The countdown to the PS4’s North American launch is in its final hours, and things are getting frantic! From the news that it will launch in Hong Kong to the Daft Punk unboxing video, Sony is in the home stretch, even though its home turf, Japan, will have to wait with their new PS Vita models until 2014 for the PS4.
Recently, the UK terms of service for the PS4 leaked and they featured a number of stipulations that scared gamers.
Sony may monitor and record PSN activity
So much for Microsoft being the big brother here, with the always watching Kinect.
“We reserve the right in our sole discretion to monitor and record any or all of your PSN activity and to remove any of your UGM [user-generated media] at our sole discretion, without further notice to you.”
And that’s just the tip…
“Any information collected in this way, for example, your UGM, the content of your voice and text communications, video of your gameplay, the time and location of your activities, and your name, your PSN Online ID, and IP address, may be used by us or our affiliated companies to enforce these Terms and the SEN Terms of Service, to comply with the law, to protect our rights and those of our licensors and users, and to protect the personal safety of our employees and users,”
I placed the extra scary part in bold. Any information recorded by Sony wouldn’t just be for Sony, it would also be shared with “affiliated companies”. Fortunately for gamers, Sony said in a follow-up statement that…
“We can’t monitor all PSN activity and we make no commitment to do so.”
What a relief.
Sony has not sold you anything, just licensed.
You don’t own anything you purchase, so this passage comes into play.
“You must not resell either Disc-based Software or Software Downloads, unless expressly authorised by us and, if the publisher is another company, additionally by the publisher.”
Although this clause has been in effect since the PS3 days, Sony has not prevented the used games market, even though they have the legal grounds to do so.
A tweet from Shuhei Yoshida helped to assuage the fear that Sony would be nasty about it.
If you are concerned about our new European TOS, we confirm that you are able to sell or share your disc PS4 products, including in EU.
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) November 12, 2013
So fear not fellow gamers, it looks like nothing to worry about and is probably just something the company’s legal team put in to cover all their bases.
