The patent document has been outed from Sony’s manufacturing team and here’s how it works; when a game is executed on the system it will call for an “Electronic Content Processing System” which is believed to be an online signature that verifies that the game is new or used, after this process is completed the system will “Use Apparatus” to deny the use of second hand titles.

We know that each game is given a unique ID, which is then processed within the disk drive and the optical drive carrying the disk. From there, the console will be able to track whether that ID has checked in on any other consoles. From what we can see, once the game is inserted or downloaded for the first time, it transfers a block of data once to the hard drive; this process cannot be replicated or redone meaning once it’s done that game is locked to the system it was executed on first.

I don't see how that system would work with game rentals. Unless they have an ID that allows it to be used on multiple systems?

Sony seems intent on killing its console market share!
clicky


So if you get a sony system you better have no need to replace the hard drive or have a second consle.

I think I just won't buy a PS4.

The legality of games rentals is another matter

When the video rental market started the copies cost a lot more than they did for home sales. I suspect that the games market want the same extra revenue from rentals to make up for losses from sales.

In all honesty, I've never rented a game. I've either:

- bought brand new - this is only if it's a wanted game that I know I want to buy (eg the latest COD)
- bought secondhand - this is if it's a game I'm unsure of, if I don't know whether I'll like it or hate it. Paying ~ £5-10 for it means I don't waste much money if I hate it.
- bought new but cheap and old - this is basically bargain basement games, maybe a year or two old.

The downside of not being able to buy/play second hand games means I'm not going to take the risk of a lesser known game. Hence I'm not going to try the title and I won't bother if there are sequels. It's not going to make any profit for the game companies and it's only going to stifle innovation because people are going to stick to what I know.

Downloading demos over a 3.5-meg connection isn't really feasible when they reach GB sizes.