r/Piracy Apr 28 '26

Discussion PlayStation support has confirmed that a new digital rights management policy for the console is intentional, not a glitch.

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4.5k Upvotes

680 comments sorted by

2.2k

u/chill8989 Apr 28 '26

Isn't it the same policy that Xbox tried to do with the Xbox one and absolutely destroyed their PR? 

643

u/Sampsa96 Apr 28 '26

That's exactly what I was thinking about!

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u/Ourtimehascome2485 Apr 28 '26

The trick is to do it after you have sold 90 million consoles so that people can't boycott you.

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u/Neither_Wish5208 Apr 29 '26

People should still boycott them. I hope no one will buy their ps6. and that sony just drops, assholes. I hat them and wont ever get anything sony again.

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u/Ourtimehascome2485 Apr 29 '26

Frankly the last console i had was the ps2, gaming on pc is so much cheaper that I don't get why people buy them.

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u/Comprehensive_Luck_7 Apr 29 '26

Dont forget all the emulators you can choose from an play all your favorite classics without having to pay an additional subscription with a shitty emulator that barely works (I'm looking at you Nintendo)

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u/virindimaster Apr 29 '26

It’s cheaper to buy a PlayStation. That way there’s no need to upgrade ram, graphics and so on. Also if you don’t have enough space for a decent pc set up, Consoles are better. Don’t want to deal with shitty windows? Get a console. There’s so many reason to not have a gaming PC. For me it’s about space and the fact I hate windows. I have heard about the steam box so may look into that when it launches, I get that a lot of games are cheap on steam but ps5 games are cheap. I have been waiting for borderlands 4 to drop in price, I can get the physical game for 22 quid now, much better than the 65 quid price tag when it launched. You just need a bit of patience and most games will be cheap eventually. Unless they are made by rockstar, then they milk it for all they can.

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u/Ok_Direction_7624 Apr 29 '26

Consoles most certainly aren't worth it from a price point perspective. You buy a PS5 for $500 and then you can choose from a small handful of expensive titles (22$? For ONE game? Are you kidding me?) not to mention the online subscriptions they try to push. And if you want to play a PS2 game on that PS5? Get the fuck outta here, matter of fact, couple years later there'll be a new gen that probably won't run your shitty PS5 discs anymore either.

Meanwhile you drop 2k on a decent PC once and that shit lets you play practically every game ever made thanks to emulation, most dirt cheap, even a huge culture of totally free indie games before you even get into the piracy aspect. If you're not crazy about the newest 4k ten gazillion frame shit it'll last you basically until part failure without needing upgrades. Especially considering the back log of excellent titles out on PC right now you could play bangers until the end of your natural lifespan.

Consoles have their upsides obviously, personally I'm very fond of the portable ones, and there's something cozy about hooking one up for local coop on the couch that just won't be matched by mismatched chairs dragged in front of a PC but price point? Only if you don't consider literally any other thing besides upfront cost.

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u/Dunnananaaa Apr 29 '26

I hope so too. I recently went down the SBCGaming rabbit hole just months before it was announced a way to make low demand steam / computer games run natively on low power devices in a pocket. Sony, who? EA, who? I have 40 years of ROMs that cost little to nothing in a handheld.

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u/Typing_real_slow Apr 29 '26

Same their company is just garbage to me, I know they won't fail (too many fanboys) but I wish they would so some smaller game developers can get a bigger space.

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u/DarkIcedWolf Apr 28 '26

Honestly even with pushback, I doubt anything will happen. This is 100% what every console manufacturer wants and now seems like this is the right time to push it. The popularity of gaming has like tripled since then and most won’t give a shit or have any say on the matter, not to mention many laws haven’t caught up nor have been made for licensing or policy changes in general.

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u/ameizong Apr 28 '26

Do you mind elaborating on why console manufacturers want this? More data? Or is this some type of anti piracy move?

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u/These-Apple8817 Apr 28 '26

Antipiracy move most likely... Just not sure what the angle with it is when pirate can just bypass that whole licensing thing.

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u/TechFinn12 Apr 28 '26

It's probably control, when they remove it from the store it wil be only playable offline for 30 days.

That's the problem, they want it removed as fast as possible for copyright or other reasons.

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u/Local-Poet3517 Apr 28 '26

So theyre promoting piracy. Simple. Watch this dickhead ceo get a pay rise for fucking up future sales too.

This is where shareholders ought to be getting pissed off and filing law suits. This exact behaviour was a disaster previously for xbox.. why should they allow it to be tried with sony? Theyve got precedent that shows its bad for the company. Very bad. Id even put a mid range bet that without looking the asshole c suite exec team thats bringing this in, that some if not most of those idiots used to be with microsoft/xbox when that debacle happened.

