I'm leery of the whole thing - smells like a loss of consumer choice and control to me.
Seems to me that advertisers are starting to wake up to games as a great way to reach the youth market, but there's an obstacle. After buying a game, a gamer may have only limited contact with the game's publisher (download a patch, post a forum message or two), and that's a problem. Advertisers want to be able to feed a gamer advertising and also gather information on consuming habits.
So I reckon digital delivery services will slowly start to make it more and more difficult to just buy a game, register it once and then play it offline thereafter. Likely you'll receive a time based 'licence to play' which will require you to re-register after a period of time. It'll be touted as convenient, free and when you do so you'll recieve new content etc.. but you'll also be required to download in-game advertising and upload personal consumer information before you'll be allowed to play again.
Seems to me that advertisers are starting to wake up to games as a great way to reach the youth market, but there's an obstacle. After buying a game, a gamer may have only limited contact with the game's publisher (download a patch, post a forum message or two), and that's a problem. Advertisers want to be able to feed a gamer advertising and also gather information on consuming habits.
So I reckon digital delivery services will slowly start to make it more and more difficult to just buy a game, register it once and then play it offline thereafter. Likely you'll receive a time based 'licence to play' which will require you to re-register after a period of time. It'll be touted as convenient, free and when you do so you'll recieve new content etc.. but you'll also be required to download in-game advertising and upload personal consumer information before you'll be allowed to play again.