South Africans risk losing access to their digital PlayStation games permanently

[Luis]

South Africans can have their digital games deleted by PlayStation for not playing

Sony Interactive Entertainment can permanently delete digital copies of PlayStation games registered to South African accounts if they have been inactive for 36 months or if the accounts are banned.

The Japanese entertainment giant announced on 1 July 2026 that it would end production of physical PlayStation game discs from January 2028 onwards.

 

[ld13]

I wonder what the CPA say about this ..,

Edit:




I buy something, I should own it, no? Obvious carveouts aside, any revocation of my ownership rights due to the passage of time alone would by my reading of S48 be unfair, unreasonable and unjust under 1(a).

 

[My_King]

Good

"Writing was on the wall" type kak.

Remove those games from their accounts. If they don't play them, remove it. They don't own it.

 

[DarkStarMonday]

 

[gregmcc]

“This means you can use a Digital Product in the ways described in the licence, but you do not own the Digital Product.”

In other words even though you buy it you are just renting it until we decide you are no longer worthy.

 

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

In other words even though you buy it you are just renting it until we decide you are no longer worthy.

Didn't Amazon do that too?

 

[saor]

Ownership is so 1800's.
Get with the times you clowns.

 

[Herr der Verboten]

South Africans can have their digital games deleted by PlayStation for not playing

Sony Interactive Entertainment can permanently delete digital copies of PlayStation games registered to South African accounts if they have been inactive for 36 months or if the accounts are banned.

The Japanese entertainment giant announced on 1 July 2026 that it would end production of physical PlayStation game discs from January 2028 onwards.

oh luis... let trigger them on biltong, then try whites is bad now lets redo the horse of ps5 krying kristians.

 

[FiestaST]

Oh dear...

Thread 'No new disc games on PlayStation from January 2028'

Jul 1, 2026

In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.

Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles

In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.

blog.playstation.com

• NR7
• Replies: 444
• Forum: Gaming

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[Kaapie]

What all this distills to, eventually, across whichever multinational we prefer, is that 'buying games' is sucker lingo for what we actually are paying for, which is 'renting a license'

 

[borro]

Ze bugs

 

[Kyle15]

I wonder what the CPA say about this ..,

Edit:

View attachment 1922330
View attachment 1922331

I buy something, I should own it, no? Obvious carveouts aside, any revocation of my ownership rights due to the passage of time alone would by my reading of S48 be unfair, unreasonable and unjust under 1(a).

Yea but then the POPI act says they can't keep your data, so pretty much the acts are a bit contradictory. Either get fined for contravening the POPI act when some clown who didn't play for 4 years sues Sony for not deleting his data or get taken to court when the same clown comes back after 4 years to play his game to find his account deleted. Lol

 

[AlphaJohn]

What all this distills to, eventually, across whichever multinational we prefer, is that 'buying games' is sucker lingo for what we actually are paying for, which is 'renting a license'

Oh!!!!

Spoiler: HELL NO

I own ^ em games

 

[ld13]

Yea but then the POPI act says they can't keep your data, so pretty much the acts are a bit contradictory. Either get fined for contravening the POPI act when some clown who didn't play for 4 years sues Sony for not deleting his data or get taken to court when the same clown comes back after 4 years to play his game to find his account deleted. Lol

Popi regulates personal information yes, but it does not contradict the CPA. It states that personal information may not be kept longer than necessary. So after X years it would be 100% compliant if it deletes or de-identify unnecessary marketing and behavioural data, but there is nothing requiring them to delete my purchases.

Section 14 of POPI:

 

[AnimateX]

Oh!!!!

Spoiler: HELL NO

View attachment 1922361

I own ^ em games

Ermm.. you own a physical medium granting you a license to play those games. /s

 

[Magnum]

Ownership is so 1800's.
Get with the times you clowns.

Hence I went back to the 1600's.... HARR-HARR!

 

[Goosfrabba]

Oh!!!!

Spoiler: HELL NO

View attachment 1922361

I own ^ em games

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

A way they could get around the data retention problem is to create an encrypted archive of all your game licences, delete all your personal details but retain a hash of your email address which is linked to that archive.

If you somehow get into a place where your account gets deleted without you realising, which would be quite an accomplishment, they have a web portal where you enter your email - their system does a hash check for a matching value and it sends you to an account restore flow. If your existing password can unlock the archive, you can re-create an account on that email and restore your licences.

That's an oversimplified idea, and I'm sure there a bunch of gotchas but it could be a way to get around storing your stuff without retaining your personal details.

 

[satanboy]

NOT only SA.

 

[Monkeyz]

I believe this has to do with the EU doesn't it? They can't technically keep your data even purchase history too long
36 Months aint so bad though
Ubisoft's is only like a year, every few months they mail me threatening to close my account if i don't boot up Uplay