Sony Rolls Out 30-Day Online DRM Check-In For PlayStation Digital Games (tomshardware.com) 89
Sony is reportedly rolling out a 30-day online check-in requirement for some digital PS4 and PS5 games, meaning players could temporarily lose access if their console does not reconnect to renew the license. Tom's Hardware reports: In the info page of an affected game, you'd see a new validity period and a "remaining time" deadline. At first, this seemed like a software bug, but now PlayStation Support has confirmed its authenticity to multiple users. PlayStation owners are furious about the change.
From what we've seen, this DRM is intended for digital game copies. It works by instating a mandatory online check-in where you have to connect to the internet within a rolling 30-day window or risk losing access to the game. Afterward, you can still restore access, but you'll need an internet connection to renew the game's license first. So far, it seems like only games installed after the recent March firmware update are affected.
Affected customers report that setting your PS4 or PS5 as the primary console doesn't alleviate this check-in policy either. No matter what, any game you download from now on will feature this new requirement, effectively eliminating the concept of offline play for even single-player titles.
From what we've seen, this DRM is intended for digital game copies. It works by instating a mandatory online check-in where you have to connect to the internet within a rolling 30-day window or risk losing access to the game. Afterward, you can still restore access, but you'll need an internet connection to renew the game's license first. So far, it seems like only games installed after the recent March firmware update are affected.
Affected customers report that setting your PS4 or PS5 as the primary console doesn't alleviate this check-in policy either. No matter what, any game you download from now on will feature this new requirement, effectively eliminating the concept of offline play for even single-player titles.
Don't care (Score:5, Insightful)
If you buy a platform from a company that once infected their customer's PCs with a rootkit, you deserve whatever Sony choses to inflict on you.
Enjoy.
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It isn't illegal in Germany. You're responding to a meme. Also the GDPR isn't a paper tiger, it's just that people are clueless as to its requirements, haven't read it and don't know when it applies. The fact you are talking about it now here (completely irrelevant to the case of DRM) is an example of that.
Re: Don't care (Score:2)
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Re: Don't care (Score:2)
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Don't kid yourself: they're ALL "criminal ones".
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That case may have been 20 years ago, but Sony's actions in the 20 years since have shown no evidence that they have changed as a company. Fast forward to today and every Bluray disc includes DRM which is basically as technically toxic as Denuvo. Speaking of which Denuvo is used by recent Sony titles on PC, as are kernel level anti-cheats, and they share a lot in common with the rootkit from 20 years ago.
That said I can't get upset at kernel level anti-cheat given the state of online gaming without it. Sadl
Re: Don't care (Score:2)
Hahaha was going to post similar. Sony have been on my wallet's naughty step since then. Pretty crowded step, these days. Makes shopping easier, though.
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Years ago, I paid extra for a Sony Trinitron TV. *Just* outside the 30 day warranty period, the power button failed. Would they replace it under warranty? No. Best they could do was give me a break on the parts cost. So I schlepped the damn thing down to their service center, waited a few weeks for them to get around to fixing it, and paid a significant fee for the labor.
I swore then, never to buy another Sony product.
Yes, they are good products, but the company;s attitude to their customers absolutely suck
and an exploit will be published in 3, 2, 1 ... (Score:2)
As a friend of mine in an uncharacteristic fit of insight once said, as long as there is a decision point that can be discovered, yes and the code goes this way, no and the code goes that way, it is in principle possible to write a patch to circumvent any DRM.
Here, there is a timeout test.
Need I say more?
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Such freedom to control the plebs. A right of those in power to mass-punish on a whim. Think of the efficiency gains! Don't even need a real whip any longer. It's so freeing ...
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As a friend of mine in an uncharacteristic fit of insight once said, as long as there is a decision point that can be discovered, yes and the code goes this way, no and the code goes that way, it is in principle possible to write a patch to circumvent any DRM.
Not to disparage your friend but... that a thing is possible in principle does not necessitate it being possible in practicality.
Worse, it is unhelpful to adopt a position of "yet another restriction will inevitably" be circumvented. Side-loading is more difficult on Android than it has ever been. Jailbreaking on iOS is more difficult on Apple than it has ever been. Piracy is more difficult than it has ever been (since the inception of the Internet). Every time a convenient torrent indexer is shut do
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Side-loading is more difficult on Android than it has ever been.
Google supposedly is going to loosen their proposed restrictions on sideloading. They have been a bit ambiguous on exactly how they're going to make it more "power user friendly", but for the time being they have at least acknowledged that locking things down as much as they originally proposed would be ill-received (and possibly subject to antirust scrutiny).
Jailbreaking on iOS is more difficult on Apple than it has ever been.
