Tech
PlayStation Seemingly Brings Back the DRM Policy Sony Mocked Xbox For in 2013, Sparking Massive Backlash
Some PlayStation users have noticed a new online DRM policy for digital games purchased on the PlayStation Store: newly purchased digital games now display a “Valid Period” tag showing a start date, an end date, and a countdown timer. If the console does not connect to the internet within 30 days, the game’s license reportedly expires, and the title becomes unplayable until an online connection is restored.
Crucially, this only affects games purchased after March 2026, so titles already in players’ libraries before the update are unaffected.
The story broke over the weekend through Lance McDonald, the well-known modder who managed to patch Bloodborne to run at 60 frames per second. He posted on X: “Hugely terrible DRM has now been rolled out to all PS4 and PS5 digital games. Every digital game you buy now requires an online check-in every 30 days. If you buy a digital game and don’t connect your console to the internet for 30 days, your license will be removed.
We thought about reporting this story as soon as McDonald surfaced it. However, several users also swore they saw nothing of the sort in their libraries, so we waited. Thus far, Sony has not made any official public statement, but a few hours ago, a PlayStation Support assistant confirmed to a user that the 30-day timer is not a bug at all.
The 30-Day Timer is being applied to all new purchases.
Affected Content: Games purchased digitally after the March 2026 update.
Offline Functionality: If the console does not connect to the internet within 30 days, the license expires and the game may refuse to launch until a connection is restored.
Primary Console Restriction: Setting a console as “Primary” does not bypass this 30-day requirement.
The 30-day is a Valid Period and is not a sign of an account restriction or anything like that..
Key PlayStation Online DRM Details
- Applies to both PS4 and PS5 digital purchases made from approximately March/April 2026 onward
- The Primary Console setting (which normally allows offline play) does not exempt users from this requirement
The backlash has been severe and pointed. Gamers on Reddit and social media have drawn direct parallels to Microsoft’s infamous Xbox One DRM policies from 2013 (which were ultimately retracted), the very policies Sony publicly mocked at the time, cementing the PS4’s dominance even before that console generation began.
Of course, assistants have been wrong before, and there’s no telling if that response was generated by a human or an AI. We’ll have to wait for Sony’s official confirmation to know for sure.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.