinite.

I am starting to doubt that they even have a customer support, or a server.

yeah its not looking good, seems to be a problem for quite a few people by the looks of the 2k forums and other gaming forums.

Just like to say that even though I love Ken, I love X-com, I love Bioshock, I will be stealing every game 2k publishes that  I have the misfortune of being interested in, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that 2k goes belly up, the suits in charge jump off the corporate HQ roof, and Ken, Bioshock, and X-com find a home with publishers who actually give a shit about their fan base.

The fact I have to buy this game again makes me want to punch each and every person at 2k in the face.

While researching for HOURS about this total horseshit, I found one comment from 2007 pretty funny, and I paraphrase:

"I know the game just launched, so problems are to be expected, but what if in 5 years I want to install and they dont keep these servers up?"

They probably should have fucking hired that guy to slap some sense into them.

I bought Bioshock1 so many years ago, and I was too busy to play this game.
These days, I am available to enjoy it, but the installer say: "download server not responding".
I am very disappoint.
Please fix this problem ASAP and don't fool your customers.

hahahaha

Hey guys, we're aware of an issue that is causing this error, and our server teams are looking in to it.

What is the time frame for a fix???

Sigh, I tried to install this for my son. I played Bioshock 1 when it first came out and had a lot of fun with it. I don't recall having any major install problems with it but it was a long time ago. Maybe forgot those problems, but I did play it all the way through. Now the son's old enough to handle it, really wants to play it and we can't get it installed. Standard 'download server not connected' message. At first, it seemed like a revocation issue but now I realize it's not as his PC never had Bio1 on it and it was uninstalled on mine a long time ago. I tried to get a logon here last weekend but it never sent me an email to verify. Had to start over again and get a new signup. Why don't you guys at 2K build a little patch code to run at final install time to bypass the connection routine? Why does this require a server still? Build some proper patch code to verify a genuine disc or digital download; it's not like there are going to be millions of people trying to hack the game still. Most of us either have it already or have gotten it through Steam and just want to play it. Or why don't you build a pre-install code that we have to download (with the v 1.1 patch) that verifies the genuine disc or download and then 'autoplay's the install routine at that point. You can build-in an 'internet connection' verification routine that allows us to bail out if there's a problem otherwise.  But make it a bit easier where we don't have to hassle ourselves or you guys with stuff that should be routine. Really, pretty sure most of us out here know how to download an executable and read some text instructions. There's no reason this should be so difficult or get users in an uproar (even if there are just a few of us with BioS1). Keep it simple and stupid -KISS! 

wow, i called their support, spoke with a rep (brad p) and this guy really looked into it, communicated with me via email about updates on this issue.  he provided me with a link to this thread.  I'm having the same issues, connection error preventing me from installing my game because their servers are unreachable.  nice to know that today! they are aware of the issue are they might even be providing a fix for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOWZERS!!!!!!!

GET IT FIXED GUYS!!!!!!!!!!

I have the same problem. "Download server not responding" or sometimes "Cannot connect to download server. Please check your internet connection". It pisses me off so hard, that I bought this game (two days ago) and I can not even install it! Looks like I am not the only one with that issue. Do something 2K. Do it quick!

Heh, I opened a problem request. The 1st answer I get is, the patch server is down and that I should install the game with the machine physically disconnected from the network. Hmmm, in that case, is the BIoshock executable is on the disc? Not! And all the stuff about "Needing an internet connection" is false. Not!

Totally out of the loop, this support person. What kind of training or support do these 1st tier people have? Apparently, none whatsoever. Do they even see the 2K products or use them or test them in the lab? Sounds like not at all. And they must be somewhere other than the US from what it seems like....

what the fuck 2K? i just got bioshock and i cant even install it!

i turned off my windows and 3rd party firewall and i use windows IE on windows 7 ultimate.

i like ur games an all, and want to support you by buying games, but it's shit like this that causes me to concider piracy.

cus really, why pay for a game you cant play cus ur "auto patcher" is fucked up when i can just "steal" the game and play immediately with no problems?

fix this! NOW!!!!

BTW don't try shit us that its ur servers, i activated borderlands just fine on the 1st.

Yeah, this sucks! I've been fighting with this for about 5 days and just a few weeks ago I installed Bioshock to my old computer with no problems. When I put the right proxy settings I get to download the patch but then it says that the patch file is corrupt! WTF 2K! I have all my securitys like firewall down and nothing helps! Just fix you're damn autopatching systems or you will run out of players:D

Agree with other posts - 2k should be ashamed - you are driving us to download the game from pirate sites just so we can play it - when we have actually paid for it.

I bought the game today and I have the very same problem. Also, the solution you give on the support page does not work. The message you posted here is from over a year ago!!!! What the hell is going on here?

I paid the money and I expect the game to be working. DO something about it because for now it's a big shame on you. Really, a disgrace for such a big company as yours.

Resolve it asap. Ppl are waiting. 

I was a little upset a while ago since i was not able to thoroughly change the order of my plasmids in bioshock 2 and  the resharpening (or whatever they do) textures irritated me. Then i thought: At least i have good old bioshock 1 still lying on my shelf, maybe i reinstall it...

