Black market

Before you dive off the deep end, it’s worth noting that Sony patents a lot of things, but very few of them turn out to be genuine products. As such, a new document outlining anti-used game technology may just be another of the platform holder’s experiments. At least, we hope so.

The patent – filed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan on 12th September – describes a potential scenario where games could be tracked by a contactless tag. Once placed inside a machine, they would be automatically associated with that system, essentially blocking used game sales. It’s unclear what would happen if the console needed to be replaced.

The full document goes into the specifics of the method in a lot more detail. You can peruse that through here. Despite the filing, though, we’d be surprised if the manufacturer implemented this kind of technology into its next machine. For starters, it would find itself at a serious competitive disadvantage if Microsoft didn’t decide to do the same. It’s also worth noting that SCEA president Jack Tretton is reportedly against anti-used game measures.

Either way, we’ll probably need to wait until the next PlayStation console actually arrives before we know how it’s going to deal with used games. Would you skip the system if it couldn’t play pre-owned titles? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source neogaf.com, via freepatentsonline.com]