Sony has filed a patent application for a method to allow consoles to identify secondhand games and block them without requiring internet access.
The patent application claims that second hand games hurt game creators by preventing them from receiving their rightful "compensations." This rings a bell to last year’s rumors that PlayStation 4 will block used games.
The patented system works by having an RFID tag in each game copy and an RFID reader/writer in each console. When a new game copy is played, the console ties the game copy to itself by writing its ID on the disc’s RFID tag. When that game disc is inserted into another console, the console’s RFID reader will read that info and refuse to run it.
"As a result, the dealing of electronic content in the second-hand markets is suppressed," reads the patent application. "which in turn supports the redistribution of part of proceeds from sales of the electronic content to the developers. Though in the following description a game application is exemplified as the electronic content, the present embodiment is similarly applicable to various kinds of electronic content such as an office suite, images, and music content."