It's Too Early to Declare Sony the Savior of Used Games, and Here's Why
Everyone hold the boat. Before the Internet gaming community crowns Sony the victor of the next generation console wars and savior of the used games business model, there's something you should know. New comments made by Sony America CEO Jack Tretton leave the door open -- if ever so slightly -- for publishers to pull shenanigans with used games, though there's not need to panic, at least not yet.
"The DRM decision is going to have to be answered by the third parties, it's not something we're going to control, or dictate, or mandate, or implement," Tretton clarified today, according to Polygon.
Sony previously promised that sharing games on the PlayStation 4 would be as easy as handing a disc over to your friend, just as it is with the PlayStation 3. That's in stark contrast to Microsoft and the Xbox One, in which games are tied to Xbox Live accounts. Publishers on the Xbox One platform have all the control over whether their games can be traded or re-sold, and they'll be able to collect fees from GameStop if in fact they do green light the sale of used games.
As for the PS4, gamers are free to trade or sell any game Sony publishers, but that might not be the case with all the third-party developers like EA, Ubisoft, and company.
"Well, I mean, we create the platform, we've certainly stated that our first-party games are not going to be doing that, but we welcome publishers and their business models to our platform," Tretton stated. "There's gonna be free-to-play, there's gonna be every potential business model on there, and again, that's up to their relationship with the consumer, what do they think is going to put them in the best fit. We're not going to dictate that, we're gonna give them a platform to publish on."
To be fair, that's essentially the way things work on the PlayStation 3, though Tretton's comments are just vague enough to make us wonder if third-party publishers will push for restrictive DRM policies, such as EA's Online Pass system (which it recently disbanded).
It's unclear what specific policies will or will not be in place, though one thing's for sure -- it's already shaping up to be an interesting battle between Sony and Microsoft, and neither company has sold a single next-generation console yet.
"The DRM decision is going to have to be answered by the third parties, it's not something we're going to control, or dictate, or mandate, or implement," Tretton clarified today, according to Polygon.
Sony previously promised that sharing games on the PlayStation 4 would be as easy as handing a disc over to your friend, just as it is with the PlayStation 3. That's in stark contrast to Microsoft and the Xbox One, in which games are tied to Xbox Live accounts. Publishers on the Xbox One platform have all the control over whether their games can be traded or re-sold, and they'll be able to collect fees from GameStop if in fact they do green light the sale of used games.
As for the PS4, gamers are free to trade or sell any game Sony publishers, but that might not be the case with all the third-party developers like EA, Ubisoft, and company.
"Well, I mean, we create the platform, we've certainly stated that our first-party games are not going to be doing that, but we welcome publishers and their business models to our platform," Tretton stated. "There's gonna be free-to-play, there's gonna be every potential business model on there, and again, that's up to their relationship with the consumer, what do they think is going to put them in the best fit. We're not going to dictate that, we're gonna give them a platform to publish on."
To be fair, that's essentially the way things work on the PlayStation 3, though Tretton's comments are just vague enough to make us wonder if third-party publishers will push for restrictive DRM policies, such as EA's Online Pass system (which it recently disbanded).
It's unclear what specific policies will or will not be in place, though one thing's for sure -- it's already shaping up to be an interesting battle between Sony and Microsoft, and neither company has sold a single next-generation console yet.
