Nope, I think core parts of the program are encrypted on the dongle and if it's not present, no program.
But as others have said - too expensive for a single game solution.
However, the Dongle used by SB2PE is actually multi-license cabable, you can download additional licenses do it, and a dongle can even "serve" a license over network.
So in theory, if everyone had a dongle like SB2PE as a one-time purchase, and there was an agreement from most publishers to "standardize" on this dongle solution, it would be VERY cost effective. You could buy games online, download them, add the license to the dongle and play them offline. Or buy games offline on disk, with a license serial included.
AND in theory these licenses could be even stored "remote" so in case you don't want to use the dongle, it should be possible to have a "check at startup" over internet to the central license manager server.
The basic idea seems really simple: Secure storage for licenses on an offline hardware that can not be copied, or the option to run online without this hardware.
Problem is, if this went to such a scale, there would be much more incentive for pirates to crack it, and even Dongles are not secure.
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