While this is true, it's not necessary to jailbreak iOS if the goal is just to sideload applications (though admittedly, there are caveats to every w
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I'd be wary of that... PCs are catching up with consoles when it comes to DRM. TPM chips, mandatory user accounts, and the trappings consoles had with them. By default, Windows ships with BitLocker on, which, unless manually turned off, the protectors deleted or saved, can be a show-stopper later on.
Linux is the target of attack with the age verification stuff.
macOS is sort of in the middle. You don't need an AppleID to set up a Mac, and it can run just fine without any cloud based stuff going. I'm sure
Re: and an exploit will be published in 3, 2, 1 .. (Score:2)
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Side-loading is more difficult on Android than it has ever been.
No it is more easy than it ever has been.
You download your apk into the download fodler.
And then open/install it with the file browser app.
Simple.
Astro Bot 2: Now Astro Bot Has Visible Pores (Score:2)
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If you made the mistake of buying into the platform you're faced with a decision:
1. Rationalize your continuing with the platform
2. Tossing the platform and choosing a different platform
3. Giving up on the various platforms as all suspect and doing something else with your life
Substitute platform for anything that you have to invest a non-trivial amount of cognitive focus, time, money, etc. It's not like your abuser is going to show their stripes from the get go - if they did, you would have already mov
Sony Is Still Alive? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does anyone buy their products? Sony went form perhaps the most admired name in electronics to a fermenting cesspit of garbage and over priced electronics, as well as a predatory and usurious media company. I don't know why anyone buys anything from them today.
Re:Sony Is Still Alive? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why does anyone buy their products? Sony went form perhaps the most admired name in electronics to a fermenting cesspit of garbage and over priced electronics, as well as a predatory and usurious media company. I don't know why anyone buys anything from them today.
Among consoles, the Playstation 5 is clearly doing well - it's a well made product, and to be fair: The new restriction doesn't bother most users. For it to be a problem, you need to be using downloaded games and the console not being connected to the Internet. That doesn't sound like a normal combination. If offline use is important, buy physical games. They tend to be cheaper as well.
Other than consoles, their wireless headphones are among the best, maybe even the best [theguardian.com].
Beyond that, they have popular products in the photo category - and while that whole segment is suffering from phones, Sony makes a lot of the sensors used in the phones so they get a piece of that pie too.
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The new restriction doesn't bother most users. For it to be a problem, you need to be using downloaded games and the console not being connected to the Internet. That doesn't sound like a normal combination.
It's true that this won't affect most users, only the users to whom it matters most. Their internet connection has been down for weeks by this point, they just want to play a game, and Sony's DRM fucks them over. And of course, it will also affect people years down the line, when they try to play games when the service no longer exists.
It's an absolute travesty that companies are allowed to call to call these game rentals "purchases" or "sales" or label the button "buy". To me that is by far the most offens
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Sony's headphones are also extremely overpriced and each unit costs Sony less than $100. Nothing about them is worth paying >4.5x their cost.
Piracy is the only preservation (Score:1)
That's sounds exactly like a crime (Score:2)
Debunked (Score:5, Informative)
This has been debunked. Here is Sony's official statement.
“At this time, there is no requirement for players to re-authenticate their digital purchases every 30 days. If you bought a digital game in late March, you will still be able to access and play your game normally, even after 30 days have passed.”
Re:Debunked (Score:5, Insightful)
Note the strategic use of "At this time" and then an example in the past, rather than a denial that it isn't happening in the near future. It will be happening going forward.
Still Debunked (Score:3, Informative)
The reason is that there is a 14-day window where the game is refundable, so they attribute a 30 day license. Past the 14 day period, the license becomes permanent.
Example [resetera.com]
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Can't use this content. Can't connect to the server to verify your license. Wait a while, and then try again.
So who do you believe? The outraged gamer community showing pictorial evidence? Or the evil megacorp that's demonstrated rug pull behaviours multiple times already?
Re: Debunked (Score:2)
In this day and age? No one.
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Some of us aren't dumb enough to buy shit from Sony, but still want to see people who made such a gross mistake protected from their thieving malfeasance.
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Boots are made for feet not for licking (FYI, Trumptards.)
What's the business purpose of this? (Score:2)
I'm trying to figure out why they're requiring a "check in" every 30 days to retain your digital software that you PURCHASED.
Is this some sort of piracy prevention so users can't copy the games out to other consoles? That kind of piracy can't be any worse than the physical game copying or yore so what kind of money could they possibly be saving by screwing over their customers like this?
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I'm trying to figure out why they're requiring a "check in" every 30 days to retain your digital software that you PURCHASED.
Is this some sort of piracy prevention so users can't copy the games out to other consoles? That kind of piracy can't be any worse than the physical game copying or yore so what kind of money could they possibly be saving by screwing over their customers like this?
Doing some research seems to indicate that it's related to a 14 day trial period of games [reddit.com] - so one can't download a trial, disconnect the console, and play beyond the 14 days. After 14 days, the authentication is converted to a permanent one.
