Sony has officially announced the PSN Pass, a network tollbooth for "premium" online services.

The belt will tighten in September with the launch of exclusive PS3 title Resistance 3. The game will come with a code that will allow the purchaser to play online through PSN.

Anyone purchasing secondhand copies of the game from someone who has used the code will have to buy a fresh access chit to play Resistance 3 online. Sony hasn't said how much the pass code will cost.

Whatever the price, the PSN Pass is essentially a tax on folk who buy pre-owned games.

A Sony spokesperson said: "We are always evaluating new programmes for our online offering, and starting with Resistance 3 this September, we will be instituting a network pass programme for PS3 games with online capabilities.

"This programme will be game-specific. Games that are a part of this programme will include a single-use registration code that grants the account holder redeeming the code full online access for that title.

"This is an important initiative as it allows us to accelerate our commitment to enhancing premium online services across our first party game portfolio."

Sony has been pondering the imposition of online fees for some time. Plus, EA, THQ, Codemasters and Warner have all used an Online Pass tool in their games.

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/07/07/s ... _psn_pass/

Where to start?

Updates, installation and loading times aren't pain enough, now you'll have to enter a code with the crappy keyboard interface in the dog's dinner that is the PSN store? And you can bet Sony will manage to bork the system come a major release.

How about the fact that people use second hand games to buy new ones? And that games will have a lot less exposure for when it's time to sequelize them?

Christ I could rant on, but it's easier just to say that this is yet another bout of FAIL from the reigning champion, News International notwithstanding...

Games with used codes will no doubt be sold cheaper as their value has been diminished. How the secondhand games retailers determine this is anyone’s guess. Either that or it will be a lottery.

I buy games second hand or from the Platinum Range. I can wait a few months for a game to drop in price. If it turns up in the second hand games section too quickly, or there are a lot of them I tend to conclude that the game was not that good and pass. Fifty quid for a game is too much for me at the moment, and even when I’m feeling rich at the time, I have pause to recall that I got pretty good games for the PS2 for about £20.

Anyway, I have the freebies from Sony to keep me quiet for a while. I think my next game purchase is likely to be the next Tomb Raider game, subject to the above tests and observations.

The new TR certainly looks the part, I recommend the Uncharted games if you like shooting with your adventuring and puzzling too

I get my second-hand games off sellers on Amazon, eBay, Play etc, I've become a lot more aware of certain companies and games as a result, Infamous as one instance... The tards don't realise how short-sighted this nonsense is

This isn't exactly new, 3rd parties like EA have been doing it a while for their online service along with THQ, and even some 1st party games came with 'bonus' free content

I prefer the 'bonus' free content to the "pay for this service again", it's like the Steam way of doing it.... make more free hats!

+1

PSN Pass 'not timed particularly well'

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/31 ... arly-well/

It's not often I agree with him

ION:

Sony moves to fix PlayStation Plus problems

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/31 ... -problems/

'We've got a real chance to get people onto PS+ here, let's not mess it up!'

£50 quid for a game is crazy. Especially if like most kids you can complete it in a few weeks. It will seriously reduced the resale value of the game and could impact on the initial price as well. It all depends on the cost of that Sony tax. A couple of pounds and it will probably make no difference. Any more and I suspect that the second hand buyers will factor it into the price. If buyers realise this is happening they will factor it in to their buying habits.

So If this becomes common games will be bought solely on their ability to sustain interest for long periods. If that happened then the numbers of games actually sold will fall as the resale values will impact on buyers.