It depends on the individual publishers... You can't really answer this with a yes or no either.

But pretty much no.

Sony own Sony Entertainment, which includes music, TV and Movies. They are one of the biggest pusher of DRM.

And the first to put HDMI (very DRM heavy) on a Console, so don't think it's going to happen.

Sony may not own Sony Entertainment for much longer, if they accept an offer that has recently been made.

That said, the Playstation group is part of Sony Entertainment, so that part wouldn't change.

I would think if that happened, Sony would just update the firmware and make mandatory installs or anything else to enforce the DRM. They wont look bad because there is no alternative elsewhere.

I find it amazing how some people are exactly like this: "Oh, Sony and MS have DRM? I guess I just have to accept DRM, since there's no alternatives!" Never mind Nintendo, or Ouya, or supporting a new kickstarter that would almost certainly happen, etc.

We don't live in a two-console system.

3rd parties live and die by consumer support. Oppressive DRM is at the mercy of us. Consumers need to be steadfast and evangelistic in order to maintain consumer rights. The only acceptable software market is a full right physical and an optional digital. Vita is the best example of this. A full digital library with a free physical one. If publishers want to prevent used games then go all digital....the bastards.

Obviously, at present, Sony would see the MS console as it's most direct competitor. If Sony decided minimla DRM because it will be a competitive advantage and sell more consoles, they would go with that. If they see 3rd party boycotting them and holding them to ransom over this, they could just firmware the beatch with DRM.

If the PS4 sells much better than the Xbox 1 then third party's would certainly keep supporting Sony.

Sony and EA has had a good relationship to my understanding.

This gen, both Sony and EA were pushing the online passes. EA has since stopped the online passes for the next gen I think. So the exclusive content EA Sports is giving the Xbox One may not be as simple as Microsoft buying it.

EA may have aligned themselves with Xbox One purely because they like the DRM solution over what Sony has in store with the PS4. Sony has already said it would be the Publishers decision. Maybe EA simply rather have a DRM were all games on a console is setup like it is on Xbox One.

People are thinking 3rd parties have way more power than they actually do.

3rd parties are already struggling as it is to break even let alone make profits. So many developers are going under because of not enough sales. That is the main reason as to why some of them even want all this DRM so that they could make some more money from the used game cookie jar, which they assume they're losing completely.

If they are scrambling to make whatever little money they can from used game sales, what makes you think they are going to give up on literally half their actual marketshare from the Playstation brand? They would go bust.

Also, all these timed exclusive map packs and stuff that MS gets in COD and such isn't because Activision prefers MS. Rather its because MS are paying Acti a crap ton of money to get the timed exclusivity. If Sony were to turn to Acti and provide them with even more money, then Acti would give Sony the timed exclusivity. But Sony tends to spend most of their money on actual IP exclusives rather than timed exclusives, which is good for gamers.