PS4 Will Not Block Used Games or Require an Online Connection

[ASnogarD]

... and yet the sheep will flock and buy Xbox One, and keep MS XBox division ridiculously profitable. They will buy it for Killer Instinct, Halo, Gears, Dead Arising, Ghosts... then they will complain when the DRM fails and stops them playing, but they will still buy MS stuff, and complain the company is killing the industry, and they will still buy.

Thats the problem, the vast majority of gamers dont care about anti consumer or how the big companies are shafting them, they will whine and complain, threaten to boycott but when the bloody box hits the shop shelves, they will be buying it while whining about it at the same time.

It happens all the time...

Prime example is CoD MW 2 PC ... a hell of a lot threatened to boycott the title because of its anti PC stance (no dedi servers, no consoles, no modding, no server browsing, etc etc) ... day the title launched the leaders of the boycott group were practically first in line to buy the bloody game...

... same with L4D2.

I dont expect MS to feel any pain from this 'loss' , when the box hits the shelves it will sell... unfortunately.

 

[smithy_2045]

What'd be hilarious is if PS4 games cost twice as much as Xbone games as a result.

 

[Candidus]

I don't know whether anyone here has said it ahead of me, I might have missed it skimming to the end of page 3...

But you guys might be interested to know that Sony developed the software that publishers may now use to charge you for attempting to register a used game. This was a story a bit more or less than a year ago.

Sony SOLD it to Microsoft, while keeping silent on whether or not they were going to use it themselves- but perhaps offering vague assurances to Microsoft behind closed doors that they would.

This is a clever sabotage; it's treachery on a par with EVE:O shenanigans. I think I'll endorse it by purchasing a PS4.

I still want to play The Last Guardian after all, and I don't think it's happening on the PS3 anymore.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

Damn, Microsoft got utterly destroyed. Just saw the parts of the conference where Sony were making digs at the Xbone. Well, I suppose this is just what I wanted to see. XD

 

[GonzoGamer]

I'll admit, I was one of those people. The way things have been going lately can you blame me? Sony was the one that made online pass standard on all their 1st party games.

It was good to see Jack Trenton not only be explicit (repeatedly) this time but he was just smugly twisting the knife after a while. Still not buying a ps4 (not at launch at least) but that almost made me want to.
A little worried about Plus being required for online.

No I don't blame you and kudos for coming forward , so we can expect you looking at the PS4 once the price drops perhaps?

Provided it gets much better support than my ps3, Sure. And I don't just mean the software; the firmware too.
I'll sure as hell buy it before even thinking about buying an xbone.

 

[RJ 17]

On the whole, your opinion as a consumer, with their product line, where do you think Microsoft will be by the end of the decade? It's you as a consumer that will decide it's fate.

My guess is that unless they end up releasing a version of the Xbox One that doesn't have all the things that gamers have been angry about, the Xbox is going to go the way of the Dreamcast. Add to it the fact that Windows 8 was a bust and the outlook isn't very good. Someone else in this topic said that if the publishers side with MS due to the fact that the Xbox One seems to favor publisher rights as a gaming console over gamer rights. My belief is that the simple laws of Supply and Demand would suggest that that will not be the case. Currently there's a big wave of support for the PS4 as Sony has come out and confirmed that their system won't be weighed down by all the negatives that the new Xbox has. It'll be hard to justify not making games for the PS4 when the demand for your Xbox exclusives plummets.

As the saying goes, gamers vote with their wallets. If the "features" of the Xbox have chased off a large portion of their target market (as the sentiment around this website would have us believe) then clearly people will be more likely to go with the competition. I highly doubt that publishers will bind themselves to a sinking ship just on a matter of principle over "We want absolute control over used game sales!" Being stubborn rarely makes a profit.

The thing is, though, from my understanding, all the things that people don't like about the new Xbox (i.e. mandatory Kinect, mandatory broadband connection, all this confusion over used/rented games) are part of its core design, they'd pretty much have to redesign the thing if they wanted to make up for their mistakes.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Sure this news is a huge plus toward PS4 but they should have other features or pros that isn't all being oppersite to X Box One.

 

[Saregon]

Already knew I was not going to get the Xbox One, and that I will get a Wii U near christmas. And this sealed it for me, will be getting a PS4 when The Witcher 3 comes out (I'm mostly a PC gamer, but that game looks like it's been designed specifically to melt computers that aren't powered by cold fusion).

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Good news? Maybe, it's in the hands of the publishers now... We know some of the big publishers are desperate to try and restrict or stop used games, so what happens if they decide to throw in support for the Xbone and leave the PS4 in the dust?

Trouble is that it only seem to be EA that really want that (who were actually absent from Sony conference), has you had other major publisher (Ubisoft, Activision, SquareEnix) actually do a better presentation at Sony conference then Microsoft.

EA was absent from both Microsoft and Sony's conferences this time around. They held their own in between the two. While they did do a big support for Xbone last month, most of their games are cross platform, and this separate conference was very much to avoid playing favorites.

 

[iniudan]

Good news? Maybe, it's in the hands of the publishers now... We know some of the big publishers are desperate to try and restrict or stop used games, so what happens if they decide to throw in support for the Xbone and leave the PS4 in the dust?

Trouble is that it only seem to be EA that really want that (who were actually absent from Sony conference), has you had other major publisher (Ubisoft, Activision, SquareEnix) actually do a better presentation at Sony conference then Microsoft.