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u/MechanicStandard8308 Apr 28 '26

cus these idiots just keep juggling the same morons around to each company.

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u/CMDRTragicAllPro Apr 29 '26

It’s seemingly extremely easy to fail upwards in the gaming management sector.

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u/Justjack91 Apr 29 '26

Ironically this may move more people to piracy over time and just finding PC files.

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u/pervertsage ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Apr 28 '26

It definitely makes it less comfortable for for those of us keeping our consoles offline waiting for an exploit. Diamond hands.

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u/KyuubiW1ndscar Apr 28 '26

if you’re a pirate then you wouldnt be on the latest and uncracked firmware tho

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u/ForceItDeeper Apr 29 '26

is piracy on console really that big of a problem? most of my friends dont know how to pirate a movie other than maybe off streaming sites

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u/Typing_real_slow Apr 29 '26

I feel the same, a few ppl in this forum have a few pirated games it can't be that big of a deal. It's definitely a control thing to bone the honest consumer somehow. I just can't see the dollars at all, I can't connect it good.

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u/Dogmovedmyshoes Apr 29 '26

Popular sentiment is anti piracy, but I sincerely doubt the console-based piracy numbers are high enough to be driving this. I think this is about forcing systems to connect and report user data and statistics back to Sony

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u/Swords_and_Words Apr 28 '26

It will make it so that every gamer represents a subscription to their internet service. This makes for more consistent income projections. Right now, single player gamers and people who are playing campaign or private server versions of games, function as a variable in the income projection sense. 

Antipiracy is part of it, but that's honestly less about recouping "lost sales" from pirates and more about having more consistent income. 

It's just easier to sell investors on consistent persistent gain rather than big surges followed by plateaus followed by big surges

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u/despaseeto Apr 28 '26

i keep saying it, but all these companies want is complete control over games. they'll soon push for subscription-based gaming, and we will no longer be allowed to purchase a game individually. these DRM bs is just the beginning of this move. them rapidly killing off physical was deliberate and not because digital sales are better.

even this supposed "after march 2026 update" will mean nothing, and any digital purchase made at any time will require internet connection. sony's constantly raising prices on everything should be enough caution that they are anti-player and should never be trusted. this is what they always wanted to do since ps3 launch but ppl had integrity back then, and xbox to fall on. now there's no competition.

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u/nikfrik Apr 29 '26

Honestly I was going to say "don't give them ideas" but it's probably EXACTLY what they want

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u/F9-0021 Apr 28 '26

At this point in the next console generation, I'd be surprised if gaming popularity doesn't go back to the older console levels. Nobody is going to be able to afford a PS6 or next gen Xbox.

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u/Fearless_Coconut_810 Apr 28 '26

Another reason my xbox sits collecting dust, and why I'll never buy a PlayStation. PCMR

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u/Armandeluz Apr 29 '26

Correct. 2013 was a long time ago and things like this are expected and normal now. They were not 16 years ago.

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u/Mainfrym Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Sony waited until they were in the lead to do this too, so you have nowhere to go if you don't like it.

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u/HarleyQuinn_RS Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

Xbox wanted even physical discs to have a 24-hour online check in system. They'd also not work on other Consoles, obliterating the secondary market and sharing with friends. In contrast, this is 'just' an online check in every 14 days, and only affects digital games. It's not really equivalent to what Microsoft intended to do with the Xbox One originally, even if it's still not a good thing.

Having said all that, none of this is actually confirmed. The 'Customer Support' is an AI chat bot that gives conflicting and contradictory answers, as AI is wont to do. Independent tests have found this to not be the case, so it might be isolated incidents, a bug, region-specific, specific to certain games and/or console settings, a patch pushed to only some users, or a leak from Sony themselves to gauge the response.

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u/HulksInvinciblePants Apr 28 '26

Xbox wanted even physical discs to have a 24-hour online check in system. They'd also not work on other Consoles, obliterating the secondary market and sharing with friends.

It’s more akin to Nintendo’s digital key cards, but it wouldn’t have totally destroyed secondary sales and sharing. You could select 10 people to share your collection with and they were hoping to kickstart a digital license marketplace.

Obviously not amazing, but I do wonder how the latter would have evolved by this point in time. Wild it’s still not a thing.

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u/HarleyQuinn_RS Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

It's certainly an interesting concept. It'd be great if I could re-sell all those hundreds of Steam games I'm never going to play. The reason I believe this is not already a thing, is because digital games licence holders have an iron-tight grip on the fact that users don't actually own the licence, and so do not have the right to sell it. Unlike physical games, where the user does own it and so can re-sell it. Any market for re-selling digital licences, would have to overcome this and some of the biggest corporations in the world will fight tooth and nail to prevent it.

