PLAYSTATION 4 WILL NOT BLOCK USED GAMES [UPDATED] ...

10:53 pm - Wed, Feb 20, 2013: 143 notes

PLAYSTATION 4 WILL NOT BLOCK USED GAMES [UPDATED]

According to Eurogamer, one of the finer points not discussed during Sony’s presentation tonight, was actually addressed after the reveal.

Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer asked Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida if Sony was going to block used games on the system.

“Do you want us to do that?” Yoshida asked.

No, [Bramwell] said. I think, if you buy something on a disc, that you have a kind of moral contract with the person you’ve bought it from that you retain some of that value and you can pass it on.

Do you agree, I asked?

“Yes. That’s the general expectation by consumers,” said Yoshida. “They purchase physical form, they want to use it everywhere, right? So that’s my expectation.”

So if someone buys a PlayStation 4 game, [Bramwell] asked, you’re not going to stop them reselling it?

“Aaaah,” was Yoshida’s initial answer, but seemingly only because he’d forgotten his line. “So what was our official answer to our internal question?” he asked his Japanese PR advisor. The advisor stepped in but didn’t seem to answer clearly, at least to my ears. Yoshida then took control again firmly:

“So, used games can play on PS4. How is that?”

While that seems to have put the issue to rest, my suspicion about Sony is the same that I have about Microsoft—I think both consoles will allow the playing of used games on their systems but publishers will start selling re-activation keys for the games. Only time will tell.

[UPDATE] Seems that my suspicions were confirmed this morning at a roundtable with Sony. Kotaku reports that:

“Sony’s game studios chief, Shuhei Yoshida, told reporters that any requirement for users to register a game online in order to play it would be left to game publishers. Sony won’t require that.”

And why would publishers require you to register a game online? So you have to buy a re-activation key of course!