Bring Digital Ownership to PlayStation — Let Players Resell and Lend Their Digital Games
Il problema
Dear Sony Interactive Entertainment,
For decades, buying a videogame meant more than simply being allowed to play it.
When we bought a physical PlayStation game, we could finish it and lend it to a friend. We could give it away. We could sell it and use that money to buy another game.
The transition to digital distribution has brought enormous advantages, but it has also quietly removed many of these freedoms.
We are not asking Sony to bring back the past.
We are asking Sony to bring those freedoms into the digital future.
We propose the creation of an official PlayStation Digital License Marketplace, entirely integrated into PlayStation Network.
Every digital game purchased through PlayStation Network is already associated with a verified account and a digital license.
Sony already provides the infrastructure required to authenticate ownership and determine whether an account has the right to launch a game.
We therefore ask Sony to explore allowing those licenses to become transferable under Sony’s own rules and supervision.
A player who has finished a €70 game, for example, could decide to list that license for €35.
Another PlayStation user could purchase it through PlayStation Network.
At the moment of the transaction, the seller’s license would be revoked and transferred to the buyer.
One license. One owner. No duplication.
Sony would operate and guarantee the marketplace and could receive a transaction fee. A portion could potentially also be returned to publishers and developers.
This would transform the traditional second-hand videogame market into a secure, traceable and fully digital marketplace.
We also ask Sony to consider digital lending between PlayStation friends.
PlayStation already allows players to share gameplay through Share Play and to share purchased games on an authorized PS5. We ask Sony to take the next step: temporary, account-to-account digital license lending. A player could temporarily lend a game license to another PlayStation Network account for a defined period—for example seven or thirty days.
During that period, the original owner would be unable to use the game.
Exactly as happened when we handed a physical disc to a friend.
The borrower could return the license early, or perhaps discover a game they love enough to purchase permanently, buy its DLC, or upgrade to another edition.
Digital lending could therefore become not only a restored freedom for players, but also a powerful discovery mechanism for developers and publishers.
Sony could establish safeguards against abuse: limits on simultaneous loans, minimum friendship periods, lending frequency, account verification and any other rules necessary to protect the ecosystem.
This proposal is not against digital distribution.
It comes precisely from people who believe in its future.
What we are asking is simple:
If physical ownership disappears, digital ownership should evolve.
A digital library should become more than a collection of permissions that cannot be transferred.
Games we legally purchase should, where technically and legally possible, be capable of being kept, lent, gifted or resold.
And PlayStation Network could be the safest possible place to make that happen.
Sony would remain the guardian of the ecosystem.
Developers and publishers could participate economically in secondary transactions.
Players would recover some of the freedom traditionally associated with ownership.
And older games could continue to generate economic and cultural value long after their original release.
We are therefore asking Sony Interactive Entertainment to study, discuss and consider the implementation of an official system for transferable digital PlayStation licenses.
We are not asking Sony to return to the past.
We are asking PlayStation to invent a better digital future.
If you believe that buying a digital game should eventually mean more than obtaining a non-transferable permission to play it, please sign this petition.
One license. One owner. The freedom to transfer it.
To Sony Interactive Entertainment: please bring true digital ownership to PlayStation.
Proposal initiated by Marco Maria Gasparini
PlayStation player since 1998
13
Il problema
