In personal computer games, a spawn installation is an installed copy of a game that may only be used to play in multiplayer mode, or otherwise limits the amount of single-player content accessible to the user.
Additionally, some spawn implementations only allow the user to join games hosted by the installer's cd-key.
There are several purposes for a spawn installation, including but not limited to creating added value by allowing the owner of the game to experience the multiplayer mode with friends and demonstrating the game to more potential buyers.
Each disc contains a discrete portion of the game, such as an individual campaign.
In contrast with spawn installations, the disadvantage to the multiple-disc approach was that the game could only be shared among as many people as there were discs, while spawn installations could be used on any number of systems.