Sony: PS4 will play used games
But Yoshida won't promise a 2013 release for Europe
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed that the PlayStation 4 will play pre-owned games, despite earlier reports.
"That's the general expectation by consumers," he explained, before confirming the capability to Eurogamer.
"They purchase physical form, they want to use it everywhere, right? So that's my expectation."
Eurogamer later heard from a separate Sony source that the patent that started rumours of second-hand games being blocked didn't in fact relate to PS4.
Yoshida was less transparent on the European release date however. While the date is set for Christmas for the US and Japan, Europe has traditionally seen a later release for consoles.
"Europe is an enormously important market," he said.
"That's no question. So I hope European consumers can play PS4 as soon as it's available somewhere, but I'm not making promises."
PlayStation 3 launched in Europe a full four months after the US and Japan, and fans will be keen to hear reassurance the same delays won't happen again.
"For one thing the system has to be complete and we have to understand the manufacturing pace of it. Then we have to kind of look at the demand predictions and we have to decide whether we can go global or like [the rumour]. So it takes more time for us to know that."
I know that the only reason I buy so may new games is because I am able to re-coup some of the money selling back my used ones. If I had to fork out 100% cost each time I would buy far fewer games simply because the cost is already pretty prohibitive.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Peter Dwyer on 21st February 2013 11:16am
"Maybe we'll see them on kickstarter... in order to get a quicker European release."
:) you know that deep down that statement is frighteningly believable.......
@Peter P Totally agree. Would like to see them allow transferable downloads too. Even in a limited fashion, just not as limited as it is.
The only away I could see stopping the sale of used games being successful, is if prices for new titles came down across the board.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Sam Maxted on 21st February 2013 6:04pm