Beyond that, I'm also trying to see why it's a problem - the combination of a downloaded game purchase and no Internet access sounds rare. And if offline gaming is important, physical games are usually cheaper and shouldn't have that problem.
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The combination of having intermittent access to download games and updates, and then being offline for extended periods, is common. Military, for one. Offshore work of various kinds. Any work in remote areas, or in many foreign countries. Having a TV, console and power is easy, but Internet connectivity is often either expensive or not allowed, or both. And even if allowed, region locks may cause issues, and VPN's are illegal in areas.
Messing around with physical games means more items to lose or damage. I
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The combination of having intermittent access to download games and updates, and then being offline for extended periods, is common. Military, for one. Offshore work of various kinds. Any work in remote areas, or in many foreign countries. Having a TV, console and power is easy, but Internet connectivity is often either expensive or not allowed, or both. And even if allowed, region locks may cause issues, and VPN's are illegal in areas.
So in those cases, why not just buy physical games, not digital downloads? If you know you are going to be "off-Internet" for extended periods, why not just buy game disks?
Also, the game only needs to "check-in" every 30 days, how are you loading digital downloads onto the console, then going over 30 days without internet access?
being offline for extended periods, is common. Military, for one. Offshore work of various kinds. Any work in remote areas, or in many foreign countries.
To be clear, you think people that are in the military, work on oil rigs or in remote areas or ar in "foreign countries" (whatever that means?) don't have internet access? Really? E
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The problem is games distributed on physical media is a thing of the past and newer consoles have no disc drives at all. Nintendo has physical media with memory cards still but many of their newer cards are just empty cards with download codes for the digital copy (and you still need the card in the unit to play the game!).
It'd be one thing if you could download the title and be done with it but now they increasingly want you to stay connected to the mothership and re-authenticate your purchase.
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Mainly because most games can't be bought physically. And I routinely travel into countries where VPN's are illegal for well over 90 days at the time.
And no, I do not "think" that. I know that. Starlink is very costly, and not available in a lot of countries. And even when it is, it's a US company, meaning it's not allowed in a lot of environments for legal reasons. I don't know what Mickey Mouse military you are used to, but where I usually am, military, especially on deployment, are not allowed Internet a
Can you fiddle the system date ? (Score:2)
Eg keep on resetting the date to 1st May
Re:Can you fiddle the system date ? (Score:4, Funny)
Eg keep on resetting the date to 1st May
The Eternal Communist.
Flawed.... (Score:3)
No matter what, any game you download from now on will feature this new requirement, effectively eliminating the concept of offline play for even single-player titles.
I'm not trying to defend Sony's decision, though I do at least understand it. I just take issue with this overly flawed interpretation on how it affects gamers. The number of people that would be able to download a digital game, and then never connect to the internet again, is low. It's non-zero, and I acknowledge that. I just don't see how that in any way comes close to "effectively eliminating" offline play.
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I don't understand it. Can you explain what you understand about it?
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It doesn't affect the trading/selling of systems with loaded games.
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Games remaining accidentally in a sale is a different issue. The suggestion was that the intent is to curb the sale of machines which specifically have preinstalled games for offline use. That practice will only have to change slightly to still work. This will not have any practical effect on that practice.
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The suggestion was that the intent is to curb the sale of machines which specifically have preinstalled games for offline use.
I didn't suggest anything. I said I understand why they might want to tighten down on verification. In response to you claiming not to understand, I provided one valid reason why they might. As we didn't have an official statement from them, anything said would have to be hypothetical by nature.
That practice will only have to change slightly to still work. This will not have any practical effect on that practice
If we go by what was assumed by people at the time, that it would require regular monthly check ins, it would in fact have had a reasonable impact on sales of loaded systems.
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When Sony eventually turn the servers off, if they don't patch this out, there go all your games.
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Aren't physical game discs an option? This only affects digital downloaded games, not all games. Presumably you could buy a physical game, store it on the console HD, then go off to your unibomber cabin in Montana and live completely off-grid and never be impacted by this policy.
I'm trying to understand gamers that somehow buy digital downloads but don't have internet access - they don't use discord, the don't play networked multi-player games, they just sit in their cabins and play single-player, non-netw
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Phone home to play, for life ... (Score:2)
No matter what, any game you download from now on will feature this new requirement, effectively eliminating the concept of offline play for even single-player titles.
Putting an end to any silly, lingering ideas that you own what you bought...
Does this mean that any offline (single-player, stand-alone) games will stop working if/when Sony decides to stop supporting a "license check" for them, or will Sony (a) patch the game and/or (b) do the games have some sort of workaround builtin for that situation.
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Putting an end to any silly, lingering ideas that you own what you bought virtually, online...
You can avoid this by "buying" physical games.
