Warhawk game-sharing grounded

Downloadable version of Incognito's PS3-exclusive multiplayer shooter comes with new strings attached; Sony tells GameSpot why.

Shortly before the PlayStation 3 launched last year, Sony revealed its PlayStation Network plans, including a feature that would allow a user to purchase a game once and download it on up to five different systems.

To date, that has resulted in a fairly liberal policy that has allowed gamers to share the game with friends by logging onto their systems, downloading the game, and then logging out. Even without the original owner logged in, the downloaded game is playable by anyone who uses that console. The fine print on PlayStation Store downloads for this digital rights management (DRM) setup is simply, "One time fee for downloads on up to five activated PS3 units."

However, as gamers who download the freshly available Warhawk for the PS3 are finding out, that policy was tweaked for Incognito's latest shooter. The description of the $39.99 download on the PlayStation Store includes the follow snippet: "One time fee for download or use solely by the purchasing PSN account on up to five PS3 units, with no more than one activated PS3 unit within a 24 hour period. Content may not be used by any other account."

A Sony representative answered a few quick questions about the DRM on the downloadable edition of Warhawk.

GameSpot: What's different about Warhawk's DRM?

Sony representative: The downloadable version of Warhawk, which is available from the PlayStation Store, will be directly tied to the registered PSN account that purchased the game. Only that registered PSN account will be authenticated for gameplay. You will still be able to download the game to up to five PS3 systems. However, if a user downloads Warhawk onto a different machine, he/she will only be able to play via the original PSN user account on that machine and could not play on a different machine for 24 hours. This does not affect the Blu-ray Disc version of the game available at retail.

GS: Will all downloadable PS3 games have this new DRM in the future?

SR: We will be evaluating each game made available on the PlayStation Network in terms of development costs, maintenance cost, server costs, and other factors. A determination on which DRM strategy will be implemented will be clearly communicated to the PSN account holder at time of purchase.

GS: There are a number of PS3 gamers who don't do any game sharing because they see it as an abuse of Sony's DRM policy. What's Sony's stance on the practice of one gamer buying a downloadable title and then also downloading it onto a friend's PS3 so that friend can essentially own it as well?

SR: We must take steps to protect the investment we have made in our products. The development costs of Warhawk are no different than any other boxed game you might find from SCEA at retail. Couple that with the cost to maintain a continuous online gameplay environment and you can understand the investment we have made in Warhawk. Not utilizing this new DRM strategy could open the company up to losses that could jeopardize our ability to allow free online gameplay across the PlayStation Network.

242 Comments

  • Nene33

    Posted Sep 3, 2008 4:30 am PT

    I agree with everything said, as long as online play stays free.

  • lock_and_load

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 6:03 am PT

    why are you being penny pincher's. if they allowed it to be play on multiple accounts. they would lose money. it's annoying. but fair tbh.

  • MGSteve

    Posted Sep 16, 2007 2:14 am PT

    I have to agree, if you download the game onto your PS3 and other users on the same PS3 cannot play it, that is seriously wrong.

    What's Sony's problem? Only one person can play it at once, so its not as if the same copy would get played twice is it?

    Its like Microsoft Saying, yes you can install Microsoft Office, but only one user on that PC can use it, if any others want to use it, they have to buy another copy.

    Sorry Sony, but if this is the case, you've screwed up here.

  • bimbojim

    Posted Sep 10, 2007 11:56 am PT

    I'm a little pi$$ed at the fact that the sub-accounts can't use the game! I have kids messing up my stats as we speak! I'm tempted to pull the plug on it........£20 to feel like i'm renting the game.

  • lockstock

    Posted Sep 10, 2007 6:10 am PT

    i already have a headset, i want my bro to be able to play without sucking up my stats cos he is total pants at shooters so I have a choice, pay an extra £20 for a headset I already own or telll my bro to take a hike....

    ohhh, Biilleeee!

  • Dan2002sk8er

    Posted Sep 4, 2007 1:14 pm PT

    you should at least be able to play it on the Sub accounts under your master account that purchased it say my little brother wanted to play Warhawk (for reasons unknown) and say I downloaded it to my account he should be able to play on his sub account.

  • slavedheart

    Posted Sep 4, 2007 11:24 am PT

    I will say this though, next major D/L game that comes out, if all of the accounts under mine, on my PS3 can't play it, I won't buy anything from the PSN Store again. Saving 20 bux isn't worth that....