EA was absent from both Microsoft and Sony's conferences this time around. They held their own in between the two. While they did do a big support for Xbone last month, most of their games are cross platform, and this separate conference was very much to avoid playing favorites.

EA was at Microsoft conference, I would like to point you to Titanfall and Battlefield 4 been presented during it.

 

[faspxina]

I find it really depressing that "[console X] does less mistakes than [console Y]" are the most exciting news we get in mainstream gaming now.

It still sucks, it just sucks less than the XBone.

 

[The White Hunter]

Turns out this isn't entirely true. Dunno if you want to update the article Grey, because the PS4 certainly will allow for DRM from third-parties, and by implication will still be able to block used games.

Turns out that that in itself is also not quite entirely true because what the Sony dude actually said was they aren';t adding any restrictions. Sony themselves are having their first party stuff DRM free and the other stuff is up to the publisher, but they aren't adding special options or methods of control for them like Microsoft are.

So for Sony it's business as usual, and we'll know exactly which publishers to blame.

 

[Colt47]

Turns out this isn't entirely true. Dunno if you want to update the article Grey, because the PS4 certainly will allow for DRM from third-parties, and by implication will still be able to block used games.

To be fair, the company promised they are not doing it with first party titles. Microsoft on the other hand has made no such promise. Nintendo likely will end up having to leave that kind of thing to the publishers as well eventually as the publishers are the ones who choose what system a game comes out on.

 

[neppakyo]

Well for the publishers that actually try to do it, don't buy their games. I won't. Mainly because im part of the glorious PC master race, and the witcher 3 and cyberpunk for the PC is gunna rock.

PS: Why the fuck do people like halo? It has a shit story, shit combat and shit MP. Far better shooters out there.

 

[bojac6]

Ok, but remember Linux support on the PS3? Or backwards compatibility with PS2 games?

What guaranty do I have that they won't just release a patch a few months after release and implement everything Microsoft is doing? The patch could be in the works already.

Basically, I have little faith in any company at this point.

 

[The White Hunter]

Turns out that that in itself is also not quite entirely true because what the Sony dude actually said was they aren';t adding any restrictions. Sony themselves are having their first party stuff DRM free and the other stuff is up to the publisher, but they aren't adding special options or methods of control for them like Microsoft are.

So for Sony it's business as usual, and we'll know exactly which publishers to blame.

True, but Sony themselves stated, or at least implied, that PS4 games will be able to be played used on a system-wide level. The implication being that Sony had set down some sort of mandate to ensure that any game could be bought or played second-hand, as per their power point slide, as per the video they put up taking jabs at Microsoft.

This is now simply not the case. And with the number of third-party games being trussed up as 'MMOs' or 'persistant multiplayer experiences' SimCity style in order to justify an always online connection (The Division, Destiny, The Crew, Titanfall), it means third-party games will likely be functionally identical on PS4 as on Xbone.

I suppose that is a possibility but we'll have to see what that means, for now at least the PS4 seems the better system on the DRM front and we'll learn more as we go. If ti becomes a problem then I simply won't buy stuff from those particular publishers, and I won't be pre-ordering anything with stupid DRM.

Though Destiny does seem to have actual MMO stuff going, just in case you haven't been keeping up with it. The Division looks cool but I haven't read anything yet, tired and not long in from work you see.

To me it just seems like the Xbox One is a much more enabling device for publishers, and it's daily connection and such will factor into that tremendously. But as I said, we'll have to wait and see how it all pans out. As of right now, Sony has a much better stance, and if they can say that there won't be any used-blocking allowed then we'll all be happier for it, though I don't think a £8 online pass is the same as blocking a used sale.

 

[O maestre]

well guess which console I am going to buy

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Trouble is that it only seem to be EA that really want that (who were actually absent from Sony conference), has you had other major publisher (Ubisoft, Activision, SquareEnix) actually do a better presentation at Sony conference then Microsoft.

Oh, that would be even more delicious.

Sony PS4: another great feature is that we don't have any games from EA.
Microsoft Xbox One: Our brand is now unfortunately associated with EA.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Why preorder though? That's just you giving GameStop/whoever an interest free loan. Keep your money and use it when the PS4 actually comes out. Out of curiosity: Have you watched any of the Jimquisitions about why we shouldn't pre-order?

The retailer I pre-ordered from doesn't charge your credit card until it actually ships, so there is no loan. Pre-orders can be helpful, in that the retailers will have a good idea of the demand, and therefore try to get enough stock to meet said demand.

Pre-orders for games/software (which is what the Jimquisition episode was about) are very different to those of hardware. Games are essentially infinite in supply (particularly in the age of downloadable games) - but hardware is not. It takes a lot of effort and resources to run those factories, and big hardware launches frequently deplete the stock to the point where the hardware is unavailable for months, until the factories can supply more.

 

[iniudan]

Ok, but remember Linux support on the PS3? Or backwards compatibility with PS2 games?

What guaranty do I have that they won't just release a patch a few months after release and implement everything Microsoft is doing? The patch could be in the works already.

Basically, I have little faith in any company at this point.

I don't think Sony want any kind of first party online DRM for the console itself, for they are masochist if they do, has they kind of got a bad experience with their online network like a year ago if you remember, pretty sure they don't want to risk such experience again, has I am sorry to say, but an online DRM system is a hacker magnet.

On top of that due to those previous hacking, they could be left a bad reputation of them with some people, has to the reliablility of their network, has they had to bring their systems down for a while after those event.