- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
Hugely terrible DRM has now been rolled out to all PS4 and PS5 digital games. Every digital game you buy now requires an online check-in every 30 days. If you buy a digital game and don’t connect your console to the internet for 30 days, your license will be removed.
Source [2026-04-25; +image]
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You wouldn’t “lose” it, the licence would be restored after connecting to internet… provided Sony’s servers are still functioning when you do…
Source [2026-04-25]
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…Trophies on PS4 require the internal system clock (the one you can’t see / alter) to be correct, so people cant change their PS4 date/time to make it look like they got trophies earlier than they really did. If your PS4 clock battery dies, all your games die
Source [2021-03-23]
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Newly purchased PS4 games now have 30 day valid license timer.
Most likely introduced in March 2026 firmware.
Could be a bug similar to an incident from 2022.
PS5 is affected too, but only shows an error when starting a game.Source [2026-04-25]
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Update x2: not a bug - PlayStation just quietly confirmed it’s intentional.
Any digital game you buy after the march 2026 update now requires you to go online at least once every 30 days or it won’t even launch.Source [2026-04-28]
[Image] Official PlayStation Support Response [2026-04-28]
Source: https://xcancel.com/SmashJT/status/2048887546323808258#m
[Image] "Don't Starve Together" (PlayStation)
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Sony made a fucking Xbox One. Exactly the version that made the internet crucify Microsoft. This is incredible.
This is entirely on brand for Sony. Don’t forget, this is the same company that installed a rootkit on people’s computers for the audacity of *checks notes* putting their music CD into their computer.
Ooooo, I hadn’t heard about this.
Can you link to more info?
Edit: Nevermind, my lousy google-fu proved adequate.to find this one. Link for the lazy
It was a huge story, if you Google “sony rootkit” you’ll find a million results
On the very console that owes a huge deal of its initial success to the comparison with the intended XBOne bullshit.
Fucking hell.
And the whole board of directors nodded and clapped their hands. Nobody understood what it was about, but did it anyway.
This wasn’t a Board decision, it’s not nearly at that level (especially for a company with $80B in revenue). This was some software engineer with an idea and a need to impress his boss.
This was some Director not a software engineer.
Well, he’s a director now.
Exactly the version that made the internet crucify Microsoft.
Not exactly. It’s actually worse.
The Xbox system has your primary console get a permanent license, you only need to be online if you’re using a different console.
This 30 day limit even applies to your primary Playstation console. Meaning the whole primary thing is effectively useless. At least as this system currently exists now.
Damn so Xbox is better about this now lmao
This is exactly what I thought when I read this. That funny little commercial they made back then isn’t so funny now.
Lmao. My friend doesn’t have the money to pay for internet for months now. He does have a lot of games for his playstation. I went over and we had to hotspot trough my phone to be able to play GTA5 singleplayer.
Absolutely horrid. This kind of BS should fall under StopKillingGames where singleplayer games should be able to be played without an internet connection.
This is worse because there is actual malice involved.
Hopefully they can just keep it offline forever. If their Playstation never gets an update, then they shouldn’t have this become a problem
Literally the kind of bullshit that Sony mocked Xbox for trying with the Xbox One when it and the PS4 came out. When legitimate concerns were brought up that some gamers were not able to connect their device to the internet regularly, for instance if they are in the military deployed overseas or on ships and play games on their downtime, or if they simply lose service for some time for financial issues, or if they have metered connections that they depend on for work, etc. they were told to just buy an older Xbox. Sony gave them hell in interviews after that. Here we are 13 years later, and Sony is busy retroactively doing that dame shit. Smh
Ah so in 25 years when I pull out my PS5 it’ll be useless cool cool cool
in 25 years you’ll be able to pirate and emulate whatever PS5 games you want.
This is contrary to my headcanon Cyberpunk capitalist-hell future where we all own nothing, and everything is a client and subscription-based, and 2018 kindles and mp3 players go for $700 both due to inflation and people finally realizing what they’d lost.
but sure, maybe, idk
HAHAHHA
How in the world are you this positive ? No fucking way will it be good.