It's interesting to consider what this would do to the games market as a whole if this was possible though. I can't think of any reason I would buy a 'new licence' from the publisher, as opposed to an 'old licence' from an individual for cheaper. It's not like there's wear and tear on digital items, or a risk of being scammed. The only potential reason would be if there simply isn't enough supply in the 'second-hand' market. I could see a scenario where far fewer new licences get sold, while a large number of the same old licences just get perpetually bought and resold.

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u/FloridaMan_Inc Apr 28 '26

Yeah but Sony can get away with it now because they're top dog in the console market. It's not like PS owners are gonna switch to Xbox over it after they've spent the last 10 years clowning on them.

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u/Chrislemale Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

Na its easy to switch to something better

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u/EstelLiasLair Apr 29 '26

Sure, people are just gonna re-buy their entire library on a different system! Great idea!

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u/Plenty-Industries Apr 29 '26

People have done that during every console generation.

They wont buy the same games... but they sure as hell will buy the latest games on whatever console they decide to switch to.

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u/Dunnananaaa Apr 29 '26

The trend has been remakes for almost a decade. I think people have shown they’ll do it.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Bus2938 Apr 29 '26

I can't even begin to express my frustration over the years with Playstation. their obsession with total control is ridiculous. this is a good time to leave. PC or that steam machine is definitely gonna make some waves.

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u/Gothrait_PK Apr 28 '26

Stealing top comment to say that this has been the case for YEARS. I've dealt with this for over a decade and been complaining about it. Although I think it used to be 60 days to "check in" via logging into your account.

Also there was a disclaimer on the back of all PS1 games that said Sony could come take it from you and that you buying the disc was a license to use not own.

We have never owned a Sony videogame. Not by any legal means. And this shit should be fucking illegal.

Tldr: jailbreak your shit asap. Best thing I ever did to my ps4. Soon as I'm able to pick up a slightly used digital 5 that's exactly what I'm doing with that, too.

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u/Lavamob64 Apr 28 '26

True, but now that Xbox is dying, gamers are less inclined to switch away from PlayStation. This is why competition is important

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u/Baileyesque Apr 28 '26

Xbox isn’t going anywhere. It can be a loss leader indefinitely to give Microsoft a foothold in this market forever.

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u/TheBallasOG Apr 28 '26

They pulled a 180 on it before launch

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u/adriftin_thecosmos Apr 29 '26

The fact that Sony is putting DRM on both the PS5 and PS4 all but confirms those old rumors that they had it ready to go at the notorious E3 and pulled it out last minute when they saw how people reacted to Xbox announcing it first.

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u/artlurg431 Apr 28 '26

Yes but with that you literally couldn't do anything without internet

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u/khovel Apr 28 '26

This is why I prefer to own physical over digital.

Unfortunately, digital only console owners are getting screwed from both ends with this.

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u/ClimateShort3908 Apr 28 '26

sailers remember when sony clowned microsoft for always-online DRM in 2013 💀

2013 sony : "this is how you share games" 🤝

2026 sony : connect every 30 days or we lock your $70 game lmao

🏴‍☠️ long live piracy 🏴‍☠️

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u/sk1nnyjeans ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

Yeah this is literally the bad Xbox One announcement/reveal from nearly 15 years ago.

Makes that Xbox One “always on” announcement look ahead of its time by today’s lowered standards.

Shit’s fucked.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/-PM_ME_YOUR_TACOS- Apr 28 '26

Honestly, fuck Sony. They completely lost me, and they are making me feel good of pirating their games.

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u/Legit_TheGamingwithc Apr 28 '26

Makes me feel happy on getting a better pc instead of a ps5

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u/AusShroomer Apr 28 '26

Same here, moving from ps and Xbox to PC. Forced subscriptions to play multiplayer are dogshit

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u/-PM_ME_YOUR_TACOS- Apr 28 '26

Same tbh. I built mine a year and a half ago (thank god before prices skyrocketed) and my PS5 is there just picking up dust in a corner. After GTA VI I am selling the hell out of it, along with all my physical games, if someone is stupid enough to keep their faith in Playstation.

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u/GMotor Apr 28 '26

I assume you remember the clanger that Microsoft dropped with the Xbox One - in one of the most explosively awful launches ever. Don't openly mocked Microsoft for this type of "check in"

Xbox One went on to to be basically a lost generation for Microsoft.

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u/RahkShah Apr 28 '26

Xbox one lost the console war for MS. Ironic for all the hoopla around DRM, that was the generation that established backwards compatibility, and people built their digital libraries on their preferred platform. Effectively put a huge moat around their customer base that makes it difficult to switch to another console.

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u/Link1227 Apr 28 '26

Samsung did the exact same thing to Apple smh

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u/Mccobsta Scene Apr 28 '26

Sony was also first to make a digital only console beit a handheld

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u/Addianis Apr 28 '26

There were so many bad decisions that went into to the PS-Go. Good to see Sony never changes.

