It seems apart from the 24 hr thing MS now have a set up similar to Steam with some other stuff that itunes and the amazon stores use so small hope they also do some Steam like deals.
They have improved recent deals on the 360 but that could be just a fire sale type thing for long time owners looking to upgrade this year?
Michael Pachter thinks publishers might actually wait a few years to start blocking used games. Personally I think they should have just worked out something better with stores, For instance no game can be traded in for its first 3-6 months on sale.[Which is when it sells the most anyways]
The Xbox One does not have a similar setup as Steam and it is a lame and stupid argument. The only thing similar is that Microsoft have built a digital distribution service, but they also tie it to psychical media that casts the illusion of game ownership.
You can not play offline on Xbox One for more than 24 hours.
You can play offline on Steam indefinitely.
You can not play the same game on at least two Xbox One consoles at the same time.
You can play the same game offline with Steam on as many PCs as you want.
There will most likely not be major sales on Xbox One. (GOD are almost the same price as new games MONTHS after release)
There are deep sales frequently on Steam. Some up to 95% off .
There will most likely not be any such thing as a Humble Bundle on Xbox One.
There are weekly and publisher focused Humble Bundles where you can set your own price point, and decide where your money goes in which you can access your game on Steam.
DRM is always required on the Xbox One.
There are games that have zero DRM on Steam, and you can even launch them while Steam is not running .
Microsoft services are the only markets for those wanting to get their games on the Xbox One, thus blocking competition.
On Steam there are various markets that offer competitive prices, forcing Steam to compete and offer better benefits.
You most likely will have to pay for a subscription service such as Xbox Live to gain any of the “features” such as digital distribution, cloud saving, playing online.
Game publishers set subscription models on Steam, a lot of them free. There's free cloud saving, and every other such benefits that Xbox One does not offer .
The Xbox One will probably cost over 300$
Steam costs 0.00$
Consoles are not known for modding (at least legitimately), and the Xbox One won't be the place to do it either.
Steam encourages modding, has SteamWorks for publishers and other free tools for developers and consumers such as free source engines, free film makers, free game tools .
The Xbox One does not offer backwards capability.
Steam offers full backwards capability , the software you have now and before will likely run on any computer as powerful or more powerful than the one it was originally installed on.
But somehow Xbox One is similar to steam. Apples are similar to oranges too, in that their fruit. Aside from that they're completely different.