Does Steam allow these things? Why is MS held to a different standard by you?
I've answered this before, I'm sure.
Steam is a store, that sells games with many types of DRM. It is not tied to a single piece of hardware that requires daily reactivation to operate. It is not even tied to a single OS, or even a single OS vendor. Some of my purchases through steam do not require online access to be maintined, and the ones that do do not need it on a daily basis. There are even some games that can be re-installed and reactivated without any further interaction with Steam. There are even some games on Steam that use old fashioned keys that don't even require Steam or an internet connection to continue being used indefinitely on any computer I wish to use them on. There is no single point of failure for all of the things I've bought through Steam. Additionally, I can usually "buy" games through Steam for rental prices through the abundant of sales - any game with restrictive DRM I treat as a rental. In practical terms, I can also work around almost any DRM I don't agree with, if I should ever choose to do so. That said, I do not like the fact that I cannot freely give my games away or lend them to my friends or sell them.
On the other hand ...
Xbox One is a single hardware and software platform, running a single DRM system, where all games were going to be dependant on the platform phoning home once a day, and where
all of my games could be taken off me at any point, just because, and where I would have no legal or practical way to get them back.
Comparisons between "Steam" and the totality of Xbox One are reductive and mostly unhelpful.
It seems entirely possible all the former benefits of MS scheme will be eventually retained for digital purchases, anyway (they seem to be hinting at it). Which would put them massively better than PSN or Steam, which I dont see you focusing any anger on...
But PSN hasn't tried to take away my right to run game disks without their daily check ins. Why would I be angry at PSN for that? I don't like restrictions on "digital purchases" but this is the status quo for most games (though not all games on PC thankfully), while MS's move to strip important rights from owners of disk based games was a new and immediate and encroaching threat so it gets freshly targeted anger, and quite deservedly.
Anyways, you truly dont think people like you wouldn't create a firestorm of faux-rage if MS now said you could opt-in to the former scheme???? Talk about confusing, muddling, what needs to be a clear message...the message on forums would be "omg, MS is backing out again! Kill them!". Regardless how stupid it would be...
I think if MS had handled this better (and earlier) they could have kept some DRM based digital sharing from day one, but it's starting to look like their system isn't ready to do that. No contingency I guess, just an awful lot of misplaced and undeserved confidence in their ability to force the customer to do what they didn't want.
Hell logic never enterred this anyway, do you know how many people would just lie to me on facebook or the like and say "MS banned used games"? They specifically did not ban used games. But that doesn't matter.
MS provided mechanisms for publishers to block used games, and placed restrictions on used games being given, and blocked private sale of used games, and blocked lending of used games. I can forgive anyone that mistakenly saw this as MS "banning used games", as depending on publisher specifics and depending on what used games meant to you (e.g. private sales or lending) MS may well have seemed to do just that.
My goodness, MS have really really screwed this up. The wrong DRM system, an inflexible DRM system, misjudging their customers to a staggering degree, alienating their core market, completely cutting off some parts of the market unnecessarily, mishandling a difficult message, then making it worse by talking a lot and saying nothing, then making it worse by refusing to clarify, then going silent, then finally doing a huge U turn where they had to drop one of the few truly positive things about the system.
Yeah, that's a mess alright.