| psrock said: There is no defense for this no matter how they put it. It's just plain stupid to require this anyway.. |
Yes, and no.
The reason it is required is to determine whether any new software has been added and to determine if there are any changes to your "family" and what games are available to them.
Because what happens if you're online offline and you give your game to someone who is online? The moment you give your retail disc of Call of Duty: Ghost to your friend who has an Internet connected Xbox One, that game instantly becomes his. Doesn't matter if he's borrowing it or you bought it.
You have to have a way to register the game, and to do that you need the license key on the game disc. Once that's done, everything else is cloud-based, so you don't need to be physically online.
I know you're going to try to go into a more extensive direction of whether or not "active DRM" is good or not, but honestly I think the fact that a company the size of Microsoft is taking on DRM to move it forward is a good thing. The problem with DRM isn't DRM, it's the inability for consumers to relate the experience 1:1 to the physical ownership of content. Eliminating those barriers will eventually make rights-managed digital content a much more pleasant experience.
If you don't think Sony is headed in this direction, seriously think otherwise. Sony is a member of both the RIAA and MPAA. In the past they've used some of the most intrusive and vile DRM-ware to ever be created for consumer use. Not to mention, they already currently use DRM, just not on physical, disc-based games.
By the end of this generation, Sony will have moved to 90% digital content distribution, with an active DRM system for disc-based media. Because what's going to happen is people are going to buy the PS4, attempt to hack it, and if they're successful, pirate the games. If this happens, Sony's will respond quicker than it naturally intended with DRM, resulting in a consumer backlash. Because while Microsoft system matured and developed into a usable technology, Sony's will be cumbersome and far more intrusive.
You can Don Quixote DRM all you want, but it is a fight you and others will eventually lose.