On your watch.
It’s amazing how all of my Genesis, Playstation 1, and Dreamcast games still work, as will work as long as I have the game and console and they are in good condition. But that isn’t guaranteed for a game I buy next week.
PS1 and DC games (especially the DC games) will deteriorate. CD-based games are already dying to disc rot.
First of all, this disc rot thing isnt really true if you havent been storing them in an outdoor warehouse. That issue mostly pertains to burned discs. Optical media lasts a very very long time.
People say vhs tapes are going bad as well yet I have hundreds that were stored in a damp non climate controlled garage and they work the same as 20 years ago.
The bigger issue is the lasers in the drives. unfixable and no replacement.
The solution is SD cards, and networked play (for ps2 with ethernet )
If that fails, we have emulation forever. Get an adaptor for the og controllers and your golden.
I can fit the entire DC library on 1 SD card. Mind blowing. Truly golden age of gaming right now.
Agreed! I think it’s not uncommon for old games to be stored in places like garages, attics, or storage lockers though, all of which could lack climate control or be almost anti-climate control.
Or maybe there are a lot of people who’ve got scratched discs. Either way, I’ve seen articles with anecdotes of it.
True. People treat discs horribly. Since I was little ive always treated then with the utmost care, same with records. Never understood kids scratching discs. It helps I’m probably autistic.
My discs are pristine.
If only there were some way to preserve them.
Perfect timing for the Steam Machine to come back. Shame about the … everything else going on.
Its been the perfect time to build a used PC if anything
Good luck finding decently priced RAM, anything at a reasonable price used just gets picked up by scalpers and relisted at the inflated prices.
It is why I buy on GOG for DRM free when it’s an option there
I recently bought a Ebook from Bookshop.org thinking I could download and transfer it to my cracked Kindle and to support the author only to find out it is DRM locked and can only be read on their specific apps, so now I am asking for a refund and meanwhile downloaded a copy of the book throught other legal sources and enjoying it, all these lockin systems just screw over the paying customers and incentivize sailing the high seas, brain dead greedy pigs will dig their own grave and then pass the blame to others
FWIW according to an insider, this is a bug. People have been saying this menu is for PS+ games that expire when your subscription runs out.
Incredibly stupid that Sony isn’t responding about this at all though.
Cynical conspiracy: They want to gauge how bad the backlash is to see if they could get away with it for real. Assuming that it actually is a bug.
Why would they want to? What is the business model for this? How would it make them more money?
I don’t know, maybe by revoking licenses they could then re-sell those licenses and save money?
They don’t revoke them
Sony have never been technically competent. It’s why their online service is breached/down seemingly every other year.
Their main development hub for this part of the platform is in my city and they list for new contract to hire or direct hire positions pretty regularly. I’ve been hesitant to apply ever because despite their obvious incompetence, I’m sure the interview process is a gatekeeping nightmare, and one manager I had was from there and thought he was God’s gift to software despite being the creepiest, technically dull reject I’ve ever been managed by.
I think he was running part of Sony home when it was breached and leaked everyone’s information.
This is the one reason why the Xbox 360 was THE online gaming console for a while because Sony’s servers were horrible.
Thank you! I’ve updated the post, and added more context. I am sorry, but it does not look like a bug.
Update x2: not a bug - PlayStation just quietly confirmed it’s intentional.
Any digital game you buy after the march 2026 update now requires you to go online at least once every 30 days or it won’t even launch.Source: https://xcancel.com/SmashJT/status/2048887546323808258#m
Oof, that’s crazy. What were they thinking?
What were they thinking?
ima gonna go with “why tf didn’t we do this from the start?”
with every new console release, I’m more content with my PC
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”
Welp, looks like it’s time to check out some of those PS4 hacks, eh? Ahoy, ahoy.
Find ps4s that weren’t updated to the latest because as i understood it, they’ve essentially bricked its modding capabilities with a patch.
My PS4’s been collecting dust for a while, so I’m sure its firmware is out of date. Time to see what the homebrew scene is all about!
