On its way out

Now that Sony’s revealed that you’ll need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play PlayStation 4 games online, the company’s announced that it’s ditching the PSN Pass system currently present in its first-party games. However, that’s not stopping other publishers from implementing their own version if they choose.

“[Publishers are] allowed to do something like the Online Pass feature, which doesn’t block or stop [used games],” SCEE executive Jim Ryan told VG247. This is in response to comments from SCEA president Jack Tretton overnight, in which he stated that any DRM restrictions would be down to publishers. The Online Pass, of course, gives companies the opportunity to recoup some money from used games, without blocking them entirely.

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“Basically, what we’re saying is that there’s no change from current-gen to next-gen,” Ryan continued, adding that the Online Pass may not even be particularly popular moving forward. “Very much the way the tide is going on current-gen is that people are not pursuing the Online Pass thing. It’s being dropped. It’s a diminishing phenomenon, and I don’t see any reason why that should reverse itself.”

EA announced that it was ditching Online Passes earlier in the year. Honestly, we’re perfectly comfortable with the system sticking around – we’re just happy that pre-owned content will actually play on the PS4.

[source vg247.com]