Home Gaming How the PS4 might combat piracy

How the PS4 might combat piracy

1 min read
19

Computer Says No

Though the PS4 will place a fair bit of emphasis on digital distribution, Sony’s confirmed that the system will still largely use discs for the foreseeable future. That brings with it the potential for piracy – something Sony may already have found a way around.

A patent filed by the company  (via Darkzero) in 2011 has gone live, showing a method of comparing the load times on manufactured discs to those on copied ones, going through a series of checks and preventing said copies from booting.

Here’s what the patent says:

A system and method for detecting piracy of a software product that is distributed on a particular media type is described. Embodiments of the invention track a title load time of a software product that is distributed on a particular media type, and compare it against a benchmark load time for that media type. This comparison is used to detect if the title may have been illegally transferred or pirated to another, unauthorized media type.

It’s all shown off by this handy flowchart.

flowchartPS4

That sounds like a suitable solution to me; as it’s one that doesn’t negatively impact legitimate users’ experiences; no activation keys requiring internet connectivity and no silly NFC tags that are tied to the system. When it comes to DRM, the less impact on those who’ve paid for their games, the better.

The only problem I do foresee is if drives start acting up, but apparently the patent says the system contains a “backup validation cycle that would account for load time errors due to hardware issues.”

Microsoft already uses a similar system, in conjunction with a number of other systems to determine whether games or copied, which it uses to determine who to ban in their regular console banwaves.

Fat lot of good it’s done them.

Last Updated: February 25, 2013

19 Comments

  1. TechniKyle

    February 25, 2013 at 13:07

    This is fantastic news! I do hope that they are 100.1% sure that their backup validation cycle works. This must also be why it’s not backwards compatible.

    Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      February 25, 2013 at 13:11

      The lack of BC is largely because the architecture betwixt the Ps3 and Ps4 is so very, very different – largely making emulation based BC impossible. they could throw in the Ps3’s innards for BC as they did with the first PS3’s – but the console would be way, way too expensive.

      Reply

      • OVG

        February 25, 2013 at 13:29

        At least they have not promised anything this time. Now that the PS2 has proven that the PS3 can still make a profit for another 5 years expect BC to be a thing of the past.

        Collecting consoles and games only to be stored away every 5 years is the norm.

        Unless one games on a PC and just pop in games from the 90s. Im thinking of divorcing the console, I have to many generations of console gaming seeing no action as the consoles are all broken.

        Reply

        • TechniKyle

          February 25, 2013 at 13:37

          I’m keeping all my consoles. I’m trying to build a display unit, but my dad won’t let me use his power tools and I’d rather spend money on video games than a drill…

          Reply

          • OVG

            February 25, 2013 at 13:41

            lol

        • mornelithe

          February 25, 2013 at 22:15

          Their promises worked out just fine for me on PS3 (early adopter ftw) trololol.

          Reply

      • TechniKyle

        February 25, 2013 at 13:36

        I see! Thanks, clarity for the clueless! 🙂

        Reply

  2. OVG

    February 25, 2013 at 13:23

    ERROR 199, ERROR 199, GO TO JAIL, PLEASE DO NOT PASS GO.

    Darn… I knew I should not have installed the latest firmware update to make my games load faster 🙁

    Reply

  3. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    February 25, 2013 at 13:25

    Well that works a little better than some Draconian DRM’s I’ve seen. Now let’s hope they can properly implement it

    Reply

  4. Yolanda Green

    February 25, 2013 at 13:29

    Compu’er says no!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Erwin

      February 25, 2013 at 14:30

      XD

      Reply

  5. Gavin Mannion

    February 25, 2013 at 13:33

    What an awesome idea… it’s so simple it’s beautiful

    Reply

    • Devon Stanton

      February 25, 2013 at 13:47

      I can never tell if you’re being sarcastic or not… in any case if it’s just a matter of load time checksum isn’t it also simple to have the “hacker” implement a pause function that’s the same length as the original? maybe I’m not thinking this through properly… stupid question?

      Reply

  6. silverscorpio

    February 25, 2013 at 13:39

    I like this but as with all DRM, it is going to bite some ligitimate user. I am worried by that “Collect user identification information”. Will this thing phone the cops with all your details if you try to pirate. Scary thought.

    Reply

    • mornelithe

      February 25, 2013 at 22:14

      The only people who’d have to worry about that, are people who are pirating. Do the crime, do the time.

      Reply

  7. Kromas

    February 25, 2013 at 13:42

    Whoops my disc got scratched. Sorry for you!

    Reply

  8. Jonathan Coetzee

    February 25, 2013 at 15:03

    This will only work if the load time takes longer on the copied media, otherwise you could just put a long NOP slide, of sorts, in the code (it is going to be x86 of course) so that the load time falls within the correct parameters… Then again, the number of NOPs may have to be adjusted on a per media basis so that wouldn’t be perfect but this isn’t going solve the problem of piracy…

    Reply

    • DrKiller

      February 26, 2013 at 11:39

      Tbh, it doesn’t really matter on the disc.. When you install the game, it doesn’t really load the game from the disc 😛 Did they ever think about that?

      Reply

  9. Purple_Dragon

    February 25, 2013 at 15:30

    I thought the PS3 was pretty pirate proof?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Horizon Forbidden West features an entirely new skill tree and “free-climbing” system

You ever wonder if Nintendo paid the person who came up with “free-climbing” what they wer…