It says games will be sold for $15-$40. I would assume the activation code/region locking would be to prevent people from buying the much cheaper chinese games unless region locking works only one way. Still a really crummy policy.

But the game prices are really low, so a recently released one would only cost 40$, that's way below the price of a used game. So it's actually a win-win, though that policy sucks and prevents friends from exchanging games.

What if Sony does the same thing for the PS4?

Would they risk rampant piracy or unlicensed games to thrive?

It IS  a China thing. There are a LOT of fake consoles there and the government is taking this measure to curb the piracy and clones. If Sony has an open policy in China they will deal with a lot of piracy. 

Makes sense, even if it is douchy. In a gigantic country with no competition and full of dozens of millions of people starving for video games, they can do whatever they want and get away with it.

china is piracy capital of the world. of course its always the consumer who gets punished.

ganoncrotch said: spurgeonryan said: Chinese Xbox One Games Contain A One-Time Activation Code, Cannot Be Resold By Nicholas De RosaPublished: 17 September 2014 7:10 AM UTC Posted in: Xbox News Tags: china, Machinae Supremacy, region lock, used games, Xbox One Comments [1] Digg it! Facebook Edit Post   Xbox One’s software in China will contain a single-use activation code, therefore preventing its games from being resold, according to photos posted on the ali213 gaming forums. Chinese Xbox One systems will also be region-locked, according to that same post. This comes as a surprise, as Microsoft was set on reversing its original Xbox One resale policies after its original E3 2013 reveal. The policies applied in China are strikingly similar to those presented at E3 2013 (region lock, no second-hand sales), with the exception of the system always having to be online. There have been no official statements by Microsoft in regards to why they have implemented these policies for Xbox One’s release. It may have to do with the fact that Xbox One is the first gaming and entertainment console approved for sale in China since June 2000, when the country’s minister of culture issued a ban on the sale of video game consoles. Upon its September 23 release, Xbox One will be priced at 3699 chinese yuan, which converts to roughly 600 US dollars. Software will cost between 15 and 40 US dollars. Article from Gamersyndrome.com Wait if you're going to need to activate all games to be able to play them that means the system will have to be connected to the internet pretty much all the time, or at least any time you're getting a new game. Unlucky anyone who doesn't have ready access to the net.

I guess you take your console to the retailer and activate the game there.  However, people with money to buy Xboxes in china do have internet connection. It is still pretty evil of MS to do that.

STOP IT !! JUST STOP IT!! ITS A MS THING NOT CHINA. ITS ALWAYS WAS AMS THING  . i am suprised they would even think about doing drm again ,yet alone doing it. SMH that is y i do not support ms at all.

No... Not saying it works like that but here is one way to do it without the need to have a 24h online connection:

This would be costly for MS: One time activation code provided with the media which contain the data encrypted with a unique key... The activation code will contact MS servers to get this unique key (and flag it as redeemed). The user can then decrypt the data and install it (and activate it locally like today's Xbox One games). The key can even be bind to the account.

The other one is that there is one time activation to bind it to the console (you cannot play the game directly with the data on the disk) and then you do not need an internet connection. Again, like it is already working today with the "main Xbox One" console feature.

So no, the system does not have to be connected to the internet pretty much all the time

Guess what. If Sony could get away with a DRM system they would do it. DRM is going to happen eventually whether we like it or not. Microsoft was just stupid enough to try and put it out there now.