Sony Confirms PlayStation 4 will not block used games

[Mavrick]

Shuhei Yoshida confirms it. Plus: source tells EG patent wasn't PS4-related.

Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has told Eurogamer that PlayStation 4 will not block the use of second-hand games, contrary to various reports, speculation and even a Sony patent unearthed last month.

I sat down with Yoshida a few hours after the PS4 reveal tonight and one of the first things I asked was whether used games would be blocked.

"Do you want us to do that?" he asked.

No, I 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, I 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?"

I said I thought that was fine.

Interestingly, I also spoke to a Sony source elsewhere at the event this evening who told me that the anti used-game patent discovered last month was actually nothing to do with PlayStation 4 at all.

The patent suggested that discs would come branded with a contactless tag that could be recognised and read by your console, which would then bind it to you and prevent you from selling it on.

But whatever reason Sony did have for patenting it, it sounds like it wasn't for its next-generation console. Hopefully Microsoft will also avoid this ludicrous technology with its next-generation Xbox as well.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ock-used-games

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by Mavrick

Shuhei Yoshida confirms it. Plus: source tells EG patent wasn't PS4-related.



http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ock-used-games

It does not mean there will not be a fee to play a used game. I don't care about this really. I have few used games, and I have never sold one.

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

I really shouldn't...but when am I gonna have the opportunity again?

[blu-mike]

Xbox is looking pretty bleak(;

[MoulinBlu]

They don't need the bad PR from blocking used physical games, when the market is gravitating or being aggressively pushed toward downloads and the clouds, which can't be transferred anyway.

[Omegaice]

Well, that is great news!

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using carrier pigeons.

[SDG]

What are the hatters gona hate about?

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Well my main hope is that if I buy a game on a disc, I can put it in any PS4 any play it with no problem, at least on any kind of single player/offline mode. My main reason for this is long term access. Some day after the PS4 is retired, if my console breaks, I still want to be able to take that disc and put it in another system.

I know things are going more and more to downloading, etc, but I will still buy as much of my content on physical media as possible... including any updated editions of games (i.e. the GOTY editions) that include the DLC on the disc with the main game.

I don't want to have to enter some activation code just to play the game at all with there being no way to activate it on another console one day after Sony is no longer supporting it.

I don't have as much of a problem with "online passes" in which a new copy of a game comes with a code to access online playability and someone who buys it used has to purchase the online pass through the network to play against others since that is a feature that will disappear anyway once the console is no longer supported.

[Chris60119]

Originally Posted by SDG

What are the hatters gona hate about?

That the disc's are round

[IStoleYourUsername]

Wonder how much a new game is going to cost? $59.99 now is ridiculous. I can imagine they'll bump up the price to $64.99 and possibly $69.99. That's insane, especially when you don't even get a complete game anymore and have to buy all the DLC to get the full game.

[Monkey]

Originally Posted by IStoleYourUsername

Wonder how much a new game is going to cost? $59.99 now is ridiculous. I can imagine they'll bump up the price to $64.99 and possibly $69.99. That's insane, especially when you don't even get a complete game anymore and have to buy all the DLC to get the full game.

I think Ubisoft said they weren't going to up it.

I think they'd lose money by upping the prices more. The new model of DLC, add-ons, etc ends up being more then $59.99 for some anyways.

[madlost1]

Originally Posted by IStoleYourUsername

Wonder how much a new game is going to cost? $59.99 now is ridiculous. I can imagine they'll bump up the price to $64.99 and possibly $69.99. That's insane, especially when you don't even get a complete game anymore and have to buy all the DLC to get the full game.

I'm pretty sure the pricing for a new title was announced at the meeting. Anywhere from $3 (obviously for network games) - $60.

[RaijinUT]

Not like Sony has never lied to its fans before...

Xbox-next games are linked to the profile via some sort of code. Sony could easily do the same thing.

I am sure the xbox-next will allow used games... but you will need to pay Microsoft / The publisher for a code to unlock it.

Would be an easy thing for Sony to do too...

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Well my main hope is that if I buy a game on a disc, I can put it in any PS4 any play it with no problem, at least on any kind of single player/offline mode. My main reason for this is long term access. Some day after the PS4 is retired, if my console breaks, I still want to be able to take that disc and put it in another system.

agree.

[binarymelon]

Did I miss the discussion on the NextBox always online shitstorm that happened on Friday? Can't seem to find anything about it on here.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by binarymelon

Did I miss the discussion on the NextBox always online shitstorm that happened on Friday? Can't seem to find anything about it on here.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it here either, to be quite honest. It's not off-topic to the forum since the next Xbox is rumored to contain a Blu-ray drive and will in any case be in direct competition to the PS4.

For those that are out of the loop:

* Rumors have been swirling for months that Microsoft's next Xbox, code named Durango, would require an always-online connection to function. Most people dismissed the rumor because it's crazy talk to require games that have no online functionality to be connected online... right?

