Lance McDonald posted on X saying Sony has started adding always-online digital rights management to all PS4 and PS5 digital games, and that every title bought now requires an internet check-in every 30 days or the player will lose their license.
McDonald shared a screenshot showing a PS4 digital game's store page with a new "remaining time" category and wrote: "Hugely terrible DRM has now been rolled out to all PS4 and PS5 digital games. Every digital game you buy now requires an online check-in every 30 days."
He added the practical consequence in blunt terms: "If you buy a digital game and don’t connect your console to the internet for 30 days, your license will be removed." McDonald also warned that existing workarounds will not help: "Games you bought in the past seem to not have this issue. But any game you buy from now on will only work for 30 days without an online check-in. This can NOT be avoided by using ‘Activate console as primary.’ All digital games now die after 30 days for all owners."
That claim, if accurate, would affect all PS5 and PS4 digital games bought recently through the PlayStation Store and puts a strict 30-day timeout on newly purchased titles. Several other reports circulated after McDonald’s post, and one outlet, Does It Play?, said the change most likely appeared with March 2026 firmware and that newly purchased PS4 games now show a 30-day valid license timer.
Does It Play? noted that PS5 titles do not display the new timer category in the same way but are reportedly subject to the same 30-day timeout and that PS5 consoles are showing an error rather than the explicit remaining-time field. The site summed up the state of knowledge: "What we know/don’t know about PlayStation’s DRM issue. Newly purchased PS4 games now have a 30-day valid license timer. Most likely introduced in March 2026 firmware. Could be a bug similar to an incident from 2022. PS5 is affected too, but only shows an error."
The immediate weight of the claim is numerical and simple: 30 days. The report says every new digital purchase on PS4 and PS5 requires an online check-in every 30 days, and that licenses will be removed if a console goes offline for longer than that. The screenshot McDonald provided shows the new "remaining time" category on a PS4 digital game's page; PS5 listings reportedly do not show the category but are still affected.
Context is thin and contested. The articles published about the claim say the DRM change has not been personally verified by the reporter and that Sony had not confirmed or denied the reports at the time of publication. They also point to a similar problem in 2022 and say that player reaction has been sharply negative, with some comparing the rumored check-in requirement to the unpopular DRM approach on another console generation.
The tension in the story stems from several contradictions inside the evidence. The change is said to apply to "all" PS4 and PS5 digital games bought recently, yet games purchased in the past "do not seem to have this issue." PS4 listings are reportedly showing a visible 30-day timer while PS5 listings are not, even though both platforms are said to be subject to the same timeout. Does It Play? suggested the anomaly "could be a bug similar to an incident from 2022," which would make this a technical regression rather than an intentional, permanent policy shift—if that is indeed the case.
Players and commentators who read McDonald’s post and the subsequent reports have reacted with alarm because the effect would limit offline access to newly purchased digital titles unless consoles periodically phone home. The claim has raised a basic question about ownership and access: are newly bought digital games effectively rentals unless the console remains online at least once every 30 days?
The single most consequential unanswered question now is whether Sony will confirm this is an intended policy change pushed by March 2026 firmware, or whether the new timers and errors are a firmware bug that can be fixed and rolled back. If Sony treats this as a software issue, the company could remove the timers and restore previous behavior; if it is intentional, millions of recent digital purchases could be affected and the company will face pressure to explain why.
