Sony makes moves to stamp out lucrative second-hand market

[Digital Limit]

[PS3] Sony makes moves to stamp out lucrative second-hand market
Words: Matt Cundy

Wednesday 24 May 2006
High street games shops have been told by Sony that there will be no PS3 pre-owned sections in their stores as it will be illegal for customers to sell any next-gen PlayStation games that they've bought, retail sources have revealed to GamesRadar.

It seems that Sony is planning to adopt a licensing system that will mean gamers won't own the PS3 titles that they've paid money for. Instead, they will only be purchasing the licence to play the game and that the software itself will still be Sony property - meaning that the disc won't be the customer's to sell.

We assume that the thinking behind this move will ultimately be to stop PS3 games being resold several times - which currently snatches potential sales away from Sony - and to counter the impression in consumers' minds that games are only really worth their pre-owned price and are not worth buying new.

When we contacted Sony, it issued us with the following statement: "We have made all of the official announcements at E3 and cannot make any further comments at this time. We will be announcing more news running up to PlayStation 3's launch."

http://www.gamesradar.com/gb/ps3/game/news/article.jsp?articleId=20060524153157765035&sectionId=1006

[san_pali]

Way to go Sony.

[tisl]

Wow, greedy fucking assholes. I piss on your face.

[Yian]

Well, may I donate my PS3 discs to some one, and receive a generous tip as their gratitude?

[Kain]

Strangely this doesnt sound legal to me, if the cost i endure contributes partialy to the medium by wich the product is on there for buying the product mean the media also becomes my property thus allowing me to do as i wish with it.

Under what theyr saving, Scratching or even destroying the disc the game comes on means that Sony could potentialy decide to sue me for damadaging their property.

My respect for sony is crashing and burning.

[san_pali]

Well, may I donate my PS3 discs to some one, and receive a generous tip as their gratitude?
lol, good one yian

[Digital Limit]

Yian, can we do the same thing for sex?

"It was *just* a donation! She's falling on hard times. Hell, she was just passin' sex out, so I felt bad for being so greedy!"

[greymeister]

Fuck a bunch of Sony.

[halomizer]

this is why i bought a 360.

[greymeister]

Fuck a bunch of Microsoft too.

[Yian]

Be honest, though, piracy has finally backfired. Even though by principle, a great game developer that truly care about games and their fans will always try to meet most of the demands of the gaming community, like id and Blizzard. But as a community of developers, few can even stay alive if they do not have huge incoming to back up their principle. Those who chose principles over capital have mostly disappeared, like Looking Glass, Black Isle, Troika, and Westwood. Those who survived either have been extremely successful (id and Blizzard), or they have bent their principles a little, such as Bioware and Bethesda, which have changed their attitude toward their fans; treating them less like "fans" but more like "consumers." And there are those who have abandoned their principles completely as soon as they realized that originality and creativity with a limited platform doesn't sell as much as they had hoped, such as Ritual and Valve.

And with piracy being such a common practice, a lot of the small PC game developers can no longer survive. Even if that's is not true, that's what a lot of developers believe, and it makes platforms such as Xbox 360 or the upcoming PS3 more and more attractive. Bethesda did a shit job porting Oblivion to PC, because they just don't care about PC market as much anymore. They now even charge people money for custom modules (which is in my opinion completely accetable, though it would be nice if they were free like Morrowind ones.) This gradually create an enviroment that pushes games into more so a milking machine than high quality entertainment. Consoles have always been known for their large quantity of shit games and the huge amount of shitheads that can't tell the difference. And once the publishers have the game developers completely under control, they can manage the market however they want it.

You do not see Sony trying to regulate used VHS/DVD sells.... anyone thought about why that's the case, and what make them able to do this to the games, but not to the movies?

[Yian]

BTW guys, just saw this: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060526-6929.html

Sony denies the rumor that you can't play second-hand games. Well, more precisely, they say this is not official. Guess they aren't stupid after all.

[Digital Limit]

Damnit...

Yay!

[greymeister]

Fuck a bunch of Sony.