News - Sony looks at disc-tag technology to block use of pre-owned games

[HEXUS]

The system has been patented, could it be used on PS4 discs?

Read more.

[mikerr]

Meh discs, can't we just move to a downloadable steam-like model ?

Then just use the disk to one-time load onto the HDD.

[hb904460]

Meh discs, can't we just move to a downloadable steam-like model ?

Not for people who live in areas with slow and unreliable internet access! Trying to download a game on my broadband would take a week!

[Guy]

Meh discs, can't we just move to a downloadable steam-like model ?

Then just use the disk to one-time load onto the HDD.

No.

I still have a slow connection, and just keeping Steam games updated requires leaving my machine on for several hours overnight.
As much as possible I will still get the media version so I have less to download.

[simonpreston]

This won't (well, shouldn't) happen. Sony would be mad to even try to implement this. Everybody would call time on the Playstation line and buy an X Box instead.
I have a a PS3 with a mix of new and 2nd hand games. If there weren't a second hand market then I doubt I'd have bought one at all.

[Harkin]

Go ahead Sony. In these times with good competition it really wouldn't bother me buying a Xbox. I'm not a fanboy and if another product has better value for money then I'm going with that in a heartbeat.

Sony screwed the pooch when ps2 games weren't compatible with ps3, but this aswell! Walking a seriously fine line Sony Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[3dcandy]

I would imagine that this would be commercial suicide, so expect to see it in the PS4!

[Whiternoise]

Read more.

Why do Crytek care? They have enough on their plate (so they claim) with people pirating their tech demos. I don't think they have a problem with people rampantly buying up Crysis preowned...

[hesham1516]

Yeaaa... I definitely won't get a PS4 now...

Being forced to keep those games that turn out to be utter sh*t because I can't sell it in the used game market removes any chance of me risking my hard earned cash on titles for the platform.

The only alternative would be to rent games and buy the ones I really liked on sale later on... that is IF this stupid protection doesn't affect the rental market that is.

First they continue to charge full price, or above retail value on digital games despite there being 0 manufacturing and shipping costs and now they honestly believe they can force used game purchasers to pay full price when they fact that they are buying used means they cant afford it.

[tenshin111]

How long is it going to take before such practices are banned by law???

If I buy a book and I've finished reading it I can sell it to someone else. If I buy a music CD and don't like I can sell it to someone else.
If I buy a car, TV, pair of shoes, an apple, etc....you know, you can always sell it second hand.

If I buy a video game I...cannot. What the hell? Lost sales? That's a load of crap because car manufacturers or fruit sellers loose their sales too but don't whine about it and don't introduce any 'protection schemes'.

The thing that Sony is trying to do I call a scam. It should be made illegal.

[deejayburnout]

Yet another form of corporations trying to maximise profits.

Would be stupid to kill the pre-owned game buying as I bet at least 50% of games owned are used.

People would buy less games as they would save up for 1 title instead of 2 pre-owned ones as my wife does. She plays games 6months or so behind the initial release so she can trade in her old games for newer ones.

This keeps the staff in Game busy.

Any anyways, I will not be long before people crack the software and you can play on a PS4.

Will probably just delay the inevitable and fuel the pirated game movement.

[hesham1516]

How long is it going to take before such practices are banned by law???

If I buy a book and I've finished reading it I can sell it to someone else. If I buy a music CD and don't like I can sell it to someone else.
If I buy a car, TV, pair of shoes, an apple, etc....you know, you can always sell it second hand.

If I buy a video game I...cannot. What the hell? Lost sales? That's a load of crap because car manufacturers or fruit sellers loose their sales too but don't whine about it and don't introduce any 'protection schemes'.

The thing that Sony is trying to do I call a scam. It should be made illegal.

Doubt it will happen, as it is basically DRM but on physical a physical product. If you look closely on movies games and music you will see the 'not for resale' warning on it. It will raise a lot of questions about consumer rights when it comes to selling products you own though.

[krazy_olie]

Leave it to the individual game people, up to them if they want to allow you to transfer.
E.g on PES 2013 I pretty much couldn't sell it because the online code is linked to my account. Though the rest of the game mostly work.

Game sales benefit from being able to sell them on, it's part of the reason why people will pay £50 for a console game and £30 for a PC game (which these days can rarely be resold). If cars weren't allowed to be resold people wouldn't pay anything like they do.

They could sell the digital distributions for cheaper but that will annoy the shops.

[shaithis]

Buy an Xbox instead? I fully expect both camps to be trying to kill second hand sales this time around

[abaxas]

No.

I still have a slow connection, and just keeping Steam games updated requires leaving my machine on for several hours overnight.
As much as possible I will still get the media version so I have less to download.

Surely with some clever packaging a game could be 500mb initally with another 20g over time. You dont need it all at once.

[Saracen]

Well, I don't have a Sony console, and until/unless this threat is removed by them, won't be buying one.

There are NO circumstances under which I'd buy a game with that restriction. I'd rather forego the game altogether. So unless the threat of this is irrevocably removed, I certainly won't buy into the platform .... and I had been contemplating it.

So for now at least, it's Xbox or nothing, and if MS were to go anywhere near this notion, it'd end up being nothing.

I would, and I mean this quite literally, give up computer gaming altogether before I'll put up with a company telling me I can't sell a game on if I want to, once I've done with it.

Just who the *bleeeeeep* do Sony think they are?

*bleep* you, Sony.