ony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has told Eurogamer that PlayStation 4 will not block the use of second-hand games, contrary to various reports, speculation and even a Sony patent unearthed last month.

I sat down with Yoshida a few hours after the PS4 reveal tonight and one of the first things I asked was whether used games would be blocked.

"Do you want us to do that?" he asked.

No, I said. I think, if you buy something on a disc, that you have a kind of moral contract with the person you've bought it from that you retain some of that value and you can pass it on.

Do you agree, I asked?

"Yes. That's the general expectation by consumers," said Yoshida. "They purchase physical form, they want to use it everywhere, right? So that's my expectation."

So if someone buys a PlayStation 4 game, I asked, you're not going to stop them reselling it?

"Aaaah," was Yoshida's initial answer, but seemingly only because he'd forgotten his line. "So what was our official answer to our internal question?" he asked his Japanese PR advisor. The advisor stepped in but didn't seem to answer clearly, at least to my ears. Yoshida then took control again firmly:

"So, used games can play on PS4. How is that?"

I said I thought that was fine.

Interestingly, I also spoke to a Sony source elsewhere at the event this evening who told me that the anti used-game patent discovered last month was actually nothing to do with PlayStation 4 at all.

The patent suggested that discs would come branded with a contactless tag that could be recognised and read by your console, which would then bind it to you and prevent you from selling it on.

But whatever reason Sony did have for patenting it, it sounds like it wasn't for its next-generation console. Hopefully Microsoft will also avoid this ludicrous technology with its next-generation Xbox as well.

Well I hope thats true, but why be so vague and cryptic to a simple question about used games?

Seems weird to get PR involved with such a basic question.

Hopefully the patent was something Sony just considered then decided to do away with, it just seems strange to be so dodgy on the question combined with the fact that they even have that technology.

Shuhei is the worldwide president of Sony not a pr guy. I guess they are saving all the nitty gritty details for e3. 

sony seems to be getting everything right with this. HYPED

Of course that would be a huge deal. But why is banning used games such a huge deal. I mean singleplayer developers are losing a lot money through used games.

"Aaaah," was Yoshida's initial answer, but seemingly only because he'd forgotten his line. "So what was our official answer to our internal question?" he asked his Japanese PR advisor. The advisor stepped in but didn't seem to answer clearly, at least to my ears. 

This is what I was referring to as far as PR goes.

We will have to wait until E3, but with all the issues this gen about used games, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the compromise with 3rd party publishers.

If it was from Yoshida himself about the patent, instead of an unnamed source, probably wouldn't bother me, but at E3 we will know for sure.

They also sell more as well when people trade in games to pay/help pay for the singleplayer developers game when it releases.

It's a 2 way street.

What is your take on either of them charging a fee to play used games?

This, a thousand times this.

This is my thinking, especially with vagueness in which he addressed the issue. If it was cut and dry he would have just said so and moved on, but I think with all the pressure from publishers raging against used sales, this will be the compromise and not total suicide like banning used games altoghether.

EDIT: Also thinking that MS is probably going to take the same route, but you never know.