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Posted on June 11, 2013, Ron Whitaker Sony: Third-Party DRM Refers to Playing Used Games Online Only

This morning, there were some apparent cracks in the strong positions Sony staked out at their press conference last night.

During an interview with GameTrailers, Jack Tretton said that, “The DRM decision is going to have to be answered by the third parties, it’s not something we’re going to control, or dictate, or mandate, or implement.” The internet immediately exploded, with many on Twitter accusing Sony of walking back their statements from the presser last night.

Rather than speculate, we went directly to Sony to find out what’s going on. Turns out, it’s a very similar system to what’s in place on the PS3 now. According to Dan Race, Senior Director, Corporate Communications for Sony, Tretton’s statements were referring specifically to playing used games online. He told me,

The Online Pass program for PlayStation first-party games will not continue on PlayStation 4. Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners. As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.

This is good news for gamers, indeed. In a nutshell, you can buy a used single-player game for the PS4 and play it all you want. If you want to go online with it, you may have to deal with some sort of publisher-determined DRM, be it an Online Pass or whatever.

I think we can put our pitchforks down for now.