As a PC gamer I'm certainly concerned about Steam, and the fact few/no games allow dedicated servers like the days of Battlefield 2 and Counter-Strike. This means if servers go down for MP games in the future we would have to do illegal actions to play them still. What I mean by this is modders reverse-engineer game…

LOL thanks! First I'd like to say I got the legwork from a solid article I read recently:

Steam one-time activation is still DRM (it stops used game sales and piracy). As for GoG.com, they lack the new big pub games so aren't competitive with Steam in that regard.

I've done a lot of cost analysis as I believe in getting a good value for my money, comparing consoles against PC. Here is the approximate breakdown of costs:

Factors for all (can be removed from equation):
-monitor/tv
-speakers
-exclusive games (all systems have great and subjectively better ones)
-location of gaming…

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/xbox-one-…

I agree it's highly unlikely we'll see Steam-style sales on console games, due to the lack of competition (basically there is none) and the high amount of gamers that purchase from retails stores (middle man = increased fees).

First question: For all major pub games on PC, they do have (minimum) online activation, and don't allow used game sales. So to answer your question, yes they have DRM, and the PC used game policy is either worse or the same as the potential console policy.

You're a minority like me. Most would suck it up and take it due to consoles being "easier".

Remember, it's "not" Sony's decision, it's the third party publishers' decisions. So they didn't make the mistake! ;)

Would it stop you from buying all big publisher games on PS4 and XBone if there was no other option for big name games without used game fees and online activation?

Lose customers to where? IRL activities? Handheld gaming? Indy gaming?

Yes I've read about it well. The issue isn't that big pubs are producing crap though. People LOVE their games and buy them in droves. There isn't an extra 7 million unsold copies of Black Ops 2 sitting in a dumpster somewhere like Pacman.

Or maybe he's not in denial and blinded by PR spin talk.

Online pass: The ability to require authentication (read: DRM) for a game that requires access to the internet. What if major pubs make all their games (SP & MP) access the internet?

But who differentiates the requirement of offline in any given game? The publisher. It is irrelevant if the game is played solo or not. There are no rules to limit this. Ex: SimCity, a game proven (through developer mode on PC) that all it's files are stored locally. EA implemented DRM on the potential…

Firstly I suspect the money gained by adding DRM to curb used sales to all their games would greatly offset the cost of authentication costs. Consumer backlash is irrelevant if all the major pubs do it across both PS4 and XBone (EA, Activision, Ubisoft & Eidos).

Actually pubs can implement their own DRM on any game they create. This means they could set up a 24h check-in, online activation & fee for buying used on single and multiplayer games if they desired. It's at their discretion.

Imagine a publisher decided their new $60 PS4 and XBone single-player game should have Steam-style DRM (online check-in with install) and a $50 used game fee if bought from a previous owner. It's their choice if they want to do this on both consoles. That fee would be just high enough to discourage people from…

Hate to break open a long-exposed sore wound, but I don't know that you're wrong (yet).

I was a mage in a top 100 us 25m guild from late 2011 to early 2013. This is a pic from late 2011 of my ui (it didn't change much in terms of complexity).