Please explain how I buy a digital download of a game yet lack internet access every 30 days?
I mean (Score:3)
I don't understand why anyone is surprised or angry. This was always going to happen for digital only copies of games. Just like I don't understand the surprise or anger when a failing live-service game shuts downs its servers (rendering the game unplayable).
However, I also take issue with the article claiming that this effectively eliminates offline play for single player games. Because it doesn't. You get 30 days offline. You had to be online to download the game to begin with, so what's so hard about connecting to the internet once every 30 days? I mean, you might as well to check for console and game updates. If you don't want to ever be online (or can't), then only buy physical versions that don't require this check. If it's too late to do that, tough shit, because, again, this was always going to happen. Be mad at yourselves for being shortsighted.
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Well put.
You have no rights (Score:2)
In Sony's eyes, you have no rights. This is a company that deliberately installed malware on customer computers.
If you do business with Sony, you get what you deserve. It's not like they've made a secret of their utter contempt for you.
reverse course (Score:2)
What happens when the servers eventually go down? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have PS1 games from the 90s that I can still play on my PS2. I buy games on physical media still hoping that they will still run in 20 years time.
I do hope they reverse this decision.
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But can you play it on a PS5? Because clearly you're limited in some capacity. Nothing lasts forever.
Sidenote: I had a physical copy of Starcontrol II from the 90s. The CD is unreadable due to aluminium rot. I do however have it on Steam and it does work. Physical media has its place, but so do other forms of media.
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But can you play it on a PS5? Because clearly you're limited in some capacity. Nothing lasts forever.
This is about users who "bought" PS5 games not being able to play them on a PS5 and you're stretching HARD to accommodate Sony. You really adore victim-blaming, don't you? You know that's a typical characteristic of abusers, right?
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Physical media is PERFECT for users that, dare I say it, LACK INTERNET ACCESS and can't download digital copies of games...
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Physical media is PERFECT for users that, dare I say it, LACK INTERNET ACCESS and can't download digital copies of games...
There are two kinds of users without internet access, those who never had it, and those who had it and lost it.
There are also two kinds of idiots...
Also included (Score:2)
You also get a free rootkit that propagates on your network as per standard Sony practice. Sony has been dead to me for MANY years now.
Digital purchases only (Score:2)
This applies to digital purchases only, and to be perfectly honest with you, kind of makes sense.
Besides, I'm not affected by this at all since I always buy my games on a disc.
Going to wreck some customers (Score:3)
This will wreck some customers. Expats overseas without vpn access. Anyone working or living in a remote location without internet access. Military around the world, both on land and on sea. Maritime workers on ships.
Basically take a bunch of people who rely on gaming devices for their entertainment because of the remote nature of their job or home, and cut off access to stuff they already paid for. Well thought out plan, if the plan is to get people to switch to a different company's products.
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Looks like those customers will need to get a physical copy of the game then.
So not entirely a trainwreck. There is an obvious workaround. Though it will affect people that move into an area with no internet access, and they bring their game console loaded with digital copies.
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Game companies could simply offer low-priced physical media for folks that already bought the game online. Problem solved...
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WTF, why do expats need VPN access? Do video games have country codes like DVDs?
Your entire argument is negated by the existence of starlink.
How did they digitally download a game without internet access?
The fix is to buy physical games, not digital downloads.
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Sony has digital exclusives you cannot buy on physical media. But more importantly, a "Seller" of a "Product" (THEY are the ones calling it a sale) should not be able to fuck you out of it like this later. They should have to make clear that it is a rental at every step, but that would reduce sales. (If it wouldn't, they wouldn't not be doing that.)
If buying isn't owning (Score:4, Interesting)
And they can't check your payment history? (Score:1)
Console gaming is a PITA now (Score:2)
Casual gaming on PS5 is already a major PITA. Turn console on once every few months: You've been disconnected from PS account, update firmware, update controller firmware. Sometimes it even wants 2fa. Now it won't let me play until I update? Screw that.
FFS it's a console, those exist so that I just push a button and play. Honestly, at this point using GOG+ Lutris on Linux is a better experience.
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Uh, if you want a simple way to play games, buy physical media, not digital downloads.
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Doesn't work anymore : physical media contain the first released version of the game, which usually has bugs, so for some games the updates are critical. Thinking of Cyberpunk 2077...
Downloading, updating and storing installers is IMO the only way now.
digital PS4 and PS5 games, when you don't own it. (Score:2)
Stop Killing Games (Score:2)
Let me see if I get this... (Score:2)
Effectively, you pay to have a console machine in your home, but paying monthly is so much easier than stuffing quarters in.
Does The DRM Require PSN? (Score:2)
so they don't give a fuck about us armed forces th (Score:2)
so they don't give a fuck about us armed forces that have game systems that likely are offline for long times?