Well, not in the sense that it always requires an internet connection, which it what it usually refers to these days.
Uh, yes it does require an always on internet connection. There is an offline mode, but you have to be online first before you go into that.
Since When? Oh, sorry. I thought you said there was an always-online requirement. Either I misread or you can't understand the self-explanitory term "always-online"
You cant play any games that werent in your library before going into offline if you go into it. In any case other than turning offline mode on, you need to be connected all the time. Just introducing an offline mode doesnt make the core system of Steam not an always on DRM.
You only have to be online to download and possibly activate your digital games. Aside from that you can be offline as much as you want.
DRM or "Digital Rights Management" doesn't just mean an "always online" verification system. That is one technique under DRM. Apple's music used to be (or still is, not sure anymore) a special file format that could not be opened on anyone else's computer but the person who bought the song (it wasn't a regular mp3). I haven't used steam in a while but from what I remember the game is not actually on your computer. All you have is a serial number which is linked to your steam account which grants you access to the game. As long as you have that serial number you can play the game on any computer you log into your steam account with but that's no different then the system Microsoft was proposing. You cannot lend steam games you friends or resell them. A lot of games have a dev kit but not all games have them so you can just "make mods" for all steam games. Now, I want to differentiate a bit here. Indie developers publish on Steam all the time so the argument of "it supports the developers" actually is applicable on Steam in most cases and piracy for PC games is much more prevalent than it is for console games. What I'm trying to say is while DRM policies are usually not well received, they at least make much more sense in the PC space for platforms such as Steam than they do for consoles games WHERE YOU HAVE A CHOICE between digital purchase and physical copy. @Wood Wonk, what you as well as those who think as you keep missing is the reality of the world we live in. Internet is not ubiquitous yet, especially not good internet. I can dream and hope that to be the case all I want but the reality is it will still take some time before that it is the case. I mean Microsoft obviously figured the physical disk was important to someone because they included the damn disk tray (though I suppose they could have figured that was more for the blu-ray than the games). Anyway, if you're going to support physical disks than you have to understand people like to lend the physical medium to people or resell it when their done (just as people do with CDs, books, dvds, any other physical object). If Microsoft was smart they would have offered a choice. They could have done ALL the fancy sharing and whatnot with games bought through Games on Demand (because really, what value do we get out of buying games on there now other than convenience) while keeping the physical disk separate for people who like getting their games that way. Microsoft could have gathered all sorts of data this way by seeing how many people opt to buy games digitally which would offer people the expanded features over a physical disk versus people going to a retailer. "Innovation" through unnecessary restrictions is not innovation. And every time someone says "well now the experience is no different than PS4 or the current gen" I want to slap them. Did none of the other features of either system sink in with you? Why is it that JUST sharing a game with 10 other people (which was never actually explained in serious detail) was the "only difference" worth talking about?
Glad it's gone and good riddance. As I said before I live in an area where the Internet dies if it rains for more than a few hours, and since it rains more often than not from fall through to spring that is a good portion of the year where I would have a $750NZD blu ray player I could have gotten installed in my PC for about $50 and fury if you think I am going to read the walls of text by people other than actuall news sites you're a bigger idiot than you think I am.
You have to download your games from steam. So literally all you have to do is run the game once after it's finished downloading, then you can play it offline. Forever. Furthermore, you're literally saying "It's always-on because it tries to launch with an internet connection, and you don't have access to all features of the service while offline." Literally what you're saying would lead one to conclude that the Xbox 360 is an always-on console because you don't have access to Xbox LIVE when you're not connected to the internet. While reselling them probably won't happen, it appears lending them isn't far off. And, just found this out, The "Family Sharing Plan" wasn't what Microsoft made it out to be. It was a glorified demo that your 'family' members would be able to play for a certain amount of minutes (Highest being an hour) until prompting them to buy the game for themselves if they liked it. Gotta love that innovation!
don't know who the **** CBOAT is but I am not surprised in the slightest that it was not what were made to believe it would be.
Really? You're getting upset over something that will probably never be confirmed because of its removal, after an anonymous pastebin. It doesn't matter if you wouldn't past them, it's not a reliable source. Until it is confirmed, don't get so worked up. Just not worth it, IMO.
Neogaf is known for posting anything someone says as a potential rumor. A few grains of salt would be a good idea.
I just thought of something, If you were in the middle of your game, and your wireless tanked, wouldn't your game just stop all of a sudden? (and make you restart)
No, it probably would have worked like how it is with digital games now. If you disconnect, you have to reconnect within a timeframe. They could have extended or shortened as they pleased, thus making it a seemingly arbitrary protection to most people.
Not unless it is a game that requires cloud computing or is a mutiplayer online game. The once a day connection policy wouldn't have affected random drops of connection throughout the day.
Don't think anyone knows for 100% certain how it would work, we can just assume how it could've/should've worked. After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360. But there also removing all beneficial features like the free digital copy's you got along side your disk just in case your CD broke, So its not all good but the good out weighs the bad imo.
Leaked E3 MS/Sony info from CBOAT-neogaf - Discussion - rllmukforum.com CBOAT has yet to be wrong with the exception of him saying there would be a Prince of Persia game announced this year at E3. However, this is probably a similar situation to last year. Last year he said Dead Rising 3 would be premiering, but it ended up getting delayed until this year. So, based on his extensive track record, he's probably right about everything and him confirming this actually means quite a lot.