“Players can continue to access and play their purchased games as usual,” reads Sony’s statement. “A one-time online check is required to confirm the game’s license, after which no further check-ins are required.”
There should be a mechanism for this for people who live off grid or don’t have Internet service. The fact that there isn’t is a glaring oversight (which I’m sure isn’t an oversight at all), and it shouldn’t be allowed.
All this over denuvo possibly being circumvented for single player games that probably shouldn’t have it in the first place.
It’s BS. And their statement adds further confusion instead of giving more insight.
People who live off grid or don’t have internet service aren’t buying games digitally. How would Sony’s policy impact them?
I can think of at least two ways, one of which is buying or have a console given to you with the games already on it which is a possibility. When I gifted my son his switch a lot of his games were digital and I literally opened everything and set it up and did updates before putting it back in the box and wrapping it for Christmas. I can generally see that as a possibility.
Also, moving presents similar problems if you haven’t got Internet set up when you first get to the new place, and so does using a PS5 on a ship (like I did when I was in the Navy with the PS4).
If I bought it I should be able to use it regardless of whether or not I still have Internet access.
Did you read the article? Sony has clarified that this is a one-time check. If it were persistent rechecks, I would agree, but you literally need to be online to download the game. Once you’ve bought and downloaded the game, you are able to use it regardless of whether or not you still have internet access.
If you’re moving to a brand new place without internet and unboxing your brand new Playstation, then, yes, you won’t be able to play any of the games you bought digitally. But you wouldn’t be able to download them anyway, so Sony’s check isn’t really the breaking point there.
How does this work for games that were previously purchased? Sony’s answer just isn’t a good enough clarification.
And before you claim it’s only new games I’ve literally run into this with other services that do a “sanity” check that won’t allow you to access things you have previous paid for because you haven’t connected to the internet in awhile.
This is only active for digital games, you need internet connection yo download a game. So after the download you activate the permanent license with the start of a game (probably after 14 days). So it doesn’t affect physical games, that was already tested from different groups.
I read about this and want to post about it when sony finally give us a statement. But this is a bit confusing, because it doesn’t show the reality. Some claimed it is a bug, some say after 14 days the license is permanent, but sony claims after first start of the software. This new doesn’t answer all questions, so i will look it up later today
If it’s okay, I copied my comment from another post since even Sony’s response is vague as hell. Maybe they don’t want to address the foundation of the controversy.
So the rumor that I heard (unfounded YouTube video, sadly) is that Sony had an issue with people running refund scams. People with usually-offline PS5s would buy a game, install it on their PlayStation, then pull the network cable, and request a refund on a secondary device. They get their money back, and then can play the game infinitely afterwards.
So, the fix is that a newly purchased PlayStation game must check in at least once after the 14-day refund period has ended. Once they’ve done that, it becomes a permanent license that can be played offline. In the YouTube video I saw, they claimed some people had reproduced this explanation.
Now, this sounds somewhat plausible to me. But if anyone were to reply “Bullshit, they’re backtracking” I wouldn’t fight you on it. We’ve certainly seen some controlling, domineering shit from game makers.
I will say that the specific case of military gamers is a key one. It’s very bad PR to give them a hard time, and they are usually offline wherever their base is. So, there’s often some investment in giving them some path to keep playing, which is what makes me more convinced in the rudimentary explanation.
