When EA introduced online passes back in 2010, lots of other gaming publishers followed suit including Sony. With PS4 games, it sounds like online passes for first party games is a thing of the past.
Kotaku interviewed Sony CEO Jack Tretton who said:
“The Online Pass program for PlayStation first-party games will not continue on PlayStation 4. Similar to PS3, we will not dictate the online used game strategy (the ability to play used games online) of its publishing partners. As announced last night, PS4 will not have any gating restrictions for used disc-based games. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have right to use that copy of the game, so they can trade-in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.”
In an earlier statement however, Tretton did state that third party publishers can still implement them to their own games. DRM can also be implemented if a third party publisher decides to do so. However, the PS4 system itself can still play used games freely. Third party publishers will have to create their own methods if they want to restrict them…
