Sony has confirmed what we were all assuming – they’re bringing out a network pass program called PSN Pass. You’ll remember we brought you news about this brand new service yesterday evening – although at that stage it was mostly guess work on our half.
We were half right.
[drop2]It looks like PSN Pass is per game, and thus works like similar services from EA and other publishers – games will come with a code you enter to unlock multiplayer modes, meaning second hand copies will require a seperate purchase to activate such features.“We are always evaluating new programs for our online offering, and starting with Resistance 3 this September, we will be instituting a network pass program for PS3 games with online capabilities,” say Sony.
“This program will be game-specific. Games that are a part of this program will include a single-use registration code that grants the account holder redeeming the code full online access for that title. This is an important initiative as it allows us to accelerate our commitment to enhancing premium online services across our first party game portfolio.”
Resistance 3 is the first game to official go under the PSN Pass moniker, although obviously it’s hardly the first game from the publisher that needs a code to use certain features of a game – some PSP games like ModNation Racers had this last year.
So, go on – what do you think? Is this a serious knock to the second hand market?
fattyuk
Great!
I buy all my games new anyway! If anyone’s unhappy you probalay wanna source you’re blame to gaming shops like GAME who have tried to milk the 2nd hand game Market for there own benefits…Pre order pre owned games!!! Pfft no wonder devs are getting annoyed.
And yes I know it’s not down to game but a worldwide situatio
Jim H [Teabags]
I usually buy all first party titles on day one, so no real biggy for me. However, there is still the issue of borrowing/lending games to me mates and expecting to go online.
monkeyspoon
Good news if it stops trade ins. People who buy second hand to save money and not give anything back to developers deserve to get less content than those that buy their games new.
fattyuk
Well said, can’t afford it can’t have it. Sorry but I stick by this, As a kid I,my parents could never afford the latest console and games…. And guess what! I went without! Anything in life that costs money is a privilege not a right.
hazelam
you’re ok with the publishers devaluing your property then?
and as for the publisher getting nothing out of this.
you want me to list the ways they can and do?
well, i’m gonna anyway.
1: most games are traded in to fund new game purchases, that’s an especially valuable part of the preowned market for companies like ea with their annual identikit releases.
2: people who couldn’t afford to buy new can still buy dlc, i’ve proved that one personally, and my situation is surely far from unique.
3: preowned sales subsidise the store selling new games for less than the rrp, they cut into their profits to lower the prices, they still have to pay the publisher the same amount.
if 2 no longer happened, it would be a loss, but 1 and 3 would be disastrous for the publishers.
the gaming industry got to be as big as it is with the preowned market running along with it from the very beginning.
i also believe it would not be as big as it is if it didn’t exist.
no evidence, just a gut feeling, but i can’t believe having game stores all over the place that took your old games in exchange for new ones didn’t help the industry.
without them those games would be sitting on shelves or in drawers gathering dust and less games would have been sold.
bigkingy
I’m with the devs on this one as well. I know how I’d feel if someone built their whole business on the back of MY hard work!
DreamingOutLoudz
I cannot activate my account as I have already done it in five other ps3s- so I can’t download anything on the psn, I have to use another account for psn stuff. Does this mean I won’t be able to activate the code on my current account that has travelled with me over 5 different ps3s? My last was the 5th activated and it yellow lighted :|
TSBonyman
You can de-register any PS3 by contacting Sony. You will need the serial number of any PS3 you wish to de-register.
TotalHitman
I’m in the same situation. What I do is use my other account to enter an online code on my PS3. Then it works for any account on your PS3.
PeacekeeperAlpha
I hear that! I’ve had 6 ps3s due to breakdowns but thought that by formating the hard drive and restoring factory settings it would deactivate the account. It doesn’t. I now have a broken 60gb and an activated slim, If the slim fu*ks me I’m doomed.
Of course, I’ve thought about it and there’s only a few games I’d re-purchase. The loss of transferable game saves is the real hurt.
TSBonyman
I buy 95% of my games new but i rarely if ever play online so i’ll no doubt have a few codes to give away as this becomes more common.
Online games generally have limited lifespan so it will be interesting to see if this lifespan will be extended in future , although i’m thinking the purchaseable Pass for a particular game will only be available for a limited time after the games release and of course that will probably depend on how popular the online is for that game.
nofi
Interesting to read people saying they won’t buy R3 over this. Wonder if the devs are reading…
monkeyspoon
Well if they were planning on getting it second hand then I doubt Sony care. Sony weren’t going to get any money either way.
hazelam
the point is some people who would have bought new, now wont.
PeacekeeperAlpha
I don’t tend to play much online so It could be a good thing for me as second hand game prices may decrease as a result
TotalHitman
If this is the future; kill me where I stand.
Paranoimia
I fully accept and agree with this.
But…
If the pass costs, say, £10 – it would be nice to have an option of buying a new game for £10 less without the code, for those who don’t intend to play online anyway.
That would be a nice way for Sony to differentiate their scheme from others such as EA.
david
That’s a good idea, but why would Sony want to lose out on that extra £10?
What I’m trying to say is that if this was entirely about making money to support the online service or to stop the dev’s or the publishers from closing. Otherwise they would do something similar to what paranoimia suggested
Paranoimia
Well, they wouldn’t *want* to lose out on it, but it’s something which would set their pass apart from the others. I reckon there’s a good chance they’d sell more new games with a £10 price reduction than they’ll sell passes for playing online with previously owned games.
That said, Sony aren’t averse to losing money to get their products out there. As we know, they made a loss on every PS3 until quite recently, and they’ll be doing the same again (though supposedly on a smaller scale) with the Vita.
cc_star
Good point, if they’re saying the MP is worth x amount, then why not offer x amount off without the MP
there’s very few games that people can commit to online CoD, BF FIFA and probably one or two others is probably all most people will invest plenty of time in, everything else is just to sample it before reverting to their faves, meaning the MP mode is wasted on them, for this reason it won’t affect my pre-owned purchases