PS4 will not put any restrictions on used games, Sony's PlayStation boss Jack Tretton said today at the company's big E3 press conference in a hall full of reporters and games industry folks. Gamers can buy PS4 games, trade them in, lend them to friends or keep them forever.


He got loud cheers for all of this.

He was drawing several points of comparison, obviously, to the Xbox One.


"In addition to creating an amazing library of new titles on PlayStation 4, we're focused on delivering what gamers want most, without imposing restrictions or devaluing their PS4 purchases. For instance, PlayStation 4 won't impose any restrictions on the use of PS4 games."

The crowd of reporters and gaming industry people at the event cheered at the sight of a slide promising no restrictions on used games.

"Yes, that's a good thing. We believe in the model that people embrace today with PlayStation 3 and continue to demand. We just heard you there. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc, they have the rights to the game, they can trade in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to another friend or keep it forever.

"In addition, PlayStation 4 disc-based games don't need to be connected online to play."


More cheers.

"Or for any type of authentication. If you enjoy playing single-player games offline, PS4 won't require you to check in online periodically. And it won't stop working if you haven't authenticated within 24 hours."

What Tretton neglected to mention is that Sony will apparently now be requiring gamers to pay for a PlayStation Plus subscription to enjoy online multiplayer, something they used to brag about not doing as a comparison to Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold online multiplayer requirement.



To be fair, whatever good things Microsoft expects to be offering by guaranteeing game developers that Xbox One gamers will regularly connect to the Internet won't necessarily be evident for PS4 games. But it's still on Microsoft to show consumers what those benefits would be.