  • schlampe

    Posted Sep 4, 2007 8:44 am PT

    Interesting review. Its always nice 2 see how the editors here have no consistency w/ giving their reviews. It always seems that the editors purposely look for nething 2 give PS3 games a bone. While they drum to an opposing beat, 2 try and subtract points newhere possible from Wii games. 8.5. Hmm... I wonder what the score would've been if it were on the Wii?

  • jjsand28

    Posted Sep 3, 2007 10:53 pm PT

    Although I see their point I don't see how they couldn't attach it to the MAC address or some other feature of the console that downloaded it. Then you couldn't download it to a friends machine and everyone one in the family can have their own stats.

    This is not intended to jab at the 360 but how do those users manage to get their XBLA games to work when from my understanding most of the time it is not the machine that was sent in that the customer gets back.

  • kajtrooper

    Posted Sep 3, 2007 1:45 am PT

    Policies. W/e.

  • Mason-McGlasson

    Posted Sep 2, 2007 11:41 pm PT

    Ok lets say i purchased Blast Factor and never shared it with another ps3 owner? can i delete it as many times as i want and redownload it. cause it seems to me that you can download it as many times as you want on oyur console but only 5 differnt ps3's can use it... what if i my ps3 breaks multiple times would i have to pay for it again with the new DRM?

    and btw nazraq i bought a 360 in april lol few months after it launched (havent had it break yet luckily) played crap out of splinter cell oblivion and fight night gears of war and saints row but since ps3 launched i havent touched mine except to try some game demos that arent up on the psn network. havent sold it yet cause i love splinter cell and own them all on original xbox so im keeping it on the original system i bought it for. i know alot of other people as i work at gamestop that have had both systems and either got rid of their 360 or no longer play it. one of them being my coworker. i question him as to why he traded in cause he likes halo he never really answered but oh well. im keeping mine but ps3 is better choice imo

  • Kaylik

    Posted Sep 2, 2007 8:51 am PT

    Will I still be able to play split-screen with up to 4 persons if I download it, while being online with the main-account? If so then I don't mind sonys policy.^^

  • jack_saab89

    Posted Sep 2, 2007 8:09 am PT

    you can back up you stuff on an external hd problem solved it backups eveything

  • dante4live

    Posted Sep 2, 2007 4:51 am PT

    hey, if my hdd crashes or something, and i have to delete all my stuff, can i download the game again for free using the same system and account? ive read that we can download it as many times as we want, but only in 5 systems, but is that true? cuz if something happens to my data i dont wanna have to payfor the game again...

  • nazraq

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 11:58 pm PT

    wow. until now i didn't even know that i could scam sony like this. i only know one person that owns a ps3, but now i want his downloads too. this is stealing pure and simple. the way i see it, people are lucky to even play the game (dl version) on another console. sony is being generous to allow offline play of content not purchased on the origanal system. will i take advantage of this news? i'm not sure. but i'm so happy to think i wont have to worry about points after repair bs. i still think that the 360 is the better choice, but i hated the process of accessing my downloaded content. i've been looking for reasons to like my ps3. this is one of them.

  • jatajata

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 2:41 pm PT

    ok so this means i can go to a friends house...sign in with my account and download warhawk from the download list?? and i can do this only 5 times???

  • Williedude87

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 11:40 am PT

    If you system is replaced, you can just re-download it if you haven't used up your 5 copy limit. You just have to use the same PSN account. Honestly, do you people ever even read the articles?

  • CANOFOWNAGE

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 8:44 am PT

    No, he said that because he hates america, obvious enough.

  • desjaz

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 2:51 am PT

    the unfortunate thing about this all is they cant really fix the download problems people are having with it, if they make it available to sub accounts then you could just go to your friends house and make your account their main one and then their account a sub account, or if they put it to the serial then, like smc_sewer said if something happens to your PS3 your screwed, imo they did the best thing they could possibly do, of course a lot of people aren't pleased by it and a lot of people wont buy the online one, but hey, if you think the extra $20 is worth it to take it around then go for it, me personally i am not sure, my friend bought it online and I'm not sure if i want to buy online or not because then i cant bring it over to a friends house to play without having to dl it to their hdd which could get rather annoying... anyways, PS3 has done the best thing they could if they had made it the old policy most people wouldn't have bought it in stores and just dl'd it and shared it with their friends who were going to buy it theoretically cutting their profits by a substantial amount, so ya i think they did the best thing they could with it=/ just my opinion. P.S. canofownage the U.S. is also the most in debt country, and china owns more of it then they do, Crystall3d didnt say he hated it, all he said was that it got an 8.5 because it's an American site, that could mean anything, for example, the quality is dif or the subs make it sound bad, i dunno so i don't jump to conclusions, not dissing you or the the u.s. just stating that you shouldn't make judgments on things your not sure about, anyways have a nice day, warhawk looks amazingly tight, hope to get it pretty soon, if not I'll just keep bumming off my friend=P syl =) sorry, i know it's really long i'm bad at teh rambling-_-