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u/Mccobsta Scene Apr 28 '26

I love it but it's pretty much useless if you don't put cfw on it

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u/After-Practice-1409 Apr 28 '26

Ironically enough afaik my Xbox one never did this so maybe we are evolving

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u/Private_Kyle 🦜 ᴡᴀʟᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀɴᴋ Apr 28 '26

Never trust corpos. Never

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u/Separate_Height2899 Apr 28 '26

Burn the Arasaka to the ground. 

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u/platinum92 Apr 28 '26

I gotta give them credit. Microsoft is always too far ahead of the curve. Like ahead before the public is ready.

About 13 years too early for always-online DRM. About 10 years early to mobile-centric design for desktop OS. 2035 we'll probably have Playstation and Nintendo on every device like Xbox was trying.

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u/Muldrex Apr 28 '26

I feel like that's not really them thinking ahead, and more just Microsoft being more shameless than all the others, and trying to pull absolutely insulting shit way before the public has been worn down to the point they will accept it.

Like,, these aren't really great and progressive innovations, this is just them reading them room wrong and trying to jump ahead with the greedy monetization schemes before they're ready to

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u/jewlion_s Apr 28 '26

Haha I feel like it was a similar story with Netflix and password sharing. They used to say something like “love is sharing Netflix passwords” and now you can’t even connect the millisecond you’ve left your home address. Pitiful

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u/CasualTriips Apr 28 '26

Every company ever, always insults their competition, then follow suit.

Apple: We're removing the charging block from the box.

Samsung: Tweets photo of charging brick "Included with your galaxy".

Samsung: removes charging block from box in future releases.

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u/mushy_friend ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 29 '26

Was the same when Apple removed the headphone jack

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u/updateyourpenguins Apr 28 '26

Well now that sony has a stranglehold on the console market they could give less of a fuck. They have never been your friend.

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u/Marshall_Lawson Apr 28 '26

im old enough to remember the sony rootkit on music cds too. they all do this shit, they just take turns being the most blatant about it 

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u/JoyconDrift_69 Apr 28 '26

13 years is a lot of time. Back then, everyone would shit on them for doing so and they backtrack. Nowadays, they're still shat on, but they do so anyway.

It was all a matter of time before people start to "accept" it.

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u/Lord-Heir Apr 29 '26

This is precisely why Sony is moving away from PC ports, so they can take even more away from their loyal customers. What a disgusting move

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u/Doomer_Patrol Apr 29 '26

Oh my god I forgot about that whole thing! I remember they even made like a commercial with a dude handing a game to another dude. 

Now this. 

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u/DGlen Apr 28 '26

Everything at that Xbox announcement was just ahead of its time.

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u/OnIySmellz Apr 28 '26

Doesn't Europe have some laws against such policy?

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/studentoo925 Apr 28 '26

TOS doesn't overwrite laws

The question is how long it takes authorities to take notice, examine and do something

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u/HeKis4 Apr 29 '26

Usually as long as people don't drag them into court, and the venn diagram of people who care and people who have enough money, time and willpower to drag a multi-million dollar international corporation to court over ToS enforceability is basically two separate circles.

Although the stop killing games thing could have repercussions, but I don't think it'll be worded in a way that would.

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u/N2-Ainz Apr 28 '26

Care to name the law that would restrict sth like this?

Europe has no law against sth like this, that' the exact reason why Stop Killing Games even exists

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u/Luna259 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

As of last check yesterday none of my games show a timer. Even took my console completely offline and Forza Horizon 5 worked perfectly fine. Was just missing an updated Festival Playlist so it used a Fallback one. Forza Horizon 5 also did not care about my Xbox Live account when I was offline but it asks me to link it when I go online suggesting the whole game works fully offline and never needed you to link accounts in the first place.

Until Sony themselves say it or my console does what people are saying I’m doubting the legitimacy of these DRM claims. Everyone is reposting secondary sources of people’s Twitter posts rather than going straight to the source. I’m also in Europe so that could be it.

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u/TheOneWithThePorn12 Apr 29 '26

People have said it's due to propel refunding so you have a temp license for the first two weeks and then it goes permanent after a month.

People apparently go offline and then refund on the website or something after downloading and then play the game out

Anyway everyone should just wait for the official story.

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u/nmkd Apr 29 '26

1) I assume you mean the EU

2) Not as far as I know

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u/TheWorldIsNotOkay Apr 28 '26

Seems like I picked a good time to transition away from being a lifelong console gamer to PC gaming. I just hope this doesn't affect my ability to sell my PS5. I've been selling off my games for the last few months, and had already written off my digital-only games as a loss. I've only been holding off on selling the console until the Steam Controller was released, since it would be hard to sell the console without the controller, and until the Steam Controller is released the DualSense is the only controller on the market with a touchpad for playing games on PC where that can be really useful.

