Sony’s Andrew House has explained in an interview with The Guardian that the company always planned for the PS4 to play used games.
House explains:
“It became an expression of a little bit of concern bubbling up around the subject of what ownership means in an age of digital content overall. We and other entertainment industry players need to be very conscious of that and very careful. Bringing it back to the fundamentals again, we need to be fair and to think of the consumer experience first.”
There was speculation that the PS4 might blocked used games when the console was announced back in February. But House says “we had no intention of changing from a model that I think has served us really well for several platform life-cycles“. He further explained that the action “of others” (ie Microsoft and the Xbox One) led to more speculation that Sony would follow the same path. Needless to say House said revealing that the PS4 will allow you to ply used game freely at E3 was the perfect time to “set the record straight“.
Anyway, it’s good to know this topic of blocking used games is now a thing of the past now that Microsoft came to its senses for the Xbox One. Let’s hope this is the last time we have to hear about gaming devices using anti-consumer practices just to make more profit.