Update: I contacted Sony to dig up the truth on the nasty rumours contained herein. They are unfounded, as confirmed by Jennie Kong, UK PR Manager at SCEE. From Jennie:
I would like to clarify that this is false speculation and that PlayStation 3 software will not be copy protected to a single machine but will be playable on any PlayStation 3 console.
There you have it.
The old post: Rumours are afoot that Sony's new PlayStation 3 tech will write code to game discs that irrevocably binds that disc to that machine, thus eradicating the second-hand sales market.
From The Inquirer:
The technology would allow an authentication code to be read and then rendered unreadable, making the software unplayable on any machine but the one which first read it.
There are those who would argue that this is a good thing (Wonderland has great coverage of Epic's anti-rental Mark Rein). From gamesblog's perspecive, immediately a few things come to mind that makes this an incredibly dumb business idea (and this goes beyond what their End of User License Agreement stipulates - beautifully translated here for their music collection):
1. you can't sell a game after you've played it 2. you can't buy or play any second-hand games
By taking away that market, it's going to make their console less attractive to Joe and Jane Punter, who may buy a Xbox 360 or Revolution instead.
