Leviathyn The Gamer's Chronicle
After it was revealed yesterday that Sony had filed a patent to potentially block used games from use on the PS4, video game retailer GameStop saw their stocks fall 7% during trading hours.
Sony’s actual patent is said to keep a “permission tag” stored on the game disk itself that would verify the player’s ID through an internet connection. Using that, they would be able to tell how many systems the game had been used on.
Once this was leaked to the internet, speculation started about whether or not this patent specifically targeted the practice of purchasing used games, which is known to hurt developers thanks to a loss of revenue.
After the rumors were released into the world, stock holders became wary of the future prospects for GameStop, leading to the decline in the company’s stock value.
Of course, it’s difficult to imagine manufacturers and retailers completely locking each other out, thanks to the co-dependency both parties have on each other in order to sell games. We don’t know exactly what Sony aims to do with this technology specifically, and we probably won’t until any formal PS4 announcement is made.
(Thanks, Edge Online)
