the r-space
9 - The PSN Outage and 'Dystopian DRM'
11/02/2025 at 16:15
It's been a while, hasn't it? Apologies for not posting as much - I want to keep these posts as high quality as possible, and just writing random stuff every day might not work in that sense. It'll probably still happen but just keep that in mind.
Anyway, I'm sure you've heard about the PSN (PlayStation Network) outage that happened a few days ago. All of Sony's servers, yes, all of them, went completely offline. Now back in 2011 when the first outage happened it was pretty bad. For those of you unaware, in 2011 a group of hackers effectively shut down the PSN servers and compromised the personal data of 77.1 million PSN accounts.
But even still people could still play most of their games offline, meaning their expensive PlayStation 3s and PSPs could still be used. Sure, no online services or PlayStation Store for a bit, but at least you could play your games, right? Fast forward to today. The PlayStation 5, Sony's newest console, is in approximately 65.5 million households (as of September 2024), and everything is going great; New Triple-A games are releasing, Sony releases their newest VR headset (PSVR 2), and the sales numbers keep on rising.
But something is and has been arising for a long time. Rewind back to the release of the PS4 and XBOX One. Remember Microsoft's disastrous release where they said that your console would have to be online at all times to play games? The year is 2013. People were (rightly) not happy about this. What if I don't have internet or there's an outage? My $499 console that I paid for will just become a paperweight? "Yes," Microsoft said with complete confidence. PlayStation users scoffed at this. Sony (in a bit of clever marketing) revealed that the PS4 will be able to play games offline at any point (and more but that's not entirely relevant to this currently)
So where are we now? When the PSN servers went down earlier, you would assume it would be similar to what I've explained before. But no. Everything stopped working. For at least a day, people couldn't sign into PSN or access their profile, and worst of all, couldn't play any games. "But wait!" You may say, "I have the disc version of my game so it should be fine!". And 10 years ago you'd be right. But remember, the year is 2025, and the PS5 has to be connected. To. The. INTERNET. To play your games, regardless of whether it's the physical or digital versions. So of course, when the PSN went down, people found they couldn't open games anymore.
So let me get this straight. Someone could pay $600 for a console only for it to be a paperweight because some servers stopped working? And not only that, you have to pay for multiplayer online play? The unfortunate issue is that as consumers we've gradually accepted the transition from owning software to software as a service (i.e. predatory subscriptions which force you to pay more and more for something you owned previously) and it's only gotten worse with AI.
Following this trend, when the PS4 came out, PlayStation Plus (which existed prior only as a way to get free games yearly) ended up with pay-to-play multiplayer. The PS4 already has a Wi-Fi card. It's like buying a car and then the salesman telling you that while the car has a speedometer, you can't use it unless you pay a monthly subscription.
The Nintendo Switch followed this as well, but worse. When I got my Switch in May of 2018, I was stoked because I could play Mario Kart 8 with my friends when we got home from school, without needing to go to each other's houses. It was great and I was super happy with my purchase... right up until they introduced Switch Online and paywalled multiplayer along with other features. They literally took candy (online) from babies (us) while they were still eating it by wrenching it out of their mouths by force.
Oh yeah, about the discs? Sure, you can buy a game on a disc, but essentially it acts as a 'key' to run the game. What's the point of using a high-density disc to hold game files if the console downloads the whole game from the internet? The very fact that the PS5 has to be connected to the internet to actually launch games defeats the entire point of owning the game physically. The PS3, PSP and PS Vita were the last of the PlayStation consoles to actually run the game straight from the disc (or game card in the Vita's case) and it should have stayed that way.
The point is that hopefully this PSN outage will be a wake-up call to the general public to put down internet-connected games and streaming services, and start buying DVDs and Blu-Rays again (I'll make a blog post complaining about streaming services and why Blu-Ray and DVD is still cool).
Anyway, I condemn the PS5 to the 'Tech Bin' and I'm going off to CeX to buy an original PS3. It will not disappoint.
(P.S. This is all my opinion, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I personally like owning things physically compared to the convenience of internet access using streaming. At some point I'd like to form a community of people using older devices+software and things. email me if you're interested at some point)