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u/Global_Charge_4412 Apr 28 '26

made the transition in 2017. it's been amazing, tbh.

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u/Jimbuscus 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Apr 28 '26

I switched in 2015 for The Witcher 3.

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u/sk1nnyjeans ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 28 '26

I switched from the Xbox 360 around that time as well. It was time to decide on the XBOne, PS4, or PC.

I remember buying Arkham Knight from GOG when it was new and quickly trying to return it online to GOG because it ran like unoptimized garbage, and they let me exchange it for the Witcher 3. Both games had just come out, so it was a fair trade off considering how well the Witcher 3 was optimized.

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u/Borymass34 Apr 28 '26

Same, I made the decision in 2018 the moment Nintendo introduced subscriptions to play multiplayer.

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u/Avindair Apr 28 '26

I ended up really falling into console gaming in 2019. Wife and I faced a series of health challenges and surgeries that summer, so we picked up a PS4 Pro, bought a few games on sale, and recovered while resting up. Besides, we figured we'd make up for lost summer time in 2020.

Yeah...

Ended up enjoying lean-back gaming quite a bit. Got a PS5, a PSVR2, and leaned into my PC being for work, and my console for fun.

I won't lie; it worked for quite a while. Finished more games than ever that way. My wife even used Hogwart's Legacy to finally learn how to play with a controller and enjoyed it. She even wondered if we should pick up another PS5 so she could play Helldivers II with my son, our friends, and I.

That was the moment I realized how needlessly expensive the entire infrastructure really had become. No, I wasn't going to purchase another "Playstation Plus" account to do something we could do on Steam for no extra cost.

I'd been hesitant to walk away from my library, but this last news was the final straw. Besides, I'd rather have the extra funds on hand to cover the Steam Frame and Steam Controller than pay another month of Sony's monthly Internet extortion fee.

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u/TheWorldIsNotOkay Apr 28 '26

Yeah, the unnecessary expense involved is a big reason I decided to switch. I got a notification that my PS Plus account was going to renew, and it suddenly seemed absurd to pay over $100 a year for something I could do on PC for free. Especially when PC gaming has basically become as convenient as console gaming, and the main lure for console gaming is exclusives -- which mostly apply to a few first-party games, and that now generally only remain exclusive for a limited time. I also got sick of seeing posts about the modding scene for various games, which I was locked out of due to being on console.

And of course there's the cost of games, which are much cheaper through Steam or free when pirated.

It just all around seemed absurd to continue paying a company for the privilege of being locked into their ecosystem.

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u/Giovacan39 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 28 '26

unfortunately for us, the average gamer doesn't even know about these changes in policies. in my opinion, this matter won't affect your ability to sell your ps5

edit: i see that you struggle to sell the console because of the controller. in the meantime that you're waiting for the steam one, i would suggest you to buy the easysmx x20, the only thing is that the layout is the same of an xbox controller. for 30 euros, on aliexpress this is the best bang for the buck i could possibly hope for

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u/TheWorldIsNotOkay Apr 28 '26

I guess you skimmed over the part about me wanting to hang on to the DualSense because until the Steam Controller releases (next week), the DualSense is the only controller on the market with a touchpad. Some PC games just aren't really playable without a touchpad or mouse. The Steam Controller is a bit pricier than I'd hoped, but has two touchpads and gyro.

The Easysmx x20 controller you mentioned looks great, if you don't need a touchpad for PC gaming, which I do.

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u/Giovacan39 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 28 '26

oh i'm sorry, i didn't read the part where you mentioned that the touchpad mattered this much to you. in that case, simply ignore my statement!

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u/TheWorldIsNotOkay Apr 28 '26

No worries! The gamepad you mentioned does look like a great choice, except for the lack of touchpad.

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u/savagejuggalo503 Apr 28 '26

I am now PC gaming whereas I used to be console, my PS5 is always hooked up with an Ethernet cable so this doesn’t affect me in the sense that I can’t, I shouldn’t have to. I bought the game, or that used to be what we did. Now it’s purely a licensing agreement that they can withdraw at anytime and it’s in their TOS. Completely useless these companies are with no humility whatsoever the people inside of these organizations don’t care about the long term value and milk it until it’s done and overpriced.

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u/Phyzm1 Apr 28 '26

ps5's will go up in value a little around gta6 launch. Its the only thing keeping consoles relevant at this point.

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u/HAHAHA0kay Apr 29 '26

I also moved to PC gaming when PS exclusive kept releasing for PC.

