No pre-owned games to be allowed for Playstation 3 (rumour)

Scruff

Well if this is true it's another dent in the forthcoming ps3's image, one that if true i have to say would really out me off (though the huge price tag already has tbh)

Article from [linkd=theInquirer]http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27568[/linkd]

A PATENT may allow Sony to ensure that no game would be playable from any console other than the one in which it was first read.

Joystiq is reporting that this patent is the source of the many rumours that will mean as much to gamers as DRM is for music fans.

The technology would allow an authentication code to be read and then rendered unreadable, making the software unplayable on any machine but the one which first read it.

But this has caused considerable backlash from the gaming community. While many are aware of the double profit companies make on pre-owned games, this would ensure the death of trading games between friends and even going to a friend's house to play a little multiplayer.

No less than Ken Kataguri himself is listed among the inventors, which makes it look like this is a move that came from very high up. It has already been pointed out that many Playstation users have had to replace their console, surely this would leave us high and dry in that event.
While the PS3 hasn't been expressly mentioned in the patent in English or Japanese it would be the obvious place to employ this new technology, regardless of how little gamers will appreciate it. Between this and the DRM scandal, Sony could be looking at a serious drop in interest in the PS3. You can be sure you'll see more on this as it develops. As gamers, we can only hope that modern technology won't undermine the tried and tested barter system. µ

The Troll

Scruff wrote:

Well if this is true it's another dent in the forthcoming ps3's image, one that i have to say would really out me off (though the huge price tag already has tbh)

Article from [linkd=theInquirer]http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27568[/linkd]

Thats a load of bollox

Scruff

yeah think so myself. probably ony registering the patent for its possible liscensing value rather than applying it to games.

CuLT

waffle; probably illegal too even if it were real.

Placebo

that just means you cant even bring your game over to a friends for some multiplayer action, out rageous idea tbh

rainbow kirby

I'd just like to see how the game stores of the world react to that!

projectmayhem

so basically it's the same idea as PC games...

couldn't give a toss tbh. i rarely buy traded games or trade them in.

anyway, it's probably load of crap. sony should really get on their toes and get to shutting this stuff down

super_furry

Could be some truth in it. I went in to trade in some US PSP games in GAME only to be told they wouldn't take them in because 'Sony asked us not to.'

KdjaCL

To do this the Ps3 would need a burner and a unknown dvd disc that allows some free space to be written on ie the Ps3 serial or somfin.


How the hell they gonna make dvds with info and blank space is beyond me. other wise its not possible. But there is some legal crap between devs and shops about this.
Mainly the point a game store can resell a game 3 or 4 times and the dev only gets 1 cut from the 1st sale.



kdjac

Cabelo

KdjaC wrote:

To do this the Ps3 would need a burner and a unknown dvd disc that allows some free space to be written on ie the Ps3 serial or somfin.

kdjac

The PS3 will ship with a Blu-Ray next gen DVD drive. Each disc holds nearly 50gb and Sony are pushing it as the next DVD format (as you may have noticed they managed with the PS2 and DVD).

Cabelo


P.S. I wrote that article, because I'm a stone cold legend

steviec

Blu Ray aren't writeable though are they? I'm not sure how this would work, and I can't really see it happening to be honest, unless it's via online activation or something. And if they did that they'd be shooting themselves in the foot.

PC games aren't sold second hand because their so easily copyable, the same isn't going to be true for PS3 games, even PS2 games there's a very very small percentage of PS2 owners that have the equipment to use copied games.

I could see it from the point of view that a game gets sold once and its up being used by 5 consumers as it gets sold on, so thats 4 sales lost by Sony. But the majority of games are sold in their release week and often the new price of a game tumbles as quickly as its second hand price(quicker in Game where they don't bother updating their prices) so I really don't see it as a good move.

KdjaCL

From what i know about normal dvds they are images of a master so all identical to give one a activation code would need a seperate master for EACH game, very expensive.

Blu ray afaik i knew wasnt writable by coinsumers so unless the code can be imprinted during the moulding stage of blu rays i can see this happeening or working but .......

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000420067137/ news and this
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=ptxt&S1=%28Kutaragi.INZZ.+AND+Sony.ASNM.%29&OS=in/Kutaragi+AND+an/Sony&RS=%28IN/Kutaragi+AND+AN/Sony

Patent with US gov.

So..... people may say ah it wont sell, it will beacuse the mindless droves wont know about it. Now this isnt all bad if theres a demo for every game on the system. But what it will lead to is chipped Ps3s and a demand for them instantly.

kdjac

Kristok

super_furry wrote:

Could be some truth in it. I went in to trade in some US PSP games in GAME only to be told they wouldn't take them in because 'Sony asked us not to.'

Id say that was just some idiot being a pr!€k I brought in an american psp game for trade and the girl just asked the manager if it was ok to trade them and he said yea there all the same and that was the otehr day I dont think sony would have any say in the matter and trade ins are where these shops get there biggest markups. If the ps3 did this it would be the death of it and sony are in too much financial trouble to take any risks with sce at this point which is one of their ony profit making devisions. Id say this is maby something they want to have as an option at some point but imagine how many people would just buy an xbox 360 instead of a ps3 if they did it.

Cabelo

I doubt it'll be implimented. Word on the street (journalism street) is the same thing has been put together for the PS1 and PS2 but hasn't been included because each time someone heard about it and kicked up a fuss.

I like being part of the solution *salute*.

Royale with Cheese

Sounds like utter rubbish to me. However if this were true and it Sony actually managed to implement this into the ps3 I would buy a 360. It would be that serious.

iregk

I can't see it happening, i mean seriously this is a shoot yourself in teh foot move for any company!

That said it is possible. Iomega used to do it with their install cd's. We had an iomega burner in the office here and installed it out of the box no problem. Reloaded the machine and had to download the drivers as the cd was rendered useless. A girl here that worked for iomega said they put some sort of chemical mixed in with teh disk so when its read once it erased the file table so you can't use it again. Thats the first and only case ive ever heard of it but it is possible even with a normal cd drive!

Still think the story is pants though.

HomunQlus

To put it that way: rumours have roots somewhere.

I can understand if Sony would do this, they also suffer from games being illegally copied you know.

However, if this turns out to be true, I'm not gonna buy a PS3 or an X360.

iregk

HomunQlus wrote:

However, if this turns out to be true, I'm not gonna buy a PS3 or an X360.

So because Sony put this into the PS3 this would also make you not buy an XBOX 360!!!

Kristok

id say he meant to say microsoft instead of sony

HomunQlus

I meant both.

I wouldn't buy a PS3 because of that, and I wouldn't buy a XBox 360 because it has failed to impress me.

skywalker

Not to mention it would kill the rental market.

monument

Apprently, this was all bull...

Update: I contacted Sony to dig up the truth on the nasty rumours contained herein. They are unfounded, as confirmed by Jennie Kong, UK PR Manager at SCEE. From Jennie:

"I would like to clarify that this is false speculation and that PlayStation 3 software will not be copy protected to a single machine but will be playable on any PlayStation 3 console".

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2005/11/15/sonys_clampdown_on_secondhand_games_updated.html