osed125 said:
jacks81x said:
osed125 said:
They made the patent, that means Sony is interested in blocking used games. Maybe not now, maybe in the future, maybe is for 3rd parties alone, maybe for themselves. Nobody really knows, but it gives us a lot of room to speculate, especially since MS is doing it.
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That's not the only reason to file patents these days. A large percentage of patents filed by companes nowadays are never implemented. They're filed for strategic, legal, and financial reasons. Let's say Sony has no plans for DRM, but they hear that MS does. So they file a patent before MS does. Now if MS does implement a DRM system that infringes on the patent that Sony just filed, they either get sued or they have to pay Sony royalties to use that technology. It's especially common in the mobile phone industry where companies like Samsung and Apple and suing each other over patent infringement just about every other day.
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Never thought about that. I guess it makes sense.
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I think there are two possibilities for why Sony filed this patent, as it seems they won't be using it, personally. The first is they heard through the grapevine that MS was looking to add mandatory DRM, so they patented this method so that MS would have to pay them to use it. The second one is a little more devilish and cunning, but might be the real reason. Having patented one of the few ways to do DRM without the internet, and MS probably not wanting to pay Sony, it forced MS to go for an online DRM system. Sony probably knew that an online required Xbox One would significantly limit the audience MS could sell to, especially in smaller regions in EU, Asia, and SA. Heck, even in the US there are spots with poor internet, and even some with no internet.
