Keen is reviewing the PS4 vs. XBox One, and says “Always online, 24-hour check-ins, no used games, etc just don’t bother me. Computer game DRM never seemed to cause any problems for me despite the outcry it gets. My consoles are always connected to the internet anyway, and I rarely ever buy and sell used games. Obviously I’m in the minority on these issues.” And that made me stop and wonder whether he actually *is* in the minority. To be more precise, I am not sure that he is in the minority of actual customers in not having a problem with DRM. Somebody who *does* have a problem tends to be far more vocal about it than somebody who doesn’t, so just looking at what people say on the internet isn’t going to give us actual numbers.

Unfortunately actual numbers are hard to come by. I found different numbers on used games sales, but as they are expressed in terms of money, and a used game costs less than a new game, it is hard to compare used game sales with new game sales to see what percentage of players resells their used games and would thus be bothered by a system that prevents that. It is even harder to find out what percentage of players doesn’t have internet at least once every 24 hours.

I do believe there is a large number of people whose reaction is exactly like Keen’s: They look at what games are available first, the price difference second, and the DRM issue barely or not at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if I read news around Christmas that the XBone is sold out. That is as close as I think we can get to having numbers on how bothered people really are.