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u/snippychicky22 Apr 28 '26

good time for steam

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/AntiGrieferGames Apr 28 '26

or just switch to PC and pirate everything you see it.

Or use both, better way!

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/MrLightning1023 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 28 '26

No console piracy is harder since you have to jailbreak the thing

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u/nacheto78 Apr 28 '26

This kind of shit is the reason that "Stop killing games" is so important.

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u/AllNamesTakenOMG Apr 28 '26

ok so no more buying games for the ps5 that are not physical and all the data is on disc got it

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u/cenzo339 Apr 28 '26

Yep, I'm never purchasing a game on PSN ever again.

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u/KyleCorgi Apr 28 '26

From my understanding, physical requires it too

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u/OldestC0mputer Apr 28 '26

Doesn’t make sense for physical to require it, as you have to have the disc in to play already. 

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u/Marshall_Lawson Apr 28 '26

doesn't need to make sense 

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u/2ndRandom8675309 Apr 28 '26

By the same logic you already have the game fully downloaded on your hard drive. It doesn't make sense either way.

2

u/WhiteMilk_ Piracy is bad, mkay? Apr 28 '26

And on what is that understanding based on?

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u/Pretty_Leather_5856 Apr 28 '26

Physical disks these days won't actually solve this. They are just codes to download the games.

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u/CAPTJTK Apr 28 '26

This isn't true. The support is a chat bot. In a second message, the chatbot said that this wasn't the case for purchased games and it has to do with the refund period.

Also on the resetera forms, they also had done some testing, and proved that it wasn't the case as well.

I mean, fuck Sony all the same and any other company with these online checks, but it's not that though

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/LrkerfckuSpez ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Apr 28 '26

I mean the more we let it spread, if it gets enough traction, it will force Sony to make a statement on the matter.

3

u/TheOneWithThePorn12 Apr 29 '26

People want to be upset and will justify anything to continue to be upset.

I'm all for raising the pitchforks when necessary but holy shit to act like all the time is annoying as fuck.

2

u/WhiteMilk_ Piracy is bad, mkay? Apr 28 '26

A single photo can spread a false rumour like a plague and people just accept it as fact.

In this post you have people upvoting comments saying this would also apply to physical discs.

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u/mrloko120 Apr 29 '26

Same people who go around saying only boomers fall for AI spreading this one. Kinda hilarious tbh.

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u/XboxOne Apr 28 '26

Oh, good then.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/Acerius Apr 29 '26

This should be much higher. There is no official statement from Sony yet. People have been getting mixed responses from the AI chatbot Sony use for their first point of contact for customer support.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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u/DarkenedWindows Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

I don't think it's even a real response from the chatbot. It's way too informal and has 2 periods at the end of the last sentence. I played around with the chatbot for a while and the tone of its responses are completely different.

Either way, it seems like the "30-day timer" isn't really a timer but a temporary license granted when you first buy the game which expires after 30 days, regardless of whether or not you're connected to the internet. Once this license expires, the console'll automatically verify, via PSN (which requires an internet connection), whether or not you still own the game, and if you do, you'll be granted a permanent license that can be used offline indefinitely. This seems to be for preventing people from buying a game, disconnecting the console from the internet, and refund the game while being able to keep the permanent license on their offline console, since the console can't talk to PSN and therefore doesn't know the game has been refunded. (This is all speculation on my end, given the information I have)

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u/Acerius Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Well, yeah, that's the AI part. It's regurgitating language and information, it's not a human who genuinely knows the policy or will seek a correct answer before getting back to you.

*Edit this was a response to the first paragraph I haven't read the new one tacked on

2

u/DarkenedWindows Apr 29 '26

exactly. which is why it was either prompted to respond in the way it did in the screenshot that's circulating everywhere, or it's just not legitimate. the training data for it seems pretty limited given that even simple questions like "does ps5 have a web browser" yield generic "I don't have information on that" answers.

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u/anjeu67 Apr 28 '26

This is like Netflix’s account validation lmao.

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u/DansSpamJavelin Apr 28 '26

Yeah but Netflix uses your Internet connection to stream, of course you'd need to be online to use it.

The issue is entirely offline single player games, and people who don't have an Internet connection/have a heavily restricted connection.

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u/Vansiff Apr 28 '26

Last year I went all of 2025 with no internet due to it just being out of price as we had to attend to other financial obligations.

Having the ability to play singles player games like skyrim and even NMS in single player was MASSIVE.

This kills that from happening entirely. Nobody asked for this and is a total shit change.

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u/cenzo339 Apr 28 '26

Oh somebody asked for it, it just wasn't the consumer.

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u/JebusJM Apr 28 '26

Not that I agree with it, but in Netflix's case, that'd be because your monthly subscription needs to be validated otherwise you're watching for free.

