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Despite rumors that started spreading earlier this week, Sony is not making new plans for banning the resale of physical and digital PS5 games. After the PlayStation Software Usage Terms were updated, focus mistakenly fell upon a clause that had been part of the terms of service for several years.
Sony has always asked players not to resell their games
Section 7 of the PlayStation Software Usage Terms contains a term that reads: “You must not resell either disc-based games or digital games, unless expressly authorized by us and, if the publisher is another company, additionally by the publisher”. Rumors Sony would prohibit the resale of physical games started when players began to look for differences between the old and new versions of the Terms, and this phrase led some people to believe a ban on reselling games was going to be coming soon.
This section isn’t new however and has been in the Terms since the birth of the PlayStation franchise. Those who still have physical PlayStation 1 games in their collection will even find a similar phrase printed on the back of the box of each title.
While the phrase may exist within the Software Usage Terms, it would be practically impossible to prevent the resale of physical games, and Sony seems to acknowledge this. When the phrase caused concern back in 2013, then President of SIE Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida expressly gave his permission for players to be “able to sell or share your disc PS4 products:”
So if this phrase isn’t new, what did change in the Software Usage Terms? The answer, if you are curious, is a couple of changes to the Code of Conduct and software updates:
- Updated our Code of Conduct and the steps we may take if you violate it – clause 10.2.
- Updated information on when we may update software – clause 16 and 20.