An interesting development on the anti-piracy front has surfaced this week with the launch of Sony’s new PSP title SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 — Mike fired off his early review last week, in case you missed it.
In an interview with SCEA’s director of hardware marketing, John Koller, IGN sheds light on a new form of DRM being introduced to combat piracy (and clearly the used game market as well) on the PSP — a platform that has been known for rampant piracy.
Described by Koller as an “online entitlement feature,” Fireteam Bravo 3 requires PSN registration to access online content. For digital download users, this is of no serious concern, as the game registers to your PSN account in the background automatically like any other downloadable game.
However, for the retail UMD version, the game comes with a voucher code that must be redeemed to unlock access to online gameplay. The kicker: those who buy a UMD copy used will not get such a voucher (unless the previous owner didn’t bother redeeming it) and will thus be blocked from online play unless they pay $20 for a “PSN entitlement voucher.”
Koller also says that this “online entitlement” system is merely a “trial run for a new initiative we are exploring for the platform,” so how common a feature this will be on the PSP (or possibly even the PS3) moving forward is unknown.
Your thoughts?
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