OT: Sony files Game Locking patent - Bad News

p@mast3rs wrote on 11/10/2005, 5:00 PM
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27568

Seems Sony is trying to lock a game to the first system it is played on. So what if I want to lend my game to my brother or what happens if my PS3 breaks and I have to buy a new one? Looks like Sony keeps strepping on their Johnson and more importantly, fair rights of the users.

HD-DVD/Xbox 360 is not DRM less but man, at least its nowhere near as bad as Blu Ray/PS3 will be.

Comments

Xander wrote on 11/10/2005, 5:20 PM
I only have two spare AV inputs to support consoles. Currently have XBOX and PS2. The way things are going, think the future ones will be Revolution and XBOX360.
MH_Stevens wrote on 11/10/2005, 5:48 PM
For my kids swapping and trading games is a lot of the fun. They would just loose interest if this was the case and play the computer.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 11/10/2005, 6:25 PM
and people were pissed that nintendo is making their CameCube discs spin backwards on the next console. They seem tame!
Alex_Talionas wrote on 11/10/2005, 6:27 PM
If this is put into the PS3, I for sure will not be buying it. I currently have 2 PS2's. One is in the family room of my house, the other in an extra bedroom that I have set up exclusively for gaming purposes. When the family comes over for the holidays the adults are entertained in the family room and then the games are moved to the game room to entertain the kids. So this means I couldn't just move my games from one room to the other without having to unplug the console and move it into the other room. This also means I get punished for buying more than one console. There's also times when my wife is watching a movie in the family room and I feel like being brain dead and play a video game, so I grab the game and move to the game room where the second console is already setup.

What also happens to the video store industry that rents games? This means this would no longer work. I for one sometimes like to rent a game and try it out for a couple days before I buy it. This is another dumb idea that will eccentially open the doors where legitimate customers will seek out other alternatives to getting the games that don't come attached with all the chains that attach them to the console. I'm sure someone will figure out how to copy the games and install something like a mod chip in the new console where now only the copied games will be transportable from mod chip fitted console to mod chip fitted console. I hope this will not be the case, but if Sony wishes to keep cutting their own throat, then more power to them. The Xbox 360, and whatever the new Nintendo console will be will look more attractive.
MH_Stevens wrote on 11/10/2005, 9:56 PM
You know I think a lot of this comes from, and I'm not joking 'cos I've worked for big corporations, a bunch of these executives are so high powered and overpaid they never spend any time with their families and children and they are just totally out of touch.


FrigidNDEditing wrote on 11/10/2005, 10:03 PM
Video game and movie rental places across the country would be in outrage... never gonna happen - they buy too much from these places, and at full price too.

Dave
JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/11/2005, 5:21 AM
This is already happening with the Xbox!!!

ANY content that you purchase and download to your Xbox is LOCKED to your Xbox only! I know because my son’s Xbox went bad and we had to buy another one. Microsoft told me that if I wanted the downloaded content that I paid for from the broken Xbox that I have to send BOTH to Microsoft so that they can move it for me! They would not allow me to download it again onto the new Xbox. I refused to mail the two Xbox’s back and they said, sorry, you forfeit the content that you paid for.

So Sony is late to this game because Microsoft is secretly already doing this. Buyer Beware!!!!

~jr
birdcat wrote on 11/11/2005, 5:23 AM
Maybe they should price the games at a buck each....... Solves the problem for us.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 11/11/2005, 5:54 AM
two words for ya all:

go nintendo.

this is getting crazy. their so worries over piracy that they're punishing the normal users. Even PC games don't lock you to one computer.
p@mast3rs wrote on 11/11/2005, 6:03 AM
I can understand with downloading content. That I will concede, but we are talking about Sony rendering physical media useless except on the first system it was played.

I agree with the poster above that big wigs have lost touch with any sense of reality. But greedy companies keep trying to get richer at the consumer's expense and trashes their rights to private copies. Then someone will crack this crap and the government and the media will feel bad that their cash cow is once again behind enemy (pirate) lines.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/11/2005, 9:28 AM
> I can understand with downloading content.

