”The anti-piracy rumors started in 2005, when Ken Kutaragi patented a technology for it prior to the PS3 launch,” Pachter commented after learning of the report by Kotaku, dismissing, “(the) reliable source is a monkey”.
The original anti-rental feature rumor arose from Sony patenting the tech back in 2005. Pachter states that the current rumor is ”just a re-hash” of the original six year old one, and added that Kotaku regurgitated it for an early Xbox 720 rumor as well, which was dismissed by industry executives as well.
Pachter’s reason was simple: the consumer and retailer backlash would be too strong. He warned, ”If they all do it, they are susceptible to a collusion charge, and if one does it and the others don’t, the one who does it will see a loss of market share.”
The analyst even downplayed Microsoft and Sony’s interest in implementing a tech, since first party titles accounted for “less than 10 per cent of sales on their respective consoles,” adding, “It isn’t really in Sony’s or Microsoft’s best interests to block used games.”
Third party software publishers would benefit in the short term, but retailers would likely retaliate by refusing to stock new hardware, since sales margins on consoles are extremely slight.
”If Sony unilaterally did this, I could see GameStop refusing to carry their console, and sales of the PS4 would thereby suffer,” Pachter predicted.
He then acknowledged, ”On balance, it’s a dumb idea, making it a dumb rumor. Of course, you never know.”
