Sony Playstation hardware bans from online services

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Sony is banning PlayStation consoles from accessing online services on hardware level permanently for "violation of terms of service". This results in console hardware being unable to access software digitally purchased by customers. This also creates the risk of someone buying a used console which is permanently banned from accessing online services.

Background

Sony has a long history of banning gaming consoles hardware from accessing PlayStation Network online services for "violation of terms of service". This practice is in place since PS Vita. (Might be in place since PS3, but this is unconfirmed - also in these days digital purchases was not a big deal)

This type of ban is permanent and Sony does not allow to be lifted - as Sony states on their official site.

If it happens, users have a banned console (which can be bought as second hand), that cannot access digitally purchased content. Which is confirmed on Sony's official site:

With this suspension, you will be unable to use your console to access any account, play games or game modes requiring online access, or access content purchased from the PlayStation Store.

Hardware-level Network Bans

Sony issues three different types of bans for PlayStation Network users. These types are:

Account Suspension:

With this suspension, you won't be able to sign into your account and access any PlayStation features, including online multiplayer, PlayStation Store, and other features. That means you will not be able to use some products and services, even ones you paid for.

An account suspension can be either temporary or permanent.

Communication Suspension:

With this suspension, you won't be able to access “social” features, such as interacting with other players and playing online. Communication suspensions will act as account suspensions when attempting to play on a PS4 console.

Console Suspension:

With this suspension, you will be unable to use your console to access any account, play games or game modes requiring online access, or access content purchased from the PlayStation Store.

The suspension type and length are determined based on the severity of the violation and the player's offense history.

Sony "usually" emails users to explain why they have been suspended and how long the suspension will last, and allows users to view their account status by visiting My Support.

Console level bans render Digital Edition PlayStation 5s effectively unusable, since PlayStation Network access is required to download and install games on these consoles. PlayStation 5s with disk drives are still capable of reading games from a disk when banned on a console level, but upgrading eligible PlayStation 4 games to PlayStation 5 digital versions requires PlayStation Network access.

Additionally, Sony offers no recourse to users who buy a suspended used console:

Can a second-hand PlayStation console suspension be lifted?

No. If you have purchased a suspended PlayStation console, please contact the seller for help.

Since someone selling a suspended PlayStation console can simply choose not to tell the buyer about the suspension, this can blindside secondhand buyers. Buyers might have trouble contacting the seller about the console ban, and if the PlayStation was suspended before the seller even obtained it, then tracing the user who caused the suspension could be near impossible.

Sony's refusal to support users who buy a suspended used console disincentivizes purchasing used consoles out of concern that the buyer may end up with an unusable console. Thus, users are more likely to buy new, from which Sony profits, and the banned used consoles are likely to become e-waste.

Lawsuit

In some states, Sony has already lost court cases and were forced to unban some consoles.

Despite these lost cases, Sony still uses this practice.

Consumer response

Summary and key issues of prevailing sentiment from the consumers and commentators that can be documented via articles, emails to support, reviews and forum posts.

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Related articles

Incidents:

• Nintendo Switch bans

Game companies:

• Sony
• Nintendo
• Microsoft
  • Xbox