NO! SURPRISE DOWNLOAD-SERVER-NOT-RESPONDING-BUTT-SEX! Just too intense for me...

(firewall disabled, anti virus software removed, opened ports and it still doesn't work)

Same problem. At the moment this game is not fit for purpose. It would be nice if we could be given a timescale as to how long it will take to resolve this issue! I need to know whether it's worth hanging on to it or just sending it back for a refund.

@ 2K Greg

You said, a few days ago that your "server team" is looking for solution. How long will it take? One more day? Or week? Say something. Such a big company, but so resourceless...

Ah yes, the final result of overzealous DRM that literally everyone except companies like 2K  and Activision foresaw. It costs money to keep verification servers up, but after about three years most of people who want to install the game are getting it at a reduced price or just buying it used, so there's less and less incentive to keep the server up since, "hey, it's not making us that much money anymore." So it's not really a priority anymore. Maybe it's down for an hour, maybe it's down for a week, they'll get to it when they get to it.  I understand this, I bought the game at a Gamestop, so 2K wasn't really involved at all in the transaction, why should they care?

Here's the thing though, it still has 2K's name on it, it's still their product, and it still doesn't work. I payed money for this game and I can't play it because of choices made by them as a company, and as a result I'm much more likely to pirate future titles from 2K or just not bother with them at all. I think anyone else who bought or tried to install the game this week is going to be thinking about this next February when Bioshock Infinite rolls around.

This is preposterous...

And I thought Blizzard failed when you could not play Diablo III in the day of the premiere. This thing is even worse. It's gonna be one of the fails of the year...

Here's the thing.Let's say BS1 is still selling copies; how many are being sold per day? Based on this support page, not many worldwide unless digital downloads are verified somewhere else. Many 2 or 3 per day? 5-10 per day? 1000 per day?  It's got to be low. How many are being pirated? Could be lot's by comparison but that probably is hard to say, so ultimately hard to say so it becomes irrelevant to the problem at hand. So how many verification servers are really needed? 1? 2? 3? 10? Can't really be many; why haven't they been virtualized? It's not like you're going to have much traffic; ok, they need a database maybe? Well, how big a db, does it need to be virtualized as well? There's some work to be done there. Probably 2K doesn't really have the horsepower to pull it off. Maybe they have outsourced some of that work to someone who doesn't really pay attention to that stuff. Probably Ken Levine doesn't give a s**t. I think that's probably it personally but oh well. Hey, here's an article from 2007(!!!!!) from him about the verification issues : http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2007/08/26/bioshock_activation_will_be_removed/1

It's from 5! 5! 5! 5! 5! years ago; sad, pathetic, incompetent, what's 2Ks problem? They just don't give a crap really. So I'll be sure to NOT buy any 2K games in the future as obviously they are unable to keep their code in the marketplace IN THEIR OWN INTEREST!  Furthermore, I'm pretty sure I'm going to not recommend any of their games to my friends. What I'm going to do is ask them to try to reinstall their BS1 games just to see what the reaction is; how can anyone be proud of their product which has been out for more than half a decade and yet is unmountable.

BTW, Securom should take a flying leap into a river of lava. Apparently, they're incapable of helping out as well. I guess it's secure all right, so secure I'll be sure never to buy anything that has Securom code attached to it.

Please fix this. I just bought this game on Amazon, and I cant even play it. It's ridiculous, terrible customer service and just bad PR for 2k and Bioshock. This has been a problem since at lease mid March and you still haven't fixed it? That makes you look terrible. I normally love your games, but this is literally the worst experience I have ever had with a video game. Please fix this soon. And maybe update the support page that the Auto Patcher links you too to something more useful when you do.

correction, this problem has been going on for at least a year. My reaction has gone from one of frustration to disdain. I honestly don't care how good your games are I will never buy another one and I will tell everyone I know that cares about gaming how terribly you have handled this.

Feel bad for the folks who bought it because Amazon is having a huge pc dvd rom sale, but then again, at least you only got suckered out of 8$

Imagine us poor dupes that shelled out 60$

Have all you guys submitted a support request? Might be a good idea too since they've kind of stopped sending comms about the status. We've got to keep the pressure up.

yeah I've had a case submitted for over a week now, still no response, just has a note on it saying "being processed"

2k Greg how long would it take to fix this problem bioshock patch

I have a support request in, submitted on 5-26-2012.  Received an update on 6-1-2012 directing me to this page for any further updates.  You'd think they could give us a modified install file to override the need to access their servers now and in the future.  After all, don't we still have to enter the product key at some point? Shouldn't that be enough at this late stage?

Apparently not late enough, Irrational is probably going nuts trying to get BS-Infinite done; there's probably not much motivation to have someone diddle with BS1 design issues. Plus, probably the 2K support guys who're trying to manage Irrational code, have their hands full as well with all the other junk they have to fix. So why would they bother to put old BS1 code on top of their list when they probably have titles that're more "current" with issues. Otherwise, who knows. Maybe being annoying or rude just sticks us into the bottom of the stack. Having run call centers before, it wouldn't be surprising at all to see all of the above being right. If you put in a request 5-26-2012, how many info responses have you gotten? On mine, I had 2 and then they were too busy to respond to my minor questions. So here we are......... 

