Report: New Sony Patent Blocks Second Hand Games

The Angry Beaver

The Angry Beaver

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Sony has apparently patented technology that will limit the use of second-hand games on possible future consoles (PS4?). The patent which can be viewed here, explains that this is part Sony's ongoing effort to deter or eliminate second-hand game sales. The system works, according to the document, by attaching contactless RF "tags" to each game that can be be read without a network connection. This basically means when a disc is first used, the disc ID and player ID will be stored on the tag. Every time the disc is used in future, the tag will check if the two ID’s match up and, if not, then the disc won’t work.

The patent doesn't mention the full ramifications of this technology:
- What happens if your system fails and needs to be replaced? Will your games still work?
- What if you take a game to a friends house for a game night? Will your games still work?
- Is this technology even legal in the United States? Second-hand sales of electronic content is legal in the US (including all States) and most countries, so I'm wondering how they plan to get around antitrust laws if they try to implement what is essentially a ban on consumer-to-consumer sales.

To date, Sony has not officially commented on the patent. I am pretty confident we will not hear anything regarding this issue until Sony confirms the PS4. They will probably not mention this topic right off the bat, but if you hear language regarding digital rights management (DRM), start to be concerned.

I am really curious how the average consumer will react to this news. Let me know.

- The Angry Beaver
 
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The average consumer will be pissed at this news. Personally, I will not buy any new consoles that have a technology that blocks used games. Instead I'll focus on collecting older games for my existing consoles, because there are still some games I don't have yet.

Or , let's say I did buy one of these consoles, I would wait and wait before buying games so that the price would drop. The game would technically be brand new so the console would read it, but I would have paid $15-$20. There is no way I will ever pay $60 for a game disc. I'm an adult with a family and bills to pay, not a rich teenager.

Plus I don't like being pushed or manipulated by a corporation, so I'll rebel against it.
 
Its no secert that all the console manufactorers are not fans of the secondary used game market. For me its great. I buy what i really wanted to get now and can get the things i want later. Its a turn off no doubt but the direction really has been going to digital content. For all we know this next generation could be the last for disc based content before a move to total digital. Something like the steam network would be my guess.
 
I can't blame them either, but this is an issue that's going to need to be addressed within the next few years, for many different types of electronic media. The concept of DRM is really leaving a sour taste in consumers' mouths--I was just writing an op-ed for my local newspaper about e-readers, and the disturbing thought that you don't actually own the Kindle book you just paid money for; you just license the rights to read it.

I won't be purchasing anything with this sort of DRM either. It's abhorrent to me that the corporations feel that they can overstep the boundaries of producer-consumer relationships like this. Once you've bought something, then it should be yours. That includes digital property, too.

Angry Beaver, you bring up some great points, and ones that show just how illogical this technology is. If your system needs replacing, they CANNOT expect you to pay for your games all over again. At the end of the day, there will need to be a new understanding of how digital property is owned. It might be a painful few years while lawmakers and consumers and manufacturers fight it out. The thing is, the gaming industry fans are hard to please, but very loyal. They don't like to be pissed off. I don't know if Sony thinks they have enough of a stranglehold to try something this ballsy--it's just not a great PR move. They don't have the casual gaming market of the Wii, and they suffered when they tried introducing the Move right after the Kinect and it just seemed so silly and ridiculous.

Well. Whatever happens, I'll be watching with popcorn and a lot of scotch.
 
I won´t buy any consoles that put restrictions to second hand games or rented games, if I buy a game, I have the right to sell it to whoever I choose, the same thing if I want to buy a used game for my console because is cheaper, Sony does not have the right to decide what i can do with my games, if they implement any restrictions like this in their new console it will affect sales, they can be sure of this.
 
This is ridiculous action that Sony is undertaking. They want to create a monopoly and squeeze consumers out of more money. They make so much money already and yet they want more. This is greedy and if they enact this plan, they will lose customers. How will customers be able to rent games and resell games. This decision if comes to fruition will have a widespread negative implication. I hope this is not true and they do not decide to do this.
 
I like to buy the new games. Cause in all honesty you don't know how good the used games really are. Even though they are cheaper and not that expensive I always tell myself that cheaper isn't the best way to go around sometimes. You can pay the full price and be happy with what you got and it might last you longer in the long wrong. Then buy you something cheap and it only lasting a couple of months
 
You know, the shitstorm this would cause would actually be pretty hilarious to watch. I doubt they will actually pull it off, though. Sony are stupid but I hope that they aren't this stupid.
 
That seems pretty sneaky on their part. I wonder if they would make special accommodations for game rental companies. If they put this into play this would definitely make me not want to buy a PS4.
 
I personally can't see this being looked at in a good light by the general public. This will cut out any and all game re-sellers as well as the Gamefly type of game rental business. When locking a game into just a single console cuts out millions of potential profits of others, you bet that they'll rise up and bring some type of anticompetitive measure to the courts.
 
vect0r said:
That seems pretty sneaky on their part. I wonder if they would make special accommodations for game rental companies. If they put this into play this would definitely make me not want to buy a PS4.
Click to expand...

As far as rental companies are concerned, I think they are going to slowly be eliminated. Although it will be a long time since PS3 and 360 Games will still be popular for a few years as the new systems are released. But we already see this type of migration with PlayStation Plus. The free 60-minute trials of a game are essentially the same concept of a game rental, just without the potential to actually beat the game before it is returned.

Price-wise, I think the prices of games will drop. Sometimes, you can find newly released games cheaper on the PSN than you could new at GameStop. As this technology becomes more popular, so will memberships like PlayStation Plus in addition to the discounts they receive. Sony has already been pretty generous with the Instant Game Library promotion, things like this are going to become a lot more common.

Quite honestly, the success of the PSN and PlayStation Plus is a major indicator that converting to an all digital method of gaming won't be that bad. If you are concerned about where the new Xbox is headed, check out this interesting article from Kotaku.com.

http://kotaku.com/5982097/report-th...m_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow
 
I think it would be much easier to enforce DRM of digitally downloaded content and slowly allow physical media to slowly fade into the background.
 
The writing is on the wall with used games folks. Xbox720 will have one-time activation codes as well making it impossible to trade and resell them. The used game market is being killed BUT older systems and older games do not have their feature and this news makes their value go UP imo.

It's a good time to buy used games and used consoles to add to your collection, they won't be getting any cheaper now.
 
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