Is Pre-Owned Gaming Heading To Warfare With Sony?

Pre-owned gaming could be facing all-out warfare after Sony recently filed a new patent that could render used games useless on new console devices.

MCV revealed the game blocking technology information that could be heading to the unannounced Playstation 4, telling us that it would restrict the use of previously used games by implementing a disk ID and player ID to use as form of identifying permission use tags. The gaming device will run an initial check that verifies “permission information” for the individual disc and will either, reject or permit, the game to initiate the “game start processing”.

Looking deeper into the patent information reveals an interesting aspect of Sony’s game block technology. It would appear Sony plans to also include “temporary usage” on individual games. A “limited number of uses” could mean that Sony is planning some form of trial periods for used game purchases. This leaves us left to wonder if Sony is hoping to find a compromise between new retail purchases and pre-owned gaming.

Including an option for temporary usage with game discs could very well be a way to bridge the huge gap between recovering income from the what many consider a shady underworld of GameStop over-the-counter trades. Perhaps, Sony’s answer to the used market is allowing players to experience a used game “on the condition that a pre-determined time period or less has elapsed after an initial notification of the reproduction entity ID…”

Sony’s use of a temporary play access leaves us to wonder if they are trying to find a compromise between the pre-owned gaming market and new retail purchases.

Is Sony justified in taking steps to “redistribute part of proceeds from sales of the electronic content to the developers”, or are they simply making a huge mistake by restricting pre-owned gaming? Sound off in the comments below!