Edit: we can run Linux now? Oh this is gonna be fun
And that is why turning off automatic updates is sometimes necessary, and a must for games, consoles and mobiles. Because the anti consumer practices by corporate shitlords are far worse than a low chance of being hacked through a “security flaw”.
FUCK!
Like, something beyond the usual “the currently available exploits were fixed in the latest release”? Or just that? Because the currently available exploits being fixed in the latest patch is pretty normal. Sucks, but that seems to be the arrangement they’ve worked out instead of Sony suing the exploit finders for letting people use their consoles the way they like. (Yeah, shit’s fucked.)
– Frost
The latest PS4 jailbreak goes up to like FW 13.50 and there’s a plethora of different methods to choose from - all of them pretty easy to do at home with minimal preparation. There’s even tools you can purchase that do the jailbreak for you, automatically.
Have a look at Modded Warfare’s channel on YT if you’re interested. He’s doing regular updates on the modding scene and has lots of good, detailed tutorials to follow along.
Further reinforcing my decision to hard dump Sony after the PS4.
This is bad news for me – I was planning to buy Sony but if they’re going to be assholes as well, only PC is clean, and then only GoG, Humble Bundle etc.
Steam actually isn’t terrible, fortunately.
I mean, it’s not GREAT, it still fucks you over by requiring updates for games (it literally will not let you play a game that has an update available without updating), and I’m a bit squiffy about the offline mode and whether it’d work offline long-term, but they don’t seem to be ACTIVELY malicious (with offline mode I’m more worried about it like, forgetting your login details and wanting a re-login, than i am about intentional “it’s been X days since you were online, you’re not allowed to play!” crap).
GOG is of course better for guaranteed offline availability. For stuff that’s available on GOG. A lot of stuff isn’t. But for stuff that is, GOG’s pretty great.
Also, you do have to trust that Valve won’t turn terrible. And they might do that as soon as GabeN dies. No way to tell. Even if they do turn hostile, though, there are apparently Steam API emulator tools that you could use to bypass Steam DRM checks (which of course does nothing for games that have e.g. Denuvo, but a lot of games on Steam just use Steam’s stuff (that’s probably the entire reason Steam even has DRM, is to let devs use that instead of something more invasive) and a lot of games on Steam are actually DRM-free even, but they don’t tell you that in advance, it’s just ‘does the game launch without the Steam API working or not’).
– Frost
Indeed, ineffably marvelous artists at Steam and Valve!
Just in case, it’s worth to mention that Steam DRM is opt-in by default. The developer is solely responsible for implementing and activating it.The Steam DRM wrapper by itself is not an anti-piracy solution. The Steam DRM wrapper protects against extremely casual piracy (i.e. copying all game files to another computer) and has some obfuscation, but it is easily removed by a motivated attacker…
The Steam wrapper can and should be used in combination with other DRM solutions. To do so, apply the Steam wrapper in compatibility mode first before applying any other DRM. Apply it first so that it does not interfere with the DRM solution. Compatibility mode will disable DRM capabilities of the wrapper.
Source: Public Steamworks Documentation [web-archive]
Same, except I dumped them a lot longer ago. (And frankly, I didn’t own much from them even before that, except a '90s Walkman and maybe a few other small things.)
Thanks for the warning. They don’t want me to buy a PS, I get it.
If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing*
*
I know Steam makes you tick a box saying "hey, paying for the game here means you are paying for a tempory licence. But l am 100% ready to switch to piracy if this comes to Steam. I will am happy to pay the devs through a steam purchase, but just pirate the game afterwards.
Remember when they clowned on Xbox for this
No.
They clowned on Xbox for wanting to lock physical games to a single account/console.
The second hand market no longer means shit because Game Pass and PlayStation Plus exist.
No it was also about online check-in you just don’t remember
From what I remember, the online check-in was never actually implemented, or it was removed right before the console released. But they were talking about it and the backlash was so strong that they actually made the right call and removed it.
Correct they chose not to over the backlash, but even then backing out of it didn’t stop Sony for including no online required in their marketing
