A few days ago, reports of a new DRM policy surrounding PS4 and PS5 consoles began popping up. Many users are seeing a new 30-day online check-in requirement for some games. In the info page of an affected game, you'd see a new validity period and a "remaining time" deadline. At first, this seemed like a software bug, but now PlayStation Support has confirmed its authenticity to multiple users. PlayStation owners are furious about the change.

Affected customers report that setting your PS4 or PS5 as the primary console doesn't alleviate this check-in policy either. No matter what, any game you download from now on will feature this new requirement, effectively eliminating the concept of offline play for even single-player titles.

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Unfortunately, this is a stark reminder of modern-day ownership terms, where you don't truly own a piece of software you buy — rather, you're just licensed to use it. Such access is maintained via DRM that pings to the distributor's servers to ensure developer-side control. This means if the distributor/dev suddenly decides it doesn't want to support the software anymore, you're out of luck even though you did things the legit way.

The community reaction to this apparent change has been visceral. Many point out how Sony has forgotten where it came from, given how it mocked Microsoft for using a similar policy back in the Xbox One days. You might remember the iconic E3 2013 presentation before the PS4's launch where the company proudly said its console "won't require you to check-in online." At the time, that approach was universally applauded, which only makes the current situation more ironic.

While PlayStation Support has confirmed this new DRM policy via its chatbots, Sony hasn't officially come out with a statement so far. Some users argued that only games acquired via PlayStation Plus are subject to this DRM, while others pointed out how a dead CMOS battery can also trigger the license expiration. We can't be sure without official communication from Sony, but it's obvious that rolling this change out silently and without warning is the worst possible approach.

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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.