Sony keeps making moves that are anti-consumer in a wave of trying to retain control with its consoles and network.
In March 2026 Sony pushed a firmware update to PS4 and PS5 consoles. Hidden inside it was a 30-day online license check-in for all new digital game purchases. Buy a game from the PlayStation Store after that update and a timer starts running invisibly in the background. If the console goes offline past that 30-day window, the game locks. The timer is not visible on the PS5 interface, but testing by game accessibility account Does It Play confirmed it is tracked in the background. YouTuber Spawn Wave reset a PS5’s internal clock to test the system and watched digital games refuse to launch until the console reconnected.
Sony stayed silent for days while players figured this out themselves. When the company finally responded, a spokesperson told GameSpot: “Players can continue to access and play their purchased games as usual. A one-time online check is required to confirm the game’s license, after which no further check-ins are required.”
That statement contradicts the 30-day timer Does It Play documented. Sony has not explained the discrepancy. The company has also not explained why the policy was introduced in the first place. The leading theory from technical analysts is that the check closes a refund exploit where a modified PS4 could be used to claim a PlayStation Store refund while retaining game access. Sony has neither confirmed nor denied it.
The irony writes itself. In 2013, during the Xbox One launch controversy, Sony ran ads openly mocking Microsoft for proposing a similar always-online requirement for its games. The ads were devastating and helped PlayStation win an entire console generation. The message was simple: Sony respects ownership. Microsoft does not. Now Sony has introduced a structurally identical policy for its own digital storefront, said nothing publicly for days, and issued a statement that doesn’t fully match what players measured.
This is not a new pattern. In 2024, Sony quietly announced that Helldivers 2 on PC would require mandatory PSN account linking for all Steam players. The game had already sold millions of copies on Steam. Players in 177 countries where PSN is unavailable found the game delisted from their storefronts entirely. Over 200,000 negative reviews flooded Steam. Sony reversed course after a weekend of organized backlash, but not before Arrowhead’s CEO had spent days apologizing for a decision his studio didn’t make. Before that: the 2011 PlayStation Network hack. Seventy-seven million user accounts compromised, personal information and credit card data exposed, Sony took six days to notify its customers. When the scale of the breach became clear, Sony updated its terms of service so users could no longer sue the company in case of future data breaches.
Each time, the pattern is the same. Sony introduces a restriction, frames it as routine, waits to see if players notice, and backtracks only when the backlash becomes impossible to manage.
Gamers who built their libraries on digital purchases now own nothing they cannot verify on Sony’s terms. The disc buyers were right.
How many more of these before you stop buying digital on PlayStation?
NEXT: Hasan Piker Calls Gamers “Unf***able Losers” for Wanting Families. His Own Audience Turned on Him.