  • DeacFrost

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 2:25 am PT

    I think this is totally fair from Sony's side. This is a product they are intended to make money on. If they allow you to share it with 4 buddies, that would make no sense to me. They should be entitled to make money for every single download made from PSN when it comes to full games like this. Other wise they would sell one, give away four. Doesn't make sense does it? We should take it as a big bonus, rather than a demand, that we actually can share some of the smaller games. Sony and the developers should get money for the games they make to keep PSN free, which is a lot more important than sharing games in my honest opinion. If you don't like it, just get the BD version and ghost it with a friend If you don't have the money to buy (support the developers) the games, then tough luck

  • UrbanZero

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 12:15 am PT

    No, I disagree with the way Sony is handeling this. I understand the fact of covering their losses with people who paid for the game going to their friends house and downloading it onto that system sure, but not letting sub-accounts play the game is wrong. I was unaware of this when I downloaded it, as it was not clearly explained to me. If I was aware of it I would have just bought it in the store, at least make it aware to the consumer before they download it. Why can't they just base it off the serial number of the PS3?

  • CANOFOWNAGE

    Posted Aug 31, 2007 5:25 pm PT

    Hey crystal, WoW boy, usa is the most prosperous country and has been for awhile. All your hatred towards us is jealousy, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

  • Crystall3d

    Posted Aug 31, 2007 2:44 pm PT

    this is an american web site , thats why 8.5

  • slavedheart

    Posted Aug 31, 2007 11:27 am PT

    Sad, but totally fair, tried to play with my wife's ps account, and it had a fit with her. I'd like to see a little flexibility here in the future, or I won't use the PSN for games again... what about families with kids who don't want to play on each others account? Not that I want this to go away necessarily, but if that's what the extra 20 bucks is for, I'm REALLY sorry I didn't pay it.

  • smc_sewer

    Posted Aug 31, 2007 1:08 am PT

    Yeh sounds fair enough but how about this scenario..your PS3 dies and you opt for a replacement instead of waiting 2-3 extra weeks until your console is repaired..will the game still work because your electronic serial number has changed .
    Or even worse the hdd is stuffed and has been replaced will you be able to download the game again.
    I've yet to have any major probs with the PS3 yet( given i dont play it much due to lack of good titles out yet) but one thing that has happened is in relations to PS2 title saves being wiped out because socom decided to freeze during the save process and i lost all my PS2 saves for every game i'd played on the PS3.
    Oh yeh credit cards blow so even if i wanted to purchase a download i cant because i dont use credit cards..bring on a PayPal option sony.

  • Timberwolf8889

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 9:00 pm PT

    That's completely fair. It's one thing when it's a little $7 dollar game, but they've got to get their money back for their investment. But it's nice because it solves that age old rule where if you register it to one system and something happens to that system, or you want to play it at a friends house. Good solution...bravo I guess

  • lrsp

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 5:39 pm PT

    I guess that's fair. I would be upset if I were a game developer and someone bought the game and in essence made four copies to give to friends and not pay a little extra.

  • Nickolai1979

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 5:34 pm PT

    I think Jabras is a brand of headsets.. Maybe? I don't know.

  • leapfrog91

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 3:26 pm PT

    Hasn't anyone here played Metroid Prime 3? That got an 8.5 too and they are both great games. I'd say MP3 is even more polished.

    An 8.5 is a _great_ score.

  • delcidanddarth

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 1:27 pm PT

    wow... that sucks that subusers can't play the game... maybe some sort of setting you have to adjust when creating subusers? I bet sony will come out with a firmware update to address this, I mean one machine should be able to play the game across all permitted subusers by the superuser.

  • BYS2

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 11:41 am PT

    lol, what's a jabras

  • Temmehkan

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 11:23 am PT

    Modbetto what the hell is a jabras? lol

  • Modbetto

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 10:44 am PT

    This will be the first reason for wich the ps3 WILL be hacked....
    Screw you Sony i just spent 30 euros just to find myself to have to spend another 40+ and find myself with 2 identical jabras!!!!
    This is going to be my first PS3 blacklist entry.....

  • Doolum

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 7:12 am PT

    oh well.