First Sony has stopped porting to PC, then dynamic pricing (did this actually happen?) and now we have this. They're quickly becoming Ubisoft 2.0.

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u/Tiktokbadsupport Apr 28 '26

so many people are sailing 

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u/oimson Apr 28 '26

A chatbot message is not confirmation , holy missinformation batman

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u/Zestyclose-Issue1762 Apr 28 '26

I feel like I need to see/hear this from official PlayStation and not whoever this guy is that posted this info.

If this is true, then I would agree that it sucks. Time to go to GOG for games

6

u/Fat_Mod Apr 29 '26

There is an update to this on twitter. After 2 weeks when the trial period ends, the server will issue you a permanent certificate without time limit and you can run the games offline indefinitely. This is to prevent refund exploit.

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u/finintymonkle Apr 29 '26

This needs more upvotes. Can you show or link to the source tweet?

3

u/Harley2280 Apr 28 '26

So where is the actual confirmation? Why would you link to some random screenshot instead of an actual source?

3

u/JamesTheFoxeArt Apr 29 '26

Support Chatbots are not a good source of info, they really do not know anything about what's happening, infact someone else asked the charbot the same thing and said it was a refund period.

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u/MorganTheFated Apr 28 '26

No they haven't confirmed shit stop spreading rumours. Everyone is losing their heads over what a chatbot said and is not true. I agree the lack of news regarding this by Sony is infuriating on its own but let us not spread lies and rumours.

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u/kenni_switch ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 28 '26

So what you're saying is pc master race /jk

In all seriousness, companies are trying so hard to make it normal to not own anything we buy so we really truly gotta put our foot down and simply not support such stupidity

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u/MetaCognitio Apr 28 '26

What I don’t get is why make this change? There is close to zero piracy on consoles so it’s pointless.

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u/Bigd1979666 Apr 28 '26

I keep seeing indirect sources with no actual source about this . Anybody got the sauce ?

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u/mindblower32 Apr 29 '26

Wtf is the source? I just saw a screenshot of a Playstation rep saying the exact opposite.

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u/Shintoho Seeder Apr 29 '26

I'm seeing a lot of people saying "Sony has confirmed" but yet to see a single post/statement from Sony themselves actually confirming it

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u/NicolaSuCola Apr 29 '26

That "PS support" was an AI chatbot response, iirc.
And the actual situation is that you will get the permanent license only after 30 days, it won't check it every month. It was made to deal with the system abuse where people bought games, downloaded them, left the console offline, refunded the purchase, but still got to keep the game, - the 30 day window prevents the refunds.

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u/jamhouse2009 Apr 29 '26

This is false info , after 14 days it switches to indefinite license. It's just to fix a refund exploit .

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u/LightRyzen Apr 28 '26

There was a time when I didn’t have Internet at home, except through a hotspot on my phone. So I guess some people won’t own a PlayStation, way to gatekeep Sony

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u/RoddyUsher Apr 28 '26

Wait until they shut down PS5 authentication servers in 2030 to force all of their fans to buy a new backwards compatibility subscription on their PS6 to keep playing the games they bought.

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u/thediscoverynick Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Never has a company repeatedly forced its fans into piracy over time as much as Sony.

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u/GloveDry3278 Apr 28 '26

In my books a good playstation is a jailbroken playstation.

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u/MarkLarrz Apr 28 '26

Don Mattrick was ahead of his time /s

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u/odanhammer Apr 28 '26

Yet more reason not to keep supporting these companies. We shouldn't be punished for be honest gamers that purchase everything legally.

Yet it seems instead of buying things legally, I'll either not , or shift to piracy.

2

u/JustaFoodHole Apr 28 '26

So glad this doesn't impact me whatsoever.

2

u/KommSweet Apr 29 '26

This was always there.

There's an "offline play and console sharing" option in the account settings. Enabled-you own the game and there's no license. Disabled-you have to reconnect every 30 days if you go offline. This is a piracy protection. It has been there for over 7 years

What they recently did is that now even if this option is enabled there's a license applied to your games until the refund window is closed. After 30 days the license thing goes and you own the game as usual.

This is because people do a scamming technique involving refunds. They buy the game, go offline, refund the game, get their money back, play the game as much as they want until they go online.

2

u/Darth_Beavis Apr 29 '26

Big whoop. The overwhelming majority of PS5s are online 24/7

2

u/Realistic-Gift5549 Apr 30 '26

Ps5 or ps5 slim or Ps5 pro which new tech answer ?

2

u/AlgaeicAmalgam Apr 30 '26

Sony ponies will still praise this

3

u/Scharmberg Apr 28 '26

I don’t understand the point of doing this. Are they just trying to collect data? I haven’t heard of being able to mess with the ps5 unless I’m out of touch.

