Okay Geek Farm
Rumor - PS3 games will soon get PC style serial keys
Ricardo Trejo
Sony’s restraining orders and lawsuits have clearly not been enough to stop people from breaking into their system, releasing vital information, and making them lose potentially millions of dollars in pirated goods. However, there are sources close to the company that say they’re ready to implement a new anti-piracy system that’s been in the talks for years.
Years ago, I recall reading somewhere that Sony was looking to put in a means to halt the used games business by making their discs console locked; meaning that once you purchased a game, your system would sign that game with its very own unique code, enabling a sort of protection that would make it unplayable on other PS3’s — somewhat similar to how iPods are tied to a specific computer.
Well, it appears that we’re not too far off from that plan becoming a reality. According to Tech Eye, Sony is deep in plans to release a new firmware update that would launch this new anti-piracy measure. How would it work? Each Blu-Ray disc would be accompanied with its own one-of-a-kind key that would let a PS3 know that it’s allowed to be run. Each key would have a maximum allotment of 5 uses before it would expire, seemingly making that disc useless since the PSN would be watching over each activation. In other words, Sony would be adopting PC gaming’s way of combating piracy, which isn’t really all that perfect in it of itself.
Not to mention that this would create problems of its own — limiting paying customers to specific systems, disallowing the ability to take their games with them to other people’s houses and consoles. And it makes us curious if other systems will be taking up this same measure instead of constantly releasing new firmware updates, which in their due time will become compromised. One thing is for sure though, one side is going to give out eventually, and my money is on the hackers to continually beat out platform makers at their own game. It’s only a matter of time until something drastic like this was bound to happen.
PS3 and LBP disc image by mAicLo - Flickr
