Online DRM Or A Bug: Sony’s Silence Adds To Recent PS Update Confusion
from the silent-treatment dept
Over a decade ago, Microsoft was getting set to release its new Xbox One console. In the lead-up to launch day, a bunch of rumors began swirling about some of the online requirements the console would come with. Details weren’t to be found, so the public was left to speculate what these requirements would entail. Would the console always need to be online when launching games? Would it need to check in online on a certain cadence for games to work, such as every day? Every 30 days?
Microsoft did very little to calm the waters in all this speculation. Very little came out from the Xbox team prior to launch, and what did come out was often confusing. What became very obvious, however, was that the lack of clear and direct messaging from Microsoft made a bad situation much worse. The backlash to the requirement rumors was severe and Xbox largely ended up scrapping them.
Fast forward to the present and the internet has exploded the past few days with claims that an update pushed to PlayStation consoles has introduced a 30 day online check in requirement for newly purchased games.
Some PlayStation users have noticed a new online DRM policy for digital games purchased on the PlayStation Store: newly purchased digital games now display a “Valid Period” tag showing a start date, an end date, and a countdown timer. If the console does not connect to the internet within 30 days, the game’s license reportedly expires, and the title becomes unplayable until an online connection is restored.
The story broke over the weekend through Lance McDonald, the well-known modder who managed to patch Bloodborne to run at 60 frames per second. He posted on X: “Hugely terrible DRM has now been rolled out to all PS4 and PS5 digital games. Every digital game you buy now requires an online check-in every 30 days. If you buy a digital game and don’t connect your console to the internet for 30 days, your license will be removed.
We thought about reporting this story as soon as McDonald surfaced it. However, several users also swore they saw nothing of the sort in their libraries, so we waited. Thus far, Sony has not made any official public statement, but a few hours ago, a PlayStation Support assistant confirmed to a user that the 30-day timer is not a bug at all.
That support assistant being referenced is a bot, however, not a human being behind a keyboard. You can see the response it gave in the screenshot below.
That is, at the time of this writing, the most that Sony has said about whatever the hell is going on here. As a result, all kinds of people, big and small within the gaming community, are losing their shit over this new “online DRM requirement” for existing consoles that previously didn’t have it. Oh, and it’s a requirement that Sony mocked Microsoft for trying to require way back in 2013 before the backlash.
The silence is, as they say, deafening. Is this fully intentional? Not all the reporting suggests that at all. Other reports indicate that this is just a bug in the update and this was not intended to be rolled out at all.
Shortly after the issue surfaced, video game preservation site Does it play? weighed in on the matter. It reported hearing from an anonymous insider that the timer was actually just a bug. “From what we gathered, Sony accidentally broke something while fixing an exploit. They’ve known about the confusing UI for a while, but didn’t see it as urgent,” their X post read.
However, many noted that an accidental deployment still implies Sony was testing the concept, since the interface had already been built. Throughout the confusion, Sony has yet to provide an official comment regarding the issue.
That last sentence is the most important one. Hey, Sony: what the actual hell is going on here?
The fact that all of this rumor, speculation, and angst has gone on for at least a couple of days now without a single word being uttered directly from Sony is remarkably stupid. The waters need to be calmed and that’s only going to happen by the company speaking up. Was it a bug? Cool, say so and let’s move on. Is the online requirement DRM now a thing? Much less cool, but at least we’ll know where the company stands (though, then we can start talking about Sony changing its policies on consoles after they are sold).
What can’t happen is this vacuum of information because Sony wants to give the public the silent treatment. That’s just bad business.
Filed Under: 30 day timer, drm, playstation, playstation online assistant
Companies: sony
Comments on “Online DRM Or A Bug: Sony’s Silence Adds To Recent PS Update Confusion”
That doesn’t matter. Bot or human, it’s still an official communication from Sony and the source of the only statement Sony has made on this issue.
Sony is responsible for fixing any inaccuracies that might be present in that statement. Since they have refused to do so, I suggest treating it as accurate.
Re: It matters
Because chat bots aren’t people. It “says” what it thinks the user wants to hear.
We want to know whether ps5 now requires online drm checks.
So in that respect the difference is significant.
Re: Re:
If you deal with Sony, you’re paying to get fucked somehow. It’s just a question of how and when.
DRM is still either malware or a bug.
They clarified today
They have answered this actually, earlier today. One time additional check gets an unlimited license. Seems like it’s after the refund period to prevent piracy and exploits.
Re:
It’s interesting that there were enough people trying to keep a game after refunding it that Sony decided to take action.
Re: Re:
Same.
I wonder if there’s a list?
i don’t think anyone, especially the megacorps and zaibatsus, give a fuck about customer service or experience in any way other than getting customers used to being shit on as normal. This is why they work so well with fuckwit authoritarians – they are all the same. Extractive vacuums. You buy from them, work for them, vote for them, die for or get killed by them. It’s all perfectly normal. And it will keep getting more normal. You will like it and praise it.
There was apparently a statement yesterday: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-users-report-new-online-license-checks-for-digital-games/1100-6539651/
an SIE spokesperson telling GameSpot the following:
“Players can continue to access and play their purchased games as usual. A one-time online check is required to confirm the game’s license, after which no further check-ins are required.”
Re: Also:
The Drm is intentional, but the resurrected cbomb & the way the ui looks along with the timer isn’t.
Sony tends to fix these quietly, like the cbomb issue, so…
Re:
Please correct me if I am wrong: I own no consoles (and never have).
But… don’t you get these games from an online store? Why would they need to check internet availability if the way you get them is through the internet? If this is a one-time check, how could this possibly be considered a value-add to Sony?
Re:
I remember the time I accidentally coded an entire countdown timer for something that did not need one.
Yeah, right. They accidentally specified, wrote, and shipped code for for making licenses expire?
Is it, though? What are you gonna do about it? I wonder if Sony’s asking the same thing. That is, their decision about whether to call this a bug or a new feature might be based on the public-relations result of this trial balloon (intentional or not). The silence would be necessary for this.
Remember that Sony’s been overtly anti-consumer in various ways since the late 1980s, perhaps not coincidentally around the time they joined the MPAA.
“Then”? Did you forget this happened in 2010 with the PlayStation 3’s “OtherOS” feature? Sony were sued over that, settled in 2017, and anyone who bought a PS4 (released in 2013) or PS5 (2019) sent the obvious message that they weren’t too bothered by it.
Yeah. Well who cares. Gamers and consumers will eat the shit they are given like the good peasants they are.
Consumers and voters are at their own fault for this bs.
Er, how does entirely new DRM functionality showing up in a product count as “just a bug”? SOMEONE had to have written it, tested it, got it through Project Management, and then possibly erroneously shipped it to regions it wasn’t aimed at.
But the bug isn’t that it exists; it’s only in that it has wider visibility than they were planning, and might be illegal in some regions where it was deployed.
Bugs don’t have fully functional countdown timers.
Boycott Sony
I’ve been doing that since the Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal. I’m not missing them, because they don’t produce anything I want.
"In the future. You will own nothing and be happy"
I would say the future is now, but no one is happy.
Re:
Animals like to own stuff. It probably comes from fighting over food, sex, water, and shelter.
A lot of genetic engineering or an alternative evolutionary path would be required to change it.
Since Sony seems to want to have ownership rights in other people’s stuff I won’t be waiting for that change from Sony.
TLDR; more Sony shenanigans
Ok, tldr, but I think I heard “continue to boycott everything Sony”.
Ok, can do! Carry on!