PS3: Games licensed, not owned?

[brokenvoice]

I caught this (http://www.gamesradar.com/gb/ps3/game/news/article.jsp?articleId=20060524153157765035&sectionId=1006) on digg.com today. Now, it's hearsay, from sources so there may be no truth to the rumour. I just find it staggering how Sony manage to court so much negative press.

I was already undecided if I'd buy anymore kit from Sony (their arrogance has been just astonishing recently - rootkit being the worst) but if this is true, then bye bye Sony. It'll be a Samsung telly, a Wii and no PS3 for me.

It must be a symptom of the size of the company, surely.

[lunar]

there was a similar story to this doing the rounds a while ago, maybe about a year. It got shot down as a crazy rumour pretty quickly, as I remember. But, if there does turn out to be truth in it, it`d be bye bye Sony from me too and I hope I`d have the strength not to be tempted by Wipeout for PS3. I probably would. I think it`s incredibly unlikely to be any more than a nasty disinfo campaign by someone, though. The response of the Sony spokesperson in the link is pretty much what you`d expect, true or false.

[AmigoJack]

hmm, somehow this isnt quite quaking. every software nowadays is only sold by giving a license to USE it, not own to it. thats been for ages this way. or am i missing a huge lap of knowledge here on what sony plans with this expression? maybe they bundle the console to only let you play the game if you authenticate online?!

in the end its not very amusing. ok - back in time there wasnt such a "huge pirate chance", when games came on cadridges. today everything is on a disc and discs can be duplicated easily. if i read rare facts right, the sega saturn did a simple move to make copies worthless: the raw discs were manufactured with logos on the outer rings - and such ones are not available for customers.

well - lets wait what comes out with the PS3. if it can also handle every portable game then it has chances to be bought by me (because of pure of course, and of the probably later coming PS3-wipeout)

[Lance]

It must be a symptom of the size of the company, surely.

It's because Sony moved into content ownership when they bought Columbia Records, and subsequently expanded their content holdings. They are no longer a pure hardware manufacturer, their main income is gained from software [IMO], so they do anything to own copyright forever and exclusively. I believe that report you linked to. The official statement by the Sony rep sounds like a yes to me. Sony has become the most extreme of the content owners.

[brokenvoice]

hmm, somehow this isnt quite quaking. every software nowadays is only sold by giving a license to USE it, not own to it.
What Sony may be intending to do goes against the right of first sale. I've bought my last bit of Sony gear: I have the PSP with Pure (and apart from Ridge Racer and Lumines, I still don't see any games worth buying - too busy trying to push UMD as a movie format, the idiots) and my old PS1 (+ neGcon - yay!) with W3:SE inside and the hatch glued shut so that's me sorted. I honestly don't think they can improve on Wipeout enough to warrant my buying a PS3 and becoming even more of a sell-out.

[infoxicated]

I always wonder why people follow internet rumour like sheep and get all enraged about stuff that hasn't any substance.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/24/rumor-sony-to-disable-used-ps3-games-sony-nope/

[lunar]

I guess there would be no better way for Sony to help sell Xbox360s than pursue a thing like this. For some reason, Sony do seem to be getting it in the neck at the moment, and there`s no reason for them to shoot themselves in the foot at the same time.

[brokenvoice]

I always wonder why people follow internet rumour like sheep and get all enraged about stuff that hasn't any substance.
This isn't quite the same thing Foxy. You're talking about software being disabled/keyed to a particular console, the rumour was to do with shops being told not to do second hand trade. The two rumours have been circulating in tandem. And let's not forget how poorly Sony treat their customers.

[Smoothly Does It]

I wasn't planning to buy a PS3 anyway, but if that's true, it's shocking. I agree with brokenvoice, saying games can be played on more than one console doesn't mean they'll allow you to offload the obligatory shite games everyone buys for cash; it may just be the principal of sooo-me holding ownership of something you paid for, but I think this'll shock a few more peeps still. Besides, plans do change in the modern games market :pirate


Oh, yeah... we kinda changed our minds and you can't sell games after all... so there!

