Sony Planning Serial Keys For PS3 Games?

Stoobalou writes "Rumor has it that Sony is looking to the PC games market to help solve its growing piracy problem on the PlayStation 3 — with the introduction of serial keys to its games. According to 'a very reliable source' quoted by PS3-Sense, Sony is attempting to address the recent revelation that it failed to properly secure the private signing key for its flagship console — leading to clever tinkerers producing third-party firmware that allows unofficial software and illegitimately downloaded games to run on unmodified hardware — by looking to the PC retail market for solutions. Unlike the PS3, the PC doesn't have a hardware DRM system built in to it — despite attempts by groups like the Trusted Computing Group, formerly the Trusted Computer Platform Alliance, to introduce such a thing — relying instead on software-based DRM and a surprisingly old-fashioned guarantee of a game's uniqueness: a serial key."

Comments

Rentals?

[ryanw]

Lame.. what about game rentals or taking it over to a friends house to play for a few hours? NO way..

Re:Rentals?

[chispito]

Be sure to thank Geohotz for this.

If you cheered his 'liberation' of the PS3 you can't really be unhypocratically mad about Sony's response.

Um, yes I can, because there are plenty of content producers and distributors who don't punish their customers in ANY WAY for buying their products, pirates-be-damned.

Re:Rentals?

[countSudoku()]

Bullocks! He is a hacker hero. Period. Sony is not out to make things easier for consumers, and good people like George undo the shitheadednessness of assholes like Sony. The more you accept draconian DRM, as well as pure root kit nonsense, that Sony forces you to swallow, the more they take your freedom to do with your hardware whatever you want. I no longer buy Sony or Apple products because of bullshit like this. Also, do NOT subscribe me to your newsletter as you are consumer unfriendly, a possible DRM sympathizer, and as AC put it a "noncompoop."

Re:Doesn't This Require an Internet Connection?

[Somebody Is Using My]

(I originally wrote this article for the PC Gaming Alliance article posted this morning... but since it's relevant to this discussion too I think I'll just copy and paste it again into this thread ;-)

People keep harping about how useless DRM is against preventing piracy. And this is undeniably true; at best it might slow down people from copying games, but often not even that. So why, everyone wonders, do companies still insist on wasting resources, losing money, programmers, even loyal customers on a boondoggle that has been proven to be ineffective?

Because DRM is no longer only about stopping piracy. It has oh-so-many other advantages.

1) It kills second-hand sales.

2) It enables forced obsolescence (kill the registration servers and you can't play the game anymore)

3) It ensures a one-title, one machine policy. Own a lap-top AND a desktop? You can't play the game on both.

4) Online activation requires a user to be online and transmit data to the publisher. You can use this to collect valuable demographic info (also, since the customer has to be online anyway, you might as well push advertisements down his way to earn even more cash!)

5) It slowly pushes users to become more accepting of service-based licenses (e.g., subscription gaming) instead of single-sales.

6) It reassures investors that the publisher is protecting their property.

That it might have some minimal effect on slowing illegal copying of games is just an added bonus at this point. It's less a way of preventing piracy at this point as it is of maximizing the publisher's income. Don't expect it to go away anytime soon, no matter how much the customers hate it.