Interesting read, but I disagree with the steam thing.

I bought my first game off steam last week, stalker clear sky. The thing I disagree with is that I don't have to be online to play it.

I loaded it up yesterday with my net connection down and steam went into offline mode and let me play the game just fine.

Plus I only paid $44AUD for it instead of the butt rape $79 in store here. That alone stopped me from pirating it while waiting for it to hit the bargain bins.

DRM and its added costs are what is killing gaming sales, that and the fact that EA like to just franchise pump.

As for the 2nd hand market, just imagine when they transfer that to the console. The console market thrives on the 2nd hand.

EDIT: to what Jack posted above me there, sure you have to initially authenticate the steam game online, but man, you've just finished downloading the game and still are connected, no?