MadCap's Mad Rantings - "Sony Patents Their Own Suicide?"

Actually breaking news? On THIS blog? It's more likely than you think.

Anyone who knows anything about gaming knows that second hand games - that is, to say, games not directly purchased from the developer and publisher - are a hot button issue.  Developers hate them with a passion, though most gamers are very fond of the concept, being that most people aren't able to shell out sixty bucks every time the developer gods smile upon them with a brand new game to play (myself included). Therefore, while developers could just accept the fact that you don't get two paychecks for doing one job, because that's how capitalism works...

Sony decided that this was just unacceptable.

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that this will come to be in any gaming system, but apparently Sony has filed a patent for a device that will sync a game disc to a player account.  If the disc is placed into a device that it doesn't match the ID for, then the disc won't work.  This is an incredibly underhanded tactic to limit used game sales.  This is even stated in the document provided by NeoGAF member gofreak, where it is claimed that this device "is part of Sony's ongoing efforts to deter second-hand games sales, and is a far simpler solution than always-on DRM or passwords." Yes, Sony, this will deter second-hand games sales. Much in the same way it will deter the profit you do make.

Most developers really don't see how useful second hand games can be to them, and it's really a shame.  Instead, they scream and cry and fuss about their profits when they could be noticing how used games of their franchises that they like to rail new additions of out year after year bring new people to their franchises, and thus later installments actually tend to have more new sales as a result.  For a prime example, I bought Fable II used, and was so thus impressed that I bought Fable III...which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.  But, you know what? It did work.  Lionhead still got their profit from me at a cool sixty bucks all because I happened upon a used copy of Fable II, and almost any other franchise can be the same way. I'm sure others have such stories.

What Sony's doing here is turning their back on profit.  Which, if I'm not mistaken, is the exact opposite of what they want to do.

Now, there's nothing that states outright that this will be implemented in the PS4/Orbis/Japanese Magical Doom Box9001, but the comments on IGN seem to think otherwise. Personally, I don't think Sony could really be so stupid as to implement something that would get such a seemingly widely negative reaction from gamers across the spectrum. Then again, when I have any sort of hope for the world, I remember that someone green-lit "Vampire Rain", so that may just me being stupidly optimistic who knows?

I know that there's a better chance of me being struck by lightning, winning the lottery, and becoming the undying love slave of Emma Stone all in one day than any sort of person involved with Sony or indeed anyone the entire gaming industry ever reading this, but really. Just take away one thing from this. Ignore the loud, boisterous commentators who claim that Sony is killing themselves and that they will NEVER buy another Playstation product for as long as they live if this is implemented and anyone who says otherwise is a moron.  Just take away this:

If you push gamers, the majority of them aren't going to bother pushing back.  They'll just go somewhere else.

Yes, you have the people who have knee jerk reactions and will loudly scream their opinions in blogs and internet forums. They're always going to be there.  But, at the end of the day, the devs and publishers care about facts and figures, not the raging and ranting of fanboys.  And that's fine.  But what they need to pay attention to is the fact that if you do something that they don't care for, most people are just going to no longer come to you for their entertainment. It's the same with everything. If a company does enough damage by their choices to completely alienate their fanbase, then they're going to start seeing that.

And granted, this is all speculation.  But with the next console generation on the horizon, and with these immediate reactions to even the vaguest notion that Sony might implement this on their next console, this does not look like this would be a popular or profitable move for Sony. But, time will tell.