An expiration date for games purchased in the PlayStation Store is currently causing an uproar. Intentional or a mistake?
Buy once, keep forever. Or not? This question is currently causing a lot of discussion around the PlayStation digital store. Screenshots are circulating on social media showing that newly purchased games in the PlayStation Store suddenly have an expiration date. According to the screenshots, users would have to connect to the PlayStation Network (PSN) every 30 days to renew their license. Otherwise, the titles would no longer be playable offline, i.e. without an internet connection. Games that were already in the library before update 13.20 should not be affected by this regulation.
The community was correspondingly displeased. Especially as Sony had not announced a supposed change to this effect. So was it all just an oversight? At least that’s what an anonymous insider claims, who wrote to the user of the X account “DoesItPlay”. Sony had “accidentally broken something while fixing an exploit”.
Update against leaked boot ROM keys as the cause?
The reason for this could be a security problem at the beginning of the year. At that time, so-called boot ROM keys were leaked onto the darknet, which could potentially compromise the copy protection chain of the PlayStation 5. These “Level 0” keys theoretically make it possible to emulate the boot environment and the decryption of game loaders.
Such a connection would not be entirely new. There has already been a similar incident in the past with the so-called “CBOMB” problem, in which an empty buffer battery restricted the use of digital content. Sony regularly intervenes in the system’s time verification for security-relevant updates. Apparently, the 30-day logic, which actually only applies to PS Plus titles, has now also been inadvertently applied to regularly purchased games.
In addition, this update has so far only affected games on the PlayStation 4. This also speaks against the introduction of a time limit for games. The company has not yet issued an official statement on this.