* Last week, Kotaku posted a story stating that they now had two independent sources confirm the rumors. The story goes on to claim that Durango will only tolerate the console being disconnected from the internet for 3 minutes. After that, it will suspend whatever you're doing and require you to reconnect, even if you're in the middle of a game.

This caused a lot of negative buzz for Microsoft, as the story got picked up pretty much everywhere, including mainstream media.

* On Friday, one of Microsoft's Creative Directors for Xbox, Adam Orth, had some odd things to say on Twitter about "always on" devices.

Unprompted by anyone, he stated:

Originally Posted by Adam Orth, Microsoft Creative Director, Xbox division

I don't get the drama around having an 'always on' console. Every device now is 'always on'. That's the world we live in. #dealwithit

He got chastised by lots of people, including Manveer Heir, a game designer at Bethesda Softworks, and held his ground, eventually insulting people that didn't have reliable high speed internet and people who didn't live in cities, while making bizarre analogies to cell phones and vacuum cleaners.

This didn't exactly get a warm welcome from people who saw the tweets, and it got picked up by gaming forum NeoGAF, and spread from there to pretty much every gaming press site. The uproar eventually caused Microsoft to issue this tepid apology:

Originally Posted by Microsoft

We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday.

This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers. We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter.

Note the lack of denial of the actual rumor.

Now today comes Paul Thurott, a very pro-Microsoft tech blogger with inside sources at Microsoft, who today posted this article responding to the furor, and confirming the rumor that Durango will require an always-on internet connection

Originally Posted by Paul Thurott, pro-Microsoft tech blogger

Folks, the next Xbox is going to require an always-on Internet connection. I don’t know the specifics of what that means, but as I explained on this week’s What The Tech podcast, which was recorded on Friday instead of the usual Tuesday because of my travel earlier in this week, this piece of information had been communicated to me, along with some other relevant tidbits, in January. It’s true.

And that's where we stand today.

[Steelmaker]

Originally Posted by Icemage

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it here either, to be quite honest. It's not off-topic to the forum since the next Xbox is rumored to contain a Blu-ray drive and will in any case be in direct competition to the PS4.

For those that are out of the loop:

* Rumors have been swirling for months that Microsoft's next Xbox, code named Durango, would require an always-online connection to function. Most people dismissed the rumor because it's crazy talk to require games that have no online functionality to be connected online... right?

* Last week, Kotaku posted a story stating that they now had two independent sources confirm the rumors. The story goes on to claim that Durango will only tolerate the console being disconnected from the internet for 3 minutes. After that, it will suspend whatever you're doing and require you to reconnect, even if you're in the middle of a game.

This caused a lot of negative buzz for Microsoft, as the story got picked up pretty much everywhere, including mainstream media.

* On Friday, one of Microsoft's Creative Directors for Xbox, Adam Orth, had some odd things to say on Twitter about "always on" devices.

Unprompted by anyone, he stated:



He got chastised by lots of people, including Manveer Heir, a game designer at Bethesda Softworks, and held his ground, eventually insulting people that didn't have reliable high speed internet and people who didn't live in cities, while making bizarre analogies to cell phones and vacuum cleaners.

This didn't exactly get a warm welcome from people who saw the tweets, and it got picked up by gaming forum NeoGAF, and spread from there to pretty much every gaming press site. The uproar eventually caused Microsoft to issue this tepid apology:



Note the lack of denial of the actual rumor.

Now today comes Paul Thurott, a very pro-Microsoft tech blogger with inside sources at Microsoft, who today posted this article responding to the furor, and confirming the rumor that Durango will require an always-on internet connection



And that's where we stand today.

Refresh my memory, has Sony come out and said whether or not PS4 will require an internet conneection? I dont remember if that has even been addressed by Sony.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Steelmaker

Refresh my memory, has Sony come out and said whether or not PS4 will require an internet conneection? I dont remember if that has even been addressed by Sony.

Yes, the day after the Feb. 20 reveal, actually.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...yoshida-on-ps4

Eurogamer: Does the console always need to be connected to the internet?

Shuhei Yoshida: You can play offline, but you may want to keep it connected. The system has the low-power mode - I don't know the official term - that the main system is shut down but the subsystem is awake. Downloading or updating or you can wake it up using either the tablet, smartphone or PS Vita.

Eurogamer: Are all of those things optional? For people who have broadband data limits, for example? They can customise everything?

Shuhei Yoshida: Oh yes, yes, you can go offline totally. Social is big for us, but we understand there are some people who are anti-social! So if you don't want to connect to anyone else, you can do that.

[madlost1]

Here's a cap of the twitter comments and a nice reply from Kaz:

[Icemage]

^ That's not Kaz Hirai, it's a joke Twitter account.