The PS4 may support used games, but third party publishers don’t have to.
It was the shot heard around the gaming world. The Xbox One would be $499 and filled to the brim with consumer restrictions while the PS4 would be $399 and restriction free. Sony announced it to cheers and in one fell swoop stole the show at E3. Symbolic victories aside, the picture may not be as perfect as presented. Sony has revealed that, though it doesn’t condone such actions itself, there is nothing to stop third party publishers from bringing DRM to PS4 versions of their software.
“Technically, they could do something,” said Sony exec Scott Rohde, speaking to Polygon. Even with the option present however, Rohde doesn’t think publishers will attempt software restrictions on the PS4. “All those publishers were sitting in [our] press conference last night,” said Rohde. “When Jack, punch after punch after punch, and the house almost came down with all the cheers, they heard that. They heard it loud and clear and they saw the reaction to what our friends in green talked about. I think it’s pretty clear that we’ve set a nice precedent.”
You couldn’t blame some gamers for not sharing Rohde’s confidence. It is not secret that many in the game industry are hostile toward used games. The potential restrictions offered by the Xbox One are, in turn, likely appealing to more than a few game companies. Sony has already stated that it won’t allow publishers to enact restrictions like paid online passes, that said, you can safely bet that if publishers can enact DRM that someone will probably try.
Source: Polygon
Note: The original article neglected to mention Sony’s stance against online passes for PS4. We have added that in.
