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by oms1005 4770 days ago
To me, this is a much bigger issue than the possibility of always online. I can sign into my friends Xbox and we can play together, but I couldn't just let him borrow the game. And the fee can be up to full MSRP, meaning that you can't ever really sell your game because it will, by definition, cost someone else MORE than a new copy. I understand that PCs do something similar, but I don't buy PC games with the idea of sharing them with my friends, but I do with my console games. GameStop, gamefly, and others are in a real interesting position as to what they will do with the new Xbox One.
1 comments

The PC gaming industry is a market for lemons[1]. There are legit customers out there who won't steal your stuff but far too many of them will just pirate it instead of paying for it. And so everyone has to deal with draconian DRM methods.

Because there are so few modded consoles, though, the console game market works much better. You can buy a game, lend it around, borrow it from Blockbuster or Gamefly, or sell it. If you don't have the disk, you generally can't play. (Yes, there are people who have defeated this. They are an incredible minority that aren't worth paying attention to.)

They are taking away that option. I fully understand why publishers of PC games try to lock stuff down, despite the very best peer-reviewed research being published on torrentfreak saying they shouldn't. [2] But for consoles I must object.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons

[2] This was sarcasm.

If the console market is better then why do they want to implement stronger DRM measures? Feels a bit unfair.

PC: Oh, the piracy is too much we need stronger DRM.

Console: We control the entire chain, we need stronger DRM to maintain that control.

Yes, that is the basis of my objection.