Yes, I understand why they did it; so that you can’t go to your friend’s house and download it again on their PS2. BUT, it would be very easy to track this kind of behavior and limit it. Once again they through the baby out with the batch water and content that I legally paid for is no longer mine! In the end, the honest customer lost. Now Microsoft is stealing from me. They have my money and I don’t have the content!!! Makes you want to hack the Xbox and gain control of what is rightfully yours.

> I agree with the poster above that big wigs have lost touch with any sense of reality.

No argument there. If my kids can’t take their games to a friends house to play multi-player, or even play them on another PS3 in another room of the house then the thrill is gone. Kids do this all the time and if the big wigs can’t see this, they should not be in the game business. They will certainly loose sales from people who buy more than one of the same console!

> Then someone will crack this crap and the government and the media will feel bad that their cash cow is once again behind enemy (pirate) lines.

Exactly! The Playstation already had great security for their games. You simply couldn’t copy them and have them play correctly. Why wasn’t that good enough? There is no need to further cripple the format.

IMHO, this is a death blow to the PS3. We’ll buy the Xbox360 instead. The only people who can play pirated PS2 games are people with mod chips. That’s a fairly drastic step that the average consumer is not going to take. I know I didn’t do it and trust me, every time a PS2 game would stop working (and those piece of cr*p games would stop working all the time!) I thought of getting a mod chip so I could backup the games we had.

That means the only people who will benefit from Sony doing this are the pirates because they will mod their systems to circumvent this. Once again the honest customer looses, the pirates win, and Sony looses even bigger because they will loose honest customers. I know I for one will not buy a PS3 if the games are locked to a single system.

~jr
TheHappyFriar wrote on 11/11/2005, 9:54 AM
remember the companies we're talking about here:
sony. When games were big they were pushing the beta home format & stereo speakers. Think that care more about profits or game & gamers?

Microsoft: when games were big they were spending MORE time eliminating competition then anything. their only concern for games was making them windows only. Gamers & games are nothing more then the way to do that.

do the math people... this is just the next step to them!
p@mast3rs wrote on 11/11/2005, 10:29 AM
Is there any doubt that this will add fuel to the fire and lend some sort of legtimacy to those who pirate? Im beginning to think so. Im still against piracy but when these draconian measures impact the very people who keep these companies in business, I become more sympathetic to those who do pirate.

Man, am I glad I am not a Sony shareholder anymore. I can only imagine the nose dive the stocks will take.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/11/2005, 1:35 PM
> Is there any doubt that this will add fuel to the fire and lend some sort of legtimacy to those who pirate? Im beginning to think so. Im still against piracy but when these draconian measures impact the very people who keep these companies in business, I become more sympathetic to those who do pirate.

I can’t agree the way you phrased this but let me offer a different statement and see if this is what you meant.

People who pirate are stealing something which is not theirs. This can never be condoned. So even my statement about the mod chip was inaccurate. You are not a pirate simply because you bought a mod chip. I’m sure lots of people who bought mod chips simply wanted to backup their games and do not steal them or sell them illegally. So let me rephrase both our comments and see if you agree:

Is there any doubt that this will add fuel to the fire and lend some sort of legitimacy to those legal customer who circumvent the copy protection to protect their own investment.

Sadly, I’m beginning to think so too although the correct thing to do is to boycott the product and let it die a painful death. That is why I will buy an Xbox360 before I will mod a PS3 if Sony chooses this path of locking games to physical consoles. The correct thing to do is vote with you wallet. If you don’t like the rules, you have the right to not play, but you never have the right to break the rules. Once you do that, chaos ensues.

It’s just like our first amendment rights in the US. We don’t have to like what you are saying but we have no right to silence you, less we be silenced. We only have the right to choose not to listen. (sorry, didn’t mean to get philosophical but its important that we never condone piracy)

~jr
p@mast3rs wrote on 11/11/2005, 2:38 PM
Johnny, I do agree with you. I should have phrased my response better. What I was trying to say is that those that currently pirate and use every excuse under the sun to justify will surely latch on to this as another reason why they feel justified in doing so.