{"id":637901,"date":"2026-04-30T05:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637901\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T05:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:18:12","slug":"sony-clarifies-recent-playstation-drm-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637901\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony clarifies recent PlayStation DRM update"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A PS5 and a reflection of the photographer. Photo: Game File<\/p>\n

PlayStation fans and gaming preservations have been alarmed since late last week that a new 30-day timer<\/a> attached attached to newly-purchased digital games for PlayStation 4 and 5 might render those games unplayable if the system they\u2019re on is offline for longer than a month.<\/p>\n

But a rep from Sony told Game File today that new system will require only a single online check before it functions as a perpetual license for the digitally purchased game. That is consistent with a newer theory that emerged by gamers testing the 30-day timer over the last two days.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers can continue to access and play their purchased games as usual,\u201d a rep for PlayStation told me over email. \u201cA one-time online check is required after purchase to confirm the game\u2019s license, after which no further check-ins are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rep\u2019s explanation squares with the current understanding among players about what\u2019s happening. <\/p>\n

A post last Friday by YouTuber Lance MacDonald<\/a> spread awareness over the 30-day timer. Quickly, players began stress-testing the system, removing a battery within their PlayStations and checking what would happen if their systems were offline past the timer window. They noticed that setting a PS4 or PS5 to be the \u201cprimary\u201d console\u2014a common Sony-authorized method to retain rights to a digital game\u2014wasn\u2019t overriding the 30-day limit.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday came the breakthrough: A gamer called Andshrew on the Resetera forums posted the results of some tasting<\/a>. They found that digital games purchased on PS4\/PS5 after some time in mid-April would get a 30-day timer that could then be removed and replaced with a perpetual license that would allow the game to be played offline. The transition to the perpetual license occurred some number of days after the digital game was purchased and the system was connected to the internet. They believed that a PlayStation\u2019s online check-in would trigger the license change no sooner than 15 days after the user had purchased the game. This synced with the theory that Sony\u2019s new system is related to the 14-day window that PlayStation users have to request a refund for digitally purchased games. The new timer\/check-in system could be a way to defeat some exploit in that refund system, some users theorized.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up, I asked the Sony rep if the 15-day timeline is accurate or if the perpetual license can be activated sooner after purchase. If they share more, I\u2019ll update this post.<\/p>\n

Sony has not said why they\u2019ve introduced the timer and whether it is designed to stop people from exploiting the refund system.<\/p>\n

But their explanation suggests that this new DRM method should not result in long-term loss of access to digitally purchased games, just because a PlayStation is offline for a month or Sony\u2019s servers are down.<\/p>\n

For many some gamers, the initial reporting of the 30-day timer conjured memories of Microsoft\u2019s disastrous May 2013 announcement of the Xbox One, which was going to require an internet-connected check-in once a day<\/a>, lest your games become unplayable. After widespread backlash, Microsoft abandoned that plan<\/a>, ahead of the Xbox One\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PS5 and a reflection of the photographer. Photo: Game File PlayStation fans and gaming preservations have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-637901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}