Sony has issued a statement confirming the introduction of a new DRM online check for newly bought PlayStation games, reassuring the public that games can be bought and played as usual. This statement, however, does not address concerns around the “CBOMB” issue.
Released overnight to press following public confusion and investigation around the matter, the statement reads as follows:
“Players can continue to access and play their purchased games as usual. A one-time online check is required after purchase to confirm the game’s license, after which no further check-ins are needed.”
To summarise the issue, PlayStation owners discovered a 30-day license on newly bought PlayStation 4 games, as well as a 30-day countdown timer. When this timer reaches zero, access to the game is removed.
This sudden introduction of DRM was made without an official announcement by Sony, raising concerns that players would have to establish an internet connection every 30 days in order to retain access to purchased games. Shared screenshots of the PlayStation generative AI support (of debatable validity) did little to lessen confusion around the matter.
This, upon further investigation, turned out to not quite be the case. The 30-day validity timer was real on the PS4 and PS5, but if an online check was made 15 days after purchase, the offline limited license would transform into an indefinite offline license. It is speculated this is an attempt to curb a PSN refund exploit, as the deadline for refunding PlayStation games is 14 days. Sony, however, has not confirmed this outright.
There is, however, another element to the story still unaddressed by Sony’s statement. The “CBOMB” issue, which refers to an inability to validate an online license once a PlayStation’s CMOS battery has died, remains. As part of community testing, it was discovered that, with this new DRM in place, a console without a working CMOS battery would be unable to obtain this permanent offline license, locking players out from new games.
So why does this matter? In the future, when support for these consoles are no longer supported (like the PS3), access to newly bought games could be hampered. Sony’s statement has not addressed this problem, though Sony has previously resolved similar “CBOMB” problems across its modern consoles.
So, to conclude, if you can establish an internet connection once following the purchase of a new PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 game, after that 14-day window, your license should remain valid indefinitely, and you won’t have any problem accessing your games in the future.
As for further updates on this CMOS issue, the future ramifications pending further statements by Sony remains unclear.