  • fanboy_killa

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 6:06 am PT

    oh my gosh ppl!! since when is 8.5 a bad score??? it got an 8.5, ohhhh the world is ending!!!! it's not like it got a 3.5.....this game is gonna sell anyway, and this is someones opinion of what they think the score is to them that reviewed this. you/ us the gamers will always buy what we enjoy anyway. so who cares what this score is, it's a great score....there is no perfect game!! and it's someones opinion of what they feel the game deserve, a lot of you think it should have scored higher, nothing wrong w/ that, but at the same time, 8.5 is good...well above an average game. go out and get this game and enjoy it, we the gamers are the true reviewers anyway!!!

    enjoy this great game.....

  • xXrebel666Xx

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 1:21 am PT

    I think it should have gotten 9+ as well.

    I've made posts on this already.

    I personally feel 9.2 at least.

  • Floms

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 10:04 pm PT

    I agree whit you but its a shame i was planin to buy that game whit othe 2 friends now i have to save more money to get it

  • Temmehkan

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 7:09 pm PT

    anyone think it maybe shoulda gotten a 9? (the GS review i mean) they didn;t give any reasons for it being bad except for the help isn;t helping enough

  • swyg

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 6:46 pm PT

    Brendan Sinclair Strikes again! This is gettin' old boi.

  • thekey

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 5:54 pm PT

    See this is what happens when costly things are presented as "free" You pay for it in more ways then one.

  • wii-g

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 5:32 pm PT

    think about it, if they dont do this to warhawk then things would have goten far worst then this. ''Not utilizing this new DRM strategy could open the company up to losses that could jeopardize our ability to allow free online gameplay across the PlayStation Network. ''

  • timothyt

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 5:17 pm PT

    [Update] Well I just tried it on one of my sub-accounts for my kids and it does NOT let them launch the game - it says "Content not allowed for this account". I can understand them not wanting to let a friends' account log in but one of my sub-accounts should be able to. They could also look at the serial number of the purchasing PS3 (like Microsoft does with the 360) and let any account on that system play it. It would also be fine if the game itself allowed me to choose which profile I wanted to save games under. This sucks

    Hmmm.... This presents somewhat of a problem. I bought the downloadable version, and my kids want to play the game as well. We don't want to share a single ranking though, so hopefully I can set up sub-accounts and they will be able to have their own ranking, characters, etc.

    If sub-accounts DON'T work, I want my money back. I'll buy the retail version, but this was NOT explained to me clearly prior to purchasing. I don't even know anyone else who has a PS3 I just want all the profiles on my own PS3 to be able to use the DLC I've bought. Does anyone know if sub-accounts can login and play the game?

    It would also be acceptable if the game allowed me to have more than one profile, but I don't think it does or at least if it does I don't see a way to do it.

  • wdave92

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 4:21 pm PT

    nice way of doing things... kinda but ima put it on my hdd and transfer it to my pc to break it wide open

  • Ra-Devil

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 2:38 pm PT

    nonono, if you go to a friends house with your account, download and play the game, then go home after a few hours, YOU couldn't play it on the PREVIOUS console, meaning yours, for 24 hours.... interesting way of handling it Sony.

  • shawnomac

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 1:24 pm PT

    so let me get this straght

    if I downlod the game on my account, my brother who is on the same system with a different account cant play the game for 24 hours?

  • Mr_duong

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:56 am PT

    @cyberstud69--------------------------------------------------------------------------im waiting cuz im saving for a HDTV, and also, having a wife, rent, gas etc.and just recently purchased a Wii, kinda makes purchasing a $500 system and HDTV at the same time pretty hard. lol...i have been a SONY fan for years as well as MS and NINTENDO fan....but as of now i just dont see games for ps3 right now that personally interest me at this point......

    and i know the good stuff are coming for ps3 soon, so by the time i do get it, there should be a pretty nice library of ps3 games that i know for sure i will enjoy. ive already beaten ninja gaiden on the original xbox, but im definately hopping on the ps3 board, just not right now. but soon, soon i will have a ps3 sitting alongside myPSone, PS2, 360, Wii, genesis, snes, nes, dreamcast, gamecube DS, NEO GEO POCKET....(thank goodness my wife is a girl gamer, or i would never get to play my sweet systems).

    nice one on that last one

  • Mr_duong

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:54 am PT

    im confused what? im getting the download,m even if the blu ray disk version comes with a headset.

    ign gave it a solid review and it looks great

  • ludacriss

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:53 am PT

    F1sTDaCuffS you post stupidity. It's obvious if you would have worked so hard on a game and each one who buys it, shares it to another 5 people.

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