The Death of Used Game Sales?

xtracto writes "The Inquirer has an interesting piece about a new Sony Patent on a technology that may possible prevent DVD disc media users from using their purchased disks in other machines after they have used them on a specific reader. Commentary also available on Joystiq. From the Article: 'While many are aware of the double profit companies make on pre-owned games, this would ensure the death of trading games between friends and even going to a friend's house to play a little multiplayer.'"

Re:Rendered unreadable?!?

[axoi]

The only way this would work is if the console or dvd drive or system has nvram that recorded the license code ( or whatever it is ) and made some type of hash from the disk to go with it. That way when the same disk is inserted the same hash is created and verified against the license number. If it exists they can play otherwise no.

Sounds like digital suicide. How long before this gets cracked and everyone has a full blown nvram full of game licenses? About two weeks.

- Bill

Publishers

[heli0]

Don't forget that this is on their wish list.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_sto ry.php(que)id=125925%22 [computeran...ogames.com]

Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games
"If you walk into EB in the US, they try and sell you a second hand version of a game before a new one. I think that's bad. It would be fine if they share that revenue with us. They can also be marketing partners with us as well. We can have an official refurbished games policy. That's the problem. Those resold games use server resources, tech support. The majority of guys calling up saying "I don't have my serial number", I'm sure a lot of those are resold. It costs us money. Those customers think they paid for it, and they're entitled to support. The reality is, we didn't get paid. They didn't pay us."

Some GBA titles do not work with GB Player

[tepples]

[The Game Boy Player accessory] screws to the bottom of your gamecube and lets you play everything an gameboy advance will play (and a very large proportion of nintendos classics have had some form of gameboy port)

Not exactly:

1. Game Boy Advance plays tilt-sensor games (such as Kirby Tilt n Tumble, WarioWare Twisted!, and Yoshi Topsy-Turvy). Game Boy Player does not because there is no way to use the Control Stick to override the tilt sensor.
2. Game Boy Advance plays sunlight-sensor games (such as the Boktai series). Game Boy Player does not (practically) because if the Game Pak can see the sun, then you can see the glare on the TV.
3. Game Boy Advance plays GBA Video titles. These freeze intentionally on the Game Boy Player as a form of copy prevention.
4. Game Boy Advance plays The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and other GBA titles with a heavy multiplayer aspect. Game Boy Player officially does not because NOA recommends against using more than one Game Boy Player on one LAN; you have to use a Game Boy Player and one, two, or three GBA or GBA SP units.

But replace "everything" with "98 percent of games" and you're set to go.