People are panicking over a PS5 update that supposedly revokes your digital games if you don’t connect to the internet, but that’s not entirely accurate.
One of the main criticisms facing digital media is you don’t really own the games you buy. You’re actually only buying a licence and publishers like Sony and Microsoft can choose to take that licence away at any time, preventing you from ever playing the game again.
This applies to all kinds of digital purchases. A few years ago, Sony said it would be revoking films and TV shows from PlayStation owners, which caused such a stink that Sony quickly U-turned, at least for the time being.
Now, the topic of digital ownership has sprung up once more, after it was discovered that both the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 are demanding regular online check-ins for newly purchased digital games.
Over the weekend, the PlayStation 5 received a 13.20 update that at the time seemed innocuous, with the patch notes only mentioning improvements to the messaging system.
However, YouTuber Modded Warfare has claimed to have uncovered a new form of DRM (digital rights management), not just on PlayStation 5 but PlayStation 4 too.
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In layman’s terms, the DRM requires that any digital games you buy require an online check-in every 30 days. So, if you buy a game but don’t play it straight away, the licence will be removed after the 30-day timer runs out, requiring you to connect to the internet to renew the licence.
None of this means you’ll permanently lose games you’ve bought but haven’t played in a while, and further testing by YouTuber Spawn Wave suggests this doesn’t apply to digital games you bought prior to the update.
At first there was some speculation that this is simply a bug in need of fixing and not intentional, but some fans have shared messages from the official PlayStation support website saying otherwise.
Not only that, but this apparently has been in effect since a March update. So, any digital games bought since then have the 30-day timer and thus will be unplayable without regular online check-ins.
‘If the console does not connect to the internet within 30 days, the licence expires and the game may refuse to launch until a connection is restored,’ reads one such message.
Confusingly, though, at least one person was told the exact opposite when they were put in contact with a ‘live agent,’ who said, ‘At this time, there is no requirement for players to re-authenticate their digital purchases every 30 days.’
Over on ResetEra, one andshrew claims to have done further testing on PlayStation 4, stating that the 30-day timer seems to vanish about two weeks after purchasing games, which just so happens to be how long you’re allowed to request a refund on digital purchases.
‘I am speculating that perhaps people were exploiting the fact that you could purchase a game, grab the indefinite license file for the thing off of an exploitable PlayStation 4, and then refund the purchase – and Sony is currently mitigating this issue by time limiting the initial license that you are issued,’ says andshrew.
The whole thing has naturally led to a lot of outrage from PlayStation owners and is seen as further evidence that nobody really owns digital games, though others say it’s nothing worth getting angry over, arguing that everyone’s regularly connected to the internet nowadays and this is likely a means of combatting piracy.
If nothing else the situation is reminiscent of the online-only requirements of the Xbox One, which were so hated that they destroyed any chance of the console being a success and ultimately led to the current state of the Xbox. The fact that Sony taking the opposite route led directly to the success of the PlayStation 4, and their current dominance, seems to be lost on them now.
We have contacted Sony and asked for a concrete explanation of the situation, and will update the article should we get a response.
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