Hands up who thinks it's not gonna happen :brickwall

[lunar]

Me. :) If it wasn`t backed up by software/hardware registration they would never be able to really enforce a "no secondhand sales" policy anyway. A million ways round it would be dreamed up, and it would cost a lot more to enforce than the money it would make. The worldwide legal fees alone would probably scare them off from doing it.

Secondly, it would be corporate suicide. Many gamers will choose not to buy the PS3 if it costs more for the hardware than the competitor`s machine, and will then cost more to play a variety of games, while having to adjust to an unfamiliar and inconvenient licensing system. At the moment we can buy a game, get bored with it after a month or two, then sell it on for a £10-15 loss and still get our money`s worth. If we can`t do this any more, people won`t buy the system. Second-hand sales raise money to buy new games and Sony know this. Maybe they would offer some sort of rebate for used games, to compensate, but it would never be a good deal and consumers would be frightened off, I think.

If the PS3 offered something no-one else could offer they might pull off a strategy like this, but the PS3 doesn`t offer anything radically different to the 360 (afaict). So if Sony just make the running costs of their system more expensive, and make gaming less convenient, the PS3 will be a disaster. All the next-gen console undecideds will plump for a 360, which allows them to do what they`ve always been used to doing, and Microsoft will be laughing all the way to Bill Gates` mansion. I`m sure Sony are capable of working all this out for themselves, and it will not happen. I`d be shocked if this was any more than a rumour, with any basis in reality. :)

[Lion]

that would also negate the possibility of rentals.
no rentals = effectively no trial period option whatsoever
and that also would hurt sales

[Zerow]

Whether this is true or not, it makes no difference for me personally, as I stay clear of pre-owned games anyway. I find them nowhere near as appealing when compared to a brand new, unplayed copy of the same game, especially as many pre-owned games I see have boxes with severe wear and tear (and heavily scratched discs, probably). Besides, where I come from, the price difference between unplayed and pre-owned games is insignificant, so why bother, in my case.

[infoxicated]

Man, I'm totally driving down to Cardiff to buy my games in future! ;)

[eLhabib]

to me this sounds like your typical pre launch rumor, set into this world by either a Wii- or 360-fanboy. no way this has any substance at all.

[brokenvoice]

Me. :) If it wasn`t backed up by software/hardware registration they would never be able to really enforce a "no secondhand sales" policy anyway.I've worked in a few musical instrument shops and there are many ways that a supplier can co-erce a shop into doing what it wants. Case in point: in the early 90s, the Fender distributors wouldn't stock one shop in Glasgow because they sold a lot of second hand instruments and were within walking distance of a main Fender dealer. It's very easy if you are a big name and the little shops can't/won't stand up to you.

[lunar]

Absolutely agree :) Most shops would likely be limited in what they could do to resist a big supplier like Sony, but I was thinking of more "underground" methods of people buying second hand games. Prohibition of anything often results in a black or grey market, parts of which would be impossible to stop, and other parts very costly and time-consuming to stop. In this case, an unnofficial market would probably arise on the internet and in the physical world. If this happens, watch out for Sony spies down the pub, looking out for hardened criminals like us swapping a copy of Killzone for PES6, or even (the horror!) exchanging one of them for cash ;)

The whole thing would provide much more motivation for hackers and pirates, too, and possibly provide them with a bigger market.

As Harry Enfield said, is that what you want, Sony, `cos that`s what`ll happen.

They might possibly want to do this, I don`t know, but I still think they must already know the bad consequences and know they can`t, though I don`t have a pipeline to Sony boardrooms any more than any of us :)

[Rapier Racer]

"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."

lol simply the part copy protected to a single machine is just utter rubbish! What if my console broke and it wasn't possible to fix it?