Publishers bringing Xbox One-like limitations to PS4 would be 'surprising', Says Sony exec

PlayStation exec Scott Rohde, senior VP of World Wide Studios America, told Polygon that it would be "surprising" if third-party publishers brought the kinds of access limitations present on the Xbox One to the PlayStation 4, that Sony's patents in the area of used games aren't indicative of policy and that while trading or selling physical discs should be easy, the world of digital sales is anything but.

[theWB27]

It may not happen overnight like Micro is doing...but eventually publishers will take advantage. Right now they're not commenting because they don't want to be brought into the storm Micro is facing. When it dies down and the next gen settles in...they'll start to enforce them.

At the end of the day, it's a business and if publishers ca make more money by limiting used games..it'll happen.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

Surprising that no other business model does that because they know the repercussions of their actions but only in the gaming industry would customers consider cases like this a "necessary evil".

Why haven't television companies, blu-ray player manufacturers, or other physical media entertainment adopted these practices as well?

[darthv72]

they do. All copyrighted material has a terms of use that people never really read. It is there in case such action is needed to be taken by the company that produced the material.

We havent really seen any enforcement but thanks to that terms of use disclaimer....that could change if people severely abuse the system.

We know there is some sort of right as a consumer that you can make a legal backup of any material you purchased. But while that may be true for your own personal needs, there are many who do it for profit.

the more it gets abused, the more likely we will see encoded movies or cd's that will be locked to your player or media device and thus be unable to work elsewhere.

People have been making bootlegs of music and movies for years but what has really been done is they have been working on stronger copy protection. that doesnt work. Next step is to lock the media to the individual. its a very big and risky step but one that will happen sooner or later.

Besides, i almost think the intention is to drive consumers into the digital distribution age by way of implementing these safeguards on purpose. how do you get people to switch formats? by making one they are familiar with unfriendly thus making the alternative more appealing.

Digital music sales have been on the rise since itunes. digital movie sales are also rising in part to services like vudu.

[theWB27]

Television companies can cut your cable off if you don't pay the bill. You have to pay more also to get certain channels. They're in full control of their product.

Why would blu ray manufacturers have to worry- you bought the player to watch movies and movies continually get released.

If you mean the actual blu ray disc- they've been fighting piracy for quite some time now.

Movies are a much bigger business than video games. Batman alone made a billion dollars. That's before it released to Blu ray for the extra money made there.

Movie retailers make the money when you buy the movie from them- why would they care and most of them are in the business of buying back the movies and reselling.

We've seen how one bad game can cause a studio to shut down. And also how so many studios have been closing and consolidating.

[NateCole]

@darth.

I buy a Blue-ray disc i own that single copy. I can sell it to anyone and the movie company don't get a cut from the resale. Why should the resale of games be any different or this or music CD's etc?.

@TheWB

Just because there are not as many revenue stream for the gaming business compare to the movie business does not mean the Gaming business is excused.

No one is stopping them from making merchandise and selling IP rights for TV and others. Quite frankly that is a very lame excuse. I don't know but i did heard that the gaming business is now bigger than movies.

[Army_of_Darkness]

" The next day, he added that third-party publishers will retain the right to dictate their own DRM terms on the platform, with regards to online play, much like it is today on the PlayStation 3."

It's gonna be the same like this gen, meaning if 3rd parties decide to put restrictions, it will only effect the online multi-player portion Not the entire game/ campaign itself, unlike the Xbone which will apparently block the whole game all together!? that's whack..

EA dropped online passes, so I too would be surprised if they somehow input a restriction on multiplayer again.

[HammadTheBeast]

Sony has said that only forms of DRM will be what we've seen this gen.

End of discussion.

I know you Xbox fans are pretty bummed that PS4 doesn't have the BS restrictions, I bet that rained on your parade (*looks at comment history).

But lighten up. At least MS isn't taking your rights/property away! (Oh wait.)

[theWB27]

Really guy...Sony said the only forms we'll see is from THEIR side of the fence. They have EXPLICITLY stated they can't control what publishers do.

Check my comment history...it still hasn't changed. I've stated in the past that if Sony doesn't enforce then I still believe publishers eventually will.

And if you payed closer attention to my comment history...you'd see I supported Sony and Micro this gen and hope to do so this upcoming gen.

If you payed closer attention to my comment history...you'd see I praise Sony as much as I praise Micro. And if you payed closer attention to my comment history, you'd see I flock to the GAMES...NOT THE SYSTEM.

End that discussion...buddy.

[EasilyTheBest]

Sony said online is free, oppps, what happened there.
Drm is coming there's no doubt.
end of...

[pompombrum]

I think it would take some very bold publishers to try this. Online passes might return but that's about as far as it will go for the time being. Providing we gamers stand up for our consumer rights and vote with our wallets, others won't risk it.

[WalterWJR]

double post.

[Seraphim]

because used movies aren't big business. You don't have Movie Stop who buys used movies and flips them for $2 less than the new copy sells for, etc, etc. Darth was right to some degree but imo, two of the biggest reasons is big money from box office and secondly there isn't a huge aftermarket for used movies. They cost so little people buy them and keep them.....

[tracyllrkn]

I don't know if this is possible, but what about this? Each game has a unique code. When you put it in the console, the code goes into a server and is stored there. When you trade it in to Gamestop, they can retrieve the code from the server, and it will treat the game as a new copy. You can still lend your games out without any restrictions. But once Gamestop retrieves the code, Publishers make money off of it.

[pompombrum]

No just no.

One thing I'm surprised they haven't tried though, is setup a donation option on the consoles. When you load a game up for the first time, have a mandatory donation screen come up for the first time..keep it simple but give people a few donation amount options which then get transferred straight to the publishers.

I can think of a fair few used games I've bought where I'd happily pay an extra few quid to help support the publishers/developers. Seeing how hard it can be to find new copies of older games, there are many people buying used copies simply because that is all that is available when they are out shopping.

[ovhaum]

Polygon.com...

Who else got the impression that that site is filled with MSFT astroturfers?

[theWB27]

N4G....Sony

[wenaldy]

Neogaf...Sony
Youtube...Sony

Your point?

[WalterWJR]

I am getting tired and honestly a bit confused with this argument.

Sony says you can share games on playstation and does not have to be online, so how can a dev put DRM in place to stop the used game from working?

they can easily put online passes on as you have to go online to play but offline is impossible...

[moegooner88]

I think some publishers may restrict the accessibility of their games to online only, in such cases I intend to vote with my wallet, and won't get such games.

[iliimaster]

whats going to happen is the xboxone will flop because of this drm crap along with everything else wrong with it,,,, the developers who choose to do charge hopefully get hit on both sides being xboxone is failing and not selling enough and that people with the ps4 choose not to buy a game from these idiot developers

[strigoi814]

Well i dare publishers to do that..we will see who will be laughing and suffering at the end..

[hazelamy]

and if they do, they don't get bought.

at least i hope so.
gamers really need to start standing up for their rights rather than accepting anything the industry does.