Should Sony offer PSN refunds on digital games? Why or why not? And with that discussion, this week's Now Loading on PlayStation LifeStyle kicks off.
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is getting cheaper but Call of Duty is leaving day-one access. Here’s what we think the price drop means for Xbox, PC Game Pass, and the future of the service.
They would be better breaking up what valued assets they still have and put them out to auction for the competition.
There is no more financial gain for them on any trajectory in the entertainment space.
Tech4Gamers writes: "A PlayStation Support assistant has confirmed that the 30-day timer implemented by the new DRM policy is part of an update and isn’t a bug. While responding to a fan’s query, PS support revealed that all games purchased digitally after March 2026 will be affected by this time limit.
If your PS4 or PS5 does not connect to the internet within 30 days, the game’s license will expire, and it won’t launch on the console unless the connection is restored. Hence, every digital game you purchase from now on will require an online check-in, or else you will lose ownership."
That is wild lol. Steam already does this for some games depending on the developer...but man...all digital games on ps5...
FYI, it hasn't actually been confirmed. This is just a lot of assumptions. If this is the case i would expect Sony to come out and say so. Chat bot response doesn't count as official confirmation.
People are also saying this is also an inadvertent mistake. If this is the case Sony and its customers would be best served by coming out and saying so.
If this isn't a mistake I think they need to confirm it and Playstation gamers should complain.
Sounds like Sony quietly did what MS openly said they were going to do with the once a month check in... and MS got so much flak they had to change course.
People need to give Sony even more flak if its true.
If the response is from Sony whether irresponsible employee or chatbot. That's from SONY until Sony reiterate
seriously, a large company like sony wouldnt do that without an announcement or else it would result in bombardment of customer service
Sony's chatbot is notoriously garbage at providing even basic information and functioning properly. I wouldn't take anything it says seriously.
That said, if this is true, this is serious af. Major L for gamers across the board.
It’s no mistake someone got paid to code that in the update and it wasn’t just for the lol
This is beyond nuts, this was pretty much the exact thing that the playstation execs during the ps4 era mocked the xbox one over and xbox never recovered after it, this is why you need stiff competition folks, Sony high on their own supply just like the early ps3 days where we apparently needed 2 jobs to afford one, I was a massive Ps3 fanboy mainly due to the fact that the xbox 360 pushed sony into a corner resulting in them actually trying real hard to get market share back and as a result we got crazy good exclusives, just for old times sakes like I used to do back in 2012 right here on n4g ill relist some of the major exclusives of ps3 again
Demons souls
Metal gear solid 4
uncharted 1,2,3
infamous 1,2, festival of blood
little big planet 1,2 & little big planet karting
gran turismo 5 and 6 & ridge racer 7
killzone 2,3
twisted metal
journey
ratchet and clank tools of destruction, quest for booty, crack in time, all for one, into the nexus
resistance 1,2,3
last of us 1
god of war 3 and ascension
motorstorm collection
ico & shadow of the colossus collection
folklore
modnation racers
warhawk & starhawk
sly collection & jack and daxter collection
Puppeteer & comet crash & tokyo jungle & rain & gravity crash & Echochrome & the last guy
Heavenly Sword
3D Dot Game Heroes
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale
Mag & Socom 4
Fat Princess
Ni no Kuni, Valkyria Chronicles, Yakuza 3,4,5 (these all came to pc later )
But just think and compare this catalog of games to ps5 ?
Saros, astro bot, demons souls remake, ghost of yotei, I would have included gran turismo 7 but that came on ps4 as well so not really an absolute exclusive that one needs to buy a ps5 to play like the other 4.
We are almost in the 6th year of the ps5, the 6th year of the ps3 was around 2012 and almost all the games from the list above were already released on the ps3, now if they are really pulling this online crap every 30 days non sense its only because of a lack of competition from xbox and so they have console players by the ba**s, now I don't know whether this is confirmed or not but regardless if this is in general where their headspace is at it seems like we should be worried, its the real playstation gamers that will be affected if its true, Im not even a playstation gamer anymore but my recommendation is put your money where you mouth is and really abandon playstation if this ends up being true.
No it isnt. The xbox one require you to check in online every 24 hours. Also alot has changed in terms of Internet infrastructure and provision globally since 2013.....
Not quiet. Xbox wanted to do DRM for physical games so they would be locked to your account and not sharable
Most of those games are trash. Deal bro🤣 Ponies gotta pony up. Muma Sony wants some more cash. PC bro! Good ol' games. Look it up.
O man you remember that PS3 statement from crazy Ken Kutagri whatever is last name is, was so cringe for saying,”Your gonna want PS3 so bad you need 2 jobs!” That guy overhype the crap out of PS3, that was the most expensive console, an a lot of misinformation about the graphics and performance delta over 360.
Yeah stuff like this is why competition is needed. The ps360 era was peak gaming. Microsoft and Sony waging a full on war and Nintendo just kinda doing their own thing. The gamers only benefited from that. Then Microsoft shot themselves in the dick with the Xbone and that gen felt like a step down from the previous (imo), though it wasn't bad still.