CAN'T TAKE THE PRESSURE!!!!!!! SCOTTIE SHE GONNA BLOW!  first of all i would like to thank 2K for working on this problem for the last 5 years and at least now we can confirm that you are aware of a problem.  i feel sorry for all of the people who unknowingly walk into a store to buy this game and find out its worthless.  i was at a gamestop the other day, and they are quite content on selling you this game still, whether they know of the issue or not.  i'm sure any other retailer will do the same.  2K if this is the reputation you want to build your company on then you will surely pay for this as people will eventually find out and stop buying your products, DUHHHHHHHHH!!!

directed to the guys at 2K Games: Is this issue related to the 5 install limit imposed on the game, which you never really informed us of?

Hey everybody, I just tried installing again and to my surprise it worked! I guess the servers are all up now because I could even verify the activation code (make sure to include the '-' when entering it). Oh by the way, I still had to manually update to 1.1, so the whole "Autopatcher" thing is a complete load. Good luck to you all.

Also thanks you 2k, your DRM may still be bullshit but at least now I can play the game, which is all I ever wanted in the first place. I highly recommend dropping this sort of verification process if you want my money in the future.

Ok, people, here's what I've found out. Don't know if it's absolute as the support person doesn't seem to be able to give me a straight answer to my questions :

I cleaned it up a little but otherwise it's verbatim.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

me :

To be absolutely accurate, when I try to install the game, it gets to the point where it wants the internet connection in order to download the latest "patch". When I download the "patch", it is the Retail patch update v1.1 (26.9MB) from the general downloads server. That server is fine and anyone can download the Retail patch at anytime from there.
As to the game install time "patch", it appears to be more of the game verification "patch" (which appears to have the actual Bioshock executable included). When it does not find the server and has to be canceled, the install routine automatically deletes all the Bioshock folders created during the install process.

me :

Hello, is any work being done on bringing these systems back up or has BS1 been abandoned? I'd like to know so I don't have to pay any more attention to 2K messages in my email.

2k support :

Hello,
Unfortunately, these servers are not supposed to go up anymore at all. I deeply apologize for the disappointment.

me :

Hmmm, ok, what does that mean? Future installs of BS1 will fail or will an update package occur anyways? ???

2k support:

Hello,
Unfortunately, no. I deeply apologize for the disappointment. I understand you were anticipating playing this game and it a disappointment that you cannot. Older games servers normally get taken down in a few years just for future reference.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I guess this means

1) install it now on a PC system and leave it there if you want to play it again in the future and don't let that box break.

2) get a console version just in case (if you really want to have it around)

3) there will never be a modification to the verification/update process

4) question yourself very closely if you want to buy 2K games (or any games) that use this type of verification. Maybe in the future no one will care and software will be disposable to this extent. I hope not because if it is, I'll be won't be paying much for PC based software using this kind of DRM. Maybe I'll just waste my time on free smartphone apps instead. At least, I won't feel like I'm getting screwed every time I see the title.

BTW, I did install the game for my son (and myself) after seeing Rob McCartys last msg so something worked. Never got a support email saying the systems were backup or to try to reinstall or that the problem had been resolved. But my ticket got closed!  WT?

Really really bad support.

wow, never have I seen such poor customer support. and I work in IT!

nice to know that 2k are still willing to sell a product that customers won't be able to install! 

it makes me think twice before bothering with another of their titles after this.

Oh, nice. So the 2k might as well say "Fuck you gamers, we aren't going to do anything to make this game work again. Have a nice day. Did we mention fuck you?"

Well, fuck you 2k. 

Wow! They finally fixed it. It's a shame it had to be occupied by a wall of flame. 

 Anyway, the issue is fixed, the download is working again (wonder for how long :p). Enjoy ppl. We made it! 

I have bought this game twice, the first i bought worked perfect then something happened and it wasnt from this end, i could not get into the game again. so thinking it was my fault i like a fucking idiot bought this stupid game again and guesse what i cant fucking well play this one.

by the way my internet connection is spot on otherwise i couldnt have signed on to this.

The issue has been resolved (for now). I just successfully installed the game now. thank you 2K for actually doing something.

Let this never occur with any of your games in the future and you will have my unwavering support.

Well if it was resolved - it's not any more  - I can't install the game due to the same error everyone here had to endure. Disabling my firewall doesn't help nor the explanations for Proxy settings - I don't use proxy - IE works fine. I paid reall money to get this game and now I expect to be able to play it or get my money back.........

Just to add to everyone else's complaints !!!.

I recently bought myself a decent high spec P.C instead of a basic netbook and i was looking forward to playing some older games that i bought in gleeful anticipation. All of them have installed with NO problems at all except this Bioshock game. Looks like it's going to sitting on my shelf gathering dust as this connection problem still exists. :-(