Sony patents technology that prevents used games from working on ps3

i was going to post this, and i must say this is ridiculess, but im guessing through so much protest its not gonna happen, the only format that has this and is usually hacked to get around it is pc.

 

I read about this a few days ago on the gaming-age forums, and it was almost completly unanimous that were this tech implemented in the PS3 interest in the system would indeed drop dramaticly. At the very least if this was implemented in PS3 games I know I would not support the system at all. As collectors something like this would be detrimental, as no games would hold any value after their initial use, which is completly unacceptable.

I can think of a few ways it might be beneficial to sony, but in every case it would do damage to the industry in one way or another.

 

I can't see it happening at all.

It's too stupid and would kill their business......right........??

 

Sony are going too far with this ! We all know that they make shit hardware so what happens when you need to replace your broken PS3? None of your games will work !!! What about visiting friends and so on? Do you now need to take your own console around to their home? This is indeed a stupid move if they go through with it. No one in their right mind will buy a PS3 if this happens. What the hell are you to do with all your old games that you no longer want? you couldn't sell them because they wouldn't work on another console. You couldn't even give them away since they'd just be bits of plastic. Also think of the thousands who would loose their jobs or livelihoods due to this. All those people in the recycle business and even independent game shops that offer trade in services. Sony are now taking the piss. Who do they think they are?? Bloody God ?

Yakumo

 

Maybe when SONY does repairing job on the broken PS3 they will ask you to send all your game disc together and return PS3 with all new factory sealed titles... O_O

Now that is very sounding business model.. NOT!

 

Maybe a system where a game could only be played on one machine at a time might work. Like you buy the game, register it on your ps3, then if you need to move it to another ps3 you unregister it on your ps3. Maybe that would sort out the piracy thing. Or you have a ps3 ID that could be transfered, either way I hate the idea and it is just nanny-ism gone crazy. I doubt sony would kill the second hand market as it makes gamers much more spend-happy knowing they can always cash in a crap game. Along with nearly all Japanese game shops have a second hand section, Softmap devotes as much floor space to used soft as the new. The used market is too important in Japan for this to be true. I bloody hope so anyway, I though blu-ray would get rid of piracy, this move would be totaly pointless.

Also wouldn't your ps3 have to be online for this to work?

 

Until recently, game developers could get full boxed copies of the games they made from publishers. Sony have now ruled that the developers should only get discs in thin CD cases printed with 'NOT FOR RESALE'.

That's the sort of mentality coming out of Sony, so it would not surprise me one bit if the above story were true and Sony were planning on implementing it on PS3.

If Sony copy Microsoft's Live system in any way (which I imagine they are) then they could use that for authentification purposes.

In terms of copywright and trade infringements, Sony are way more paranoid and pedantic than MS.

 

I don't see Sony trying this either. Something like this might work in Japan where rentals are illegal but in the US it just won't fly. Sony would be getting hit with antitrust lawsuits almost immediately after the first PS3 was sold. Not to mention the PR disaster it would cause. Being told that you can't sell property that you rightfully own tends to piss people off. Sony would be committing suicide on their gaming division.

Part of me wishes that Sony would try something this stupid though. The public outcry would be so loud that there is no way action wouldn't be taken. It would be the case that would finally show how broken the DCMA is and usher in sensible laws over fair-use and DRM.

 

Register all your games over the internet.

Nah, it really seems to far fetched. I am betting it has something to do with their online software verification, something they already use for PS2.

 

Damn,it seems the PS3 sucks more and more. Even if you "only" need to register all your games over the net, that would be BS. What id people dont want to use it online? Would the y have to call and enter a verification code? LOL

 

How do we know this is for ps3? We don't.

 

This is just a rumour. Who the hell is Ken Kataguri, anyway? If it had been Ken Kutaragi who said this, though...

I don't see Sony doing this. It's just too ... in lack of a better term, fucking dumb. It would lead to lots of confusion from users. Sure, it would somehow control piracy and make the company have some influence on augmenting some software sales... momentarily. And then what?
It would show serious lack of vision for a company to do this.

I don't know, but I think it was the Mod Chip that made PSX hardware sell much more than the others. It was the easiest to pirate, thus there were cheaper games to be gotten, thus the console was the better one to buy (in some consumer's minds, anyway)

Sony is getting too greedy if this is really planned. And there will be backlash for their already expensive and not very trust-worthy upcoming hardware, no matter how pretty the graphics look.

