Over this past weekend, PlayStation 5 players discovered new Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions that made it seem as though players would need to connect to the internet within a 30-day period or lose access to digital games.
It’s complicated, but basically, you don’t technically own any game that you bought digitally. You own the license to use it, and that license could technically be revoked at any time. This has always been the case. If you want pure ownership over a game, buy it physically… but even then, nothing is guaranteed thanks to how so many games are using DRM these days. It sucks.
The news of the new DRM changes requiring an internet connection every 30 days or potentially losing access to digital titles had gamers in a tizzy recently, but it appears for now the change may have explainable reasoning behind it. Thanks to some serious leg work by ResetEra user Andshrew and other intrepid players, it’s been discovered that the recent DRM change likely pertains to an exploit surrounding digital licenses where people could refund a game and then continue using it for free afterwards.
While this info isn’t official yet, thanks to the work of several determined PS5 users, it seems as though the DRM license change is temporary to prevent refund scams. Other users have corroborated the story, saying the temporary license changes to a permanent one after a certain period of time. Does this make DRM suck any less? Not really, and the fact that it was introduced quietly and not explained makes it seem sketchy.
It’s all pretty confusing to the average player (like me!), so I wish Sony would clear things up officially. I’ve reached out to PlayStation PR for some information or at least a statement on the matter, because if this really is not a big deal (it very well still could be), it would make sense for the company to explain it instead of having the story become something that it isn’t on social media. Although, that appears to have already happened.
It’s possible the change was made quietly to try and avoid further exploitation. DRM is a pain, I know, but if people were gaming the system and this particular tweak was made to combat that, then maybe it explains the silence. Some others, like content creator ManaByte, think there’s more nefarious reasoning behind the change.
Hopefully we get some official communications on the subject soon, because I think gamers are rightfully upset with how this has gone down.
