Back in February, Sony announced its plans for the Playstation 4. A few months later, on May 20, the Xbox One was announced by Microsoft. Now that everyone has had time to process these bombshells, Sony has decided to reaffirm where it stands on the topic of Digital Rights Management, which deals with used games and the like.
Sony had apparently announced this back in February, but in between the excitement surrounding the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, the information was apparently lost in translation.
Via CinemaBlend:
“At a roundtable this morning, Sony's game studios chief, Shuhei Yoshida, told reporters that any requirement for users to register a game online in order to play it would be left to game publishers. Sony won't require that."
This puts what many feared into the veritable trashcan: a Playstation 4 plagued by DRM. However, the significance of this announcement doesn’t come from Sony’s side of the court, but rather Microsoft’s. It has been confirmed that the Xbox One will fully utilize the capabilities of DRM in an effort to squeeze the most cash possible out of gamers’ pockets.
Still, we are not out of the frying pan. There is still plenty of time left for third-party publishers to announce their usage of DRM. With Electronic Arts recently kicking their support of DRM in the form of Online Passes, it may be a bit harder for companies to justify its use. In a way, EA has done some good for the next-generation, even if some of their actions during this console cycle have been a bit lackluster.
