Used games will play on the PS4

The PlayStation 4 will support second-hand games, Eurogamer has reported.

Xbox fans were dismayed earlier this month by a rumour that the Xbox 720 will require activation codes for purchased games, putting some serious brakes on the reselling market.

Since the games industry's attempts to combat piracy in the last few years have inconvenienced gamers quite a bit, we were concerned that the PlayStation 4 might implement something similar, especially given that this time last year, rumour had it that the PlayStation 4 would not allow used games at all.

Apparently, the console will indeed play used games. When asked whether the expectation that a physical copy of a game would continue to have value, head of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida told gaming website Eurogamer, "Yes. That's the general expectation by consumers. They purchase physical form, they want to use it everywhere, right? So that's my expectation."

He added, "So, used games can play on PS4."

However, it might be a little too soon to celebrate. Last month a patent filed by Sony was uncovered that would require an activation code be purchased for each player ID. The abstract read, "A game playing system includes a use permission tag provided for use in a game disk for a user of a game, a disk drive, and a reproduction device for reproducing the game."

Sony's reasoning in this instance was that "it is vital to redistribute part of proceeds from sales of the electronic content to the developers", which is not an unfair assessment. However, if indeed this is how the company plans to implement support for used games on the PlayStation 4, the reception by gamers will hinge very much on how much they will be expected to pay for activation codes, and exactly how the proceeds will be distributed between the developers and Sony.