I for one was not planning to get one - and this would be an even more serious deterrent.

 

If this were to happen I would re-think the whole ps3 thing. But they would only need to release Star Ocean 4 or Breath of Fire 6 and I would buy it. I just saw a really good video of enchant Arm EM on the 360 and it made me want to buy one at launch.

I think all we need is a good legal case and this stupid idea will be buggered. I think the fact that most people own more than one ps2 (from wear and tear) negates this one. Add the rental industry in US and Europe. The fact that I can install windows from one disc on as many machines as I like. The vital used market in Japan. And all of the above comments and I don't see this happening.

What could happen (and maybe a good thing) is that Sony may release banned software ID numbers. So sony finds a torrent, etc with one reg number. They could then ban that number online. This crazy system only works online, so Sony could kill their whole online network of the bat as it were. Because no-one would go online with a game, knowing that it would stop them from ever selling it again. Looking at it this way -

I buy X ps3 game. Play it on a ps3. Then play it on another ps3. How are the playstations going to know that it has been on both? unless I get them online. Either that or every game you run updates a list of registered games on your ps3, again only those games that have been online will be registered, so no problem.

As long as you never play online, no problem. I do see this system being more and more widespread as cracking down on pirates becomes all the more necessary, however only a fool would kill the used or rental markets. So maybe this tech will only be applied to on-line games. Either way it would be very annoying and a potential nail in sony's coffin.

 

Some interesting points:

"By registering title specific codes into the COCT and allowing the contents of the table to be read from a designated server using a communication function, it will be possible to obtain with good accuracy marketing information that is useful to future product development and sales. "
-The end of Ankets!

"main unit communication function, marketing data that is useful for future software development and sales can be obtained with good accuracy."
- Communication function, don't see many hifi or dvd players hooked up to the net - sounds like something that could only be employed on a console.

"An entertainment device which uses a CD-ROM type optical disk as the disk memory medium has been described above. The software used when executing a game by the entertainment device 1, which is a device for playback only (reproduction device), is directed towards the case where the game software including this optical disk, in terms of being recorded into this optical disk, is so-called used software or counterfeit software"
-sounds even more like the ps3 now!

"The deletion mechanism in this case may be the application of a strong magnetic force "
- Can this be done???

"erasable pulse data is recorded on the front, back, or side of the disk 800 as shown in FIG. 6. For example, this may be formed by applying a bar-code or by applying one or more types of magnetic powder" - I guess this is how it is done, but does this tech exist?

Hmmm if you do more reading it sounds like the "invention" is more like the ps2 then 3. It lists 2 memory card ports
"The insertion holes (slots) of the memory card insertion parts 8A and 8B are formed in a long, narrow form in the lateral direction"

And look when it was filed - Foreign 1999 in Japan. So guessing this is not going to happen after reading that. Unless they registered it for long-term later use.

Edit - apolgies for the double post. I wrote it whilst reading the article - took me a while and assumed someone else would have posted...

 

I read this a few days ago on another forum and pointed out the date. This could have been brought up many times. Instead it comes out before the xbox 360 is about to launch and when there might still be fence sitters willing to wait for the ps3.

conspiracy!!!

 

I'm guessing we are lucky they didn't do it on the ps2! Given the hard to copy nature of the blu-ray format, I'm guessing it is safe to say that sony are not going to piss the world off this time round either. It just sounds like marketing suicide to me.

As for the other things, particular the method for preserving this security, it just sounds very far-fetched, the console sounds like the PS2 and as for that magnetic thing, that sounds very expensive. So you have even more expensive games and a console capable of a strong magnetic force. Not even sony would go to so much bother when they can just do what they do with the psp, which proved effective enough.

Conspiracy indeed...

 

Look on the bright side, if its patented then it means it'll only be used on sony consoles. If implemented, Just avoid sony consoles, simple as that

 

What percent of potential PS3 owners will be online? Do they make up a majority of the current market share for ps2? Not everybody goes online with their systems. The US is filled with ludites and poor people who don't know how to set it up and can't afford it, but still have ps2's with a buttload of games. How will this copy protection deal with these types customers who aren't going online?

Also on a side note wouldn't this increase the chances of customers returning items that are defective, when in fact they are not. Ignorance would play a big role in frustrated retailers taking back systems and games from moms, dads, grandma's and grandpa's that don't know why something is not working properly for their child, themselves etc.