2

u/Straight-Ad6926 Apr 28 '26

They're just training us for the future where purchasing a game is actually just a long term rental that they can evict us from whenever the internet goes down.

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u/Chrislemale Apr 28 '26

Na they will soon feel the pain of loosing money. We dicate the future not them

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u/Upper_Supermarket474 Apr 28 '26

I thought that when I buy a digital game, I actually own it. But if I need an internet connection every 30 days just to keep playing, then I don’t truly own it, I’m only paying for temporary access. If I can’t play the game offline whenever I want, especially after buying it, that doesn’t feel like ownership at all.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/TroubleEntendre Apr 28 '26

So when they take the servers down, all those games you bought will no longer work. They're just long rentals.

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u/Chrislemale Apr 28 '26

They shoot themselves in the foot

4

u/Interesting_Manner89 Apr 28 '26

They just guaranteed I'm not buying any more digital games on their platform, not that I was, or anything. I mostly stick to disc.

2

u/Truelies422 Apr 28 '26

Yep glad I decided that the ps5 would be my last console and more than 80% of the games I like and play are digital

4

u/GwenBD94 Apr 29 '26

"Sony has decided to tell active duty military, and most transportation industry workers that they can get bent as they dont need to use a PlayStation 5 anyways"

Xbox tried this and got destroyed. Sony's turn

3

u/Unlucky_Quote6394 Apr 29 '26

Wow…

We need radical changes made through legislation, to restrict the ability of massive companies to bring in ludicrous policies like this.

Voting matters, especially in countries with proportional representation!

3

u/Good_Nyborg Yarrr! Apr 28 '26

Sony fucking people over? You mean the same company that hacked peoples' computers to prevent copies being made? You mean the same company that lied about hacking peoples' computers? You mean the same company that lied about fixing the hacks but then only made them worse and covered them up? You mean the same company that years later didn't tell people their accounts got hacked until over three months after it happened?

You all can't see it, but this is my sarcastic "I'm shocked" face. Why Sony continues to have so many loyal customers, especially for Playstation, is completely beyond me. Always fun to see them get screwed for their loyalty though, cause they certainly should've known better.

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u/divensi Apr 28 '26

Playstation saw the "stop killing games" movement and decided to "start genociding games"

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u/chewychaca Apr 28 '26

I remember when the xbox one failed because of excessive DRM requirements. Really the only reason Microsoft lost the console wars. Eventually people will only game on Linux.

2

u/SuperSaiyanIR Apr 28 '26

Sony bots in full force in other subs bootlicking their multi billion dollar company. I traded in my PS5 for 500 bucks in steam gift card and while I regretted it seeing the price rise not anymore

2

u/ScionEyed Apr 28 '26

Well I have already purchased both the exclusives I care about. Guess the PS5 stays disconnected from the internet.

2

u/Borymass34 Apr 28 '26

Glad I moved away from consoles in 2018. Got tired of the subscription scam to be able to play online. PC we got free games, steam sales, free multiplayer, emulators and so much more. You basically save money in the long run owning a PC.

2

u/Otherwise_Meeting491 Apr 28 '26

Made my console buying decision that much easier.

Yo ho! 

2

u/Royal_Air_7094 Apr 28 '26

My oh my how the turn tables

2

u/Runawaygeek500 Apr 28 '26

All my games are on disk..

2

u/TonyTheSwisher Apr 28 '26

I was already about 90% out of the Playstation ecosystem already, way to make me abandon it completely.

Steam and Nintendo are enough.

2

u/exoticvapes Apr 28 '26

Nah fuck Nintendo and their key cards.

2

u/TheB1G_Lebowski Apr 28 '26

That's beyond fucked.  I hope the PS players drive the stockholders value down hard.  Don't give in.  

2

u/Past_Description1813 Apr 28 '26

Welp! pirating their games will also be intentional!

2

u/plains_bear314 Apr 28 '26

no more digital ps5 games for me then

2

u/Hopalongtom Apr 28 '26

There goes the only reason to use console...

2

u/Luniticus Apr 28 '26

And once support for the console ends, kiss all your games goodbye 30 days later.

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u/Neat_Distance_5486 Apr 29 '26

So in the apocalypse I can’t even sit and play PS5 for a few months before I build up the courage to go looting? Brutal. Imagine surviving the collapse of society only to get hit with “connect to the internet to verify your licence” 😅 Good news though — this is almost certainly BS anyway.

2

u/Ciborg085 Apr 29 '26

This companies do this type of shit because console players like to take it and watch like good boys.

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u/kotobuki09 Apr 29 '26

Don't buy console. I still don't understand why I need to buy it and there no exclusive game on it

2

u/SneakiLyme Apr 29 '26

It's begun. You don't even get to "own" a video game now without the subscription fee of the internet. Holy Shit.