You’re Grounded!: Warhawk game-sharing altered on PS3
By Ema Kwiatkowski
If you read the fine print on the download screen from Warhawk (who ever does that, really?), you’ll see that the game sharing rules have been tweaked a bit.
Where the digital rights management (DRM) rules on Playstation Network games used to just read simply, “One time fee for downloads on up to five activated PS3 units.”, they now read “One time fee for download or use solely by the purchasing PSN account on up to five PS3 units, with no more than one activated PS3 unit within a 24 hour period. Content may not be used by any other account.”
Before this change, Sony’s game sharing rules have been pretty liberal, allowing gamers to share the game with 4 other friends by logging onto their systems, downloading the game, and then logging out. This meant that even if the original owner isn’t logged in, the downloaded game is playable by anyone who uses that console.
Now with the change, users are still allowed to download the game to 5 machines, but it will only authenticate on one machine at a time. GameSpot talked to Sony about the change, and here’s what the Sony Representative had to say:
GameSpot: What’s different about Warhawk’s DRM?
Sony representative: The downloadable version of Warhawk, which is available from the PlayStation Store, will be directly tied to the registered PSN account that purchased the game. Only that registered PSN account will be authenticated for gameplay. You will still be able to download the game to up to five PS3 systems. However, if a user downloads Warhawk onto a different machine, he/she will only be able to play via the original PSN user account on that machine and could not play on a different machine for 24 hours. This does not affect the Blu-ray Disc version of the game available at retail.
GameSpot also inquired if this will be the new DRM rules on all games. Sony replied:
We will be evaluating each game made available on the PlayStation Network in terms of development costs, maintenance cost, server costs, and other factors. A determination on which DRM strategy will be implemented will be clearly communicated to the PSN account holder at time of purchase.
Meaning any sought-after title will sport this restriction.
Related:
Stumble It!
Tips N4G
September 1st, 2007
While this sucks for gamers willing to share or groups willing to pitch in for one download, it makes sense with a game on such a massive scale. And you can’t really complain when you get it for $40 when the same game available in stores goes for $60 on a disc.
Granted, you do get a semi-cheap bluetooth headset with the disc but who really cares about that? When’s the last time headsets were used in a game for something other than arguing with sassy, smart mouthed middle schoolers?
September 2nd, 2007
What the Sony mouthpiece means is:
“You’ll shut up and eat your DRM, and you’ll like it.”
Trouble is consumers don’t seem to agree, and Sony continue to decline into irrelevance.
December 21st, 2007
What does “CANNOT FIND KEY IN LOCK SET” mean?