Then you have the current gen, which honestly feels like one big nothingburger. Barely anything interesting gets released while prices keep going up which to me is just insane. Astro Bot is basically their only exclusive that I'd be interested in buying, but I'm not buying an console just for that. Especially not one as expensive as the ps5... I would add Demon's Souls to that, but I already played the original. Loved the game, but a remake isn't a system seller for me.
@darthv72 Yeah LIKE 14 years ago. Its like saying "Give sony flak for raising game prices, because it would have made you mad in 2012"
Pirate on PC what you can, you will own it, nothing will be taken from you. I feel like your just throwing money away and have nothing to show for it, with digital games.
Well all I’m going to say is I’ll vote with my wallet and keep refusing to buy digital and will cancel my ps extra this is bs and you all that still think digital is the future should take note because once the servers goes down so does your digital game library. Good luck and good bye
This has to be a mistake.
“Received word from an anonymous insider. The Sony DRM issue is unintentional. From what we gathered, Sony accidentally broke something while fixing an exploit. They've known about the confusing UI for a while, but didn't see it as urgent. Hoping for a clarifying statement now.”
I find their communication to be very poor. If this is an error on their part why let people get worried about it? I understand they don't respond to rumor but sometimes they make it worse by not responding and this is an unforced error on top of and apparent unforced error.
There’s people that talked directly to people, not chat bots, that confirmed it’s real 🤷♂️
I expect those fans that were so against Xbox doing it to eat a whole lot of crow
Damn, we having diehards coming out of the woodworks for this. 😳
But you're right this is literally what led to the demise of the Xbox One and led to some calling it the Xbone.
There is literally no need for this and Sony has been doing just fine without it. If I don't turn on my console for 30 days and want to play offline I should be able to play the game that I paid for, no if and or buts about it.
If it’s real it won’t last long. Almost every PlayStation YouTube video is full of revolt comments about it.
The screenshot from the article is from an AI chat bot, there are plenty of screenshots floating around from actual human chat reps stating the opposite.
It's also worth noting that the text stating a 30 day license seems to only be visible on PS4, PS5 users aren't seeing it at all.
It this is real then I will never buy digital again and if the PS6 is digital only then it will be the first Playstation Console I wont buy
"Games will vanish" is click baity as hell...all you have to do is log in and the license is restored.
@ VersusDMC The entire goal for us gamers is to want to avoid that lol, what if sony's servers are down or having some maintenance, many times ive just played my installed games without even signing into psn, from now one it means every 30 days I have to at the very least sign it to psn to even play my installed games, cannot even play single player games without singing in, so for example if sony just decides to ban me from psn, I cannot even play the games locally already installed on my drive that I purchased after march 2026, you don't think thats insane ? you just want to accept that ? abandon playstation right now if this story gets confirmed.
we officially have started renting games from march 2026, it was a good run we had 1994 to 2026.
Maintenance doesn't last 30 days
Who doesn't sign in to psn for 30 days? Missing out on game updates, new games, messages, demos, etc...
You already lost all your purchases if you got permanently banned from psn so that's not new.
And if for some reason you don't have internet for 30 days you can use your smartphone as a Hotspot to connect your ps5 to the internet.
@VersusDMC my point isn't not about the 30 days maintenance man, the fact that you are willing to accept this 30 days sign in means they totally OWN you now, what if they change this later to 7 days, im sure you will be making the exact same point right " who doesnt sign into psn every 7 days" ? eventually say it becomes every 24 hours you cool with that too ? by psn banning you I mean to say if I get banned on psn right now for some weird reason that they decide, but I have 20 installed games already downloaded and ready to play just by clicking X, basically all the exclusives from ps4 and ps5, even if my psn is banned I still get to play the games already installed right now same like putting the disc into a banned console, from march 2026 will I be able to play my locally installed games with a banned PSN ? Its not about the length of time, its the fact that the corporation gets total control over how I choose to even play my single player offline games with mandatory sign ins, a simple thing such as forgetting my password would mean I cant even play ghost of yotei offline without signing into psn.
You ever heard the phrase "give someone an inch and they will take a yard", thats what will happen here, it doesn't just end at 30 days sign in, that's just the start
Is it that difficult to sign in for one second every 30 days? Especially if you are ps plus member who wants to get their free games?
@cytricks You are focusing again on the 30 days too, "oh sony said its only 30 days so we are safe" While its not a probability YET, just know that your playstation turns into a brick if sony decides to turn off those servers.
Sony's lack of communication is telling my conspiracy filled mind lol that they're testing to see if they can get away with this. If it was truly a mistake, they would have acknowledged it, apologised, and stated they're working on a fix.
Yes but find a way to discourage or avoid abuse. That was easy... new topic please.
I've been able to get refunds for PSN games before, such as Kerbal Space Program which is a completely broken port on PS4 and Xbox One thanks to the clumsy ministrations of Flying Tiger.
Yes. I'd welcome it. Would make it easier to decide if games are worth it while conveniently being digital if you decide to keep it. I don't play indie games that much, so I can't say anything about that.
Maybe gamers should be more a little responsible on things they buy online. Do some research, try some demo's, watch videos. The internet provide all the resources you need to get all the info's. $60 is a lot of money to jump into the hyped train and starts pre-ordering things on day 1.