The Sony Secret Service

Heya. Been awhile since my last post. Anyway, before I get into this topic of Playstation 4 Rumors, there's something I got to address. Why I am not talking about World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Beta all lies down to this

I HAVEN'T GOTTEN ONTO THE BETA

Yet.

But don't worry. Soon as I get my hands on a Beta Key, I'm gonna hop right on there and give it a go.

Now, rumor has it the next Playstation is due out next year in 2013. Furthermore, it has been given the nickname Orbis. Now, rumor has it that, due to a new chipset, there will not be any PS3 backwards compatibility. Which means, if you have a steady flow of Playstation 3 games, tough noogies. But wait. It gets better, even if you're not gonna buy the next X-Box system.

Just like the next Xbox/Durango, we've heard from multiple sources that the Orbis will likewise have some kind of anti-used games measures built into the console. Here's how our main source says it's currently shaping up: new games for the system will be available one of two ways, either on a Blu-Ray disc or as a PSN download (yes, even full retail titles). If you buy the disc, it must be locked to a single PSN account, after which you can play the game, save the whole thing to your HDD, or peg it as "downloaded" in your account history and be free to download it at a later date.

Don't think you can simply buy the disc and stay offline, though; like many PC games these days, you'll need to have a PSN account and be online to even get the thing started. UPDATE - Since some people seem to have taken this to mean the console requires an "always on" intenet connection, we've heard nothing about that. All we've heard is that you need to authenticate a new game online via the PSN.

If you then decide to trade that disc in, the pre-owned customer picking it up will be limited in what they can do. While our sources were unclear on how exactly the pre-owned customer side of things would work, it's believed used games will be limited to a trial mode or some other form of content restriction, with consumers having to pay a fee to unlock/register the full game.

It means one thing.

The Orbis is a full-fledged PC. Break out the Party Hats

So not only will your game be tied to one account, but the disc itself will not work on any other Playstation Orbis. Now if it only had a proprietary OS that makes Windows and Mac look Open Source, then it would be perfect. But this alone is causing doom and gloom to the used game market.

As a conservative, I believe the used game market is too liberal and is taking profits away from big companies, even if it says otherwise. It's just how the free market flows...cash to the pockets while the masses are out of luck. In fact, Sony went the extra mile and took down 2 PSP titles.

Over the past few weeks, hackers from Wololo.net claimed to have exploited code found in two downloadable PSP games, allowing for the playing of homebrew games on the system.

Those two PSP games were Everybody's Tennis and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, the latter of which was shown off with a hacker playing the PC version of Doom on Sony's new handheld. The Wololo hackers claim the exploits would only be able to run homebrew games and not pirated PSP or Vita titles, but it appears the platform holder isn't taking any chances.

Sony has now pulled both games from the PlayStation Store, and pulled them good: even if you've legitimately purchased the games previously, they're now no longer available for download.

It may all be for naught though, as the hackers claim that tools for making the most of the exploit are already done, and in the hands of thousands of users.

Two PSP titles down due to an exploit. Now Sony could have updated those 2 games to remove the exploit. But they're not taking any chances and took those games down. They won't let the liberal homebrewers take over the Playstation Portable.

So Sony, to angering the fanbase almost as much as Electronic Arts is doing, I salute you. Because if you had failed, you would have steered me away from Wii U to Playstation Orbis.

Works Cited
Kotaku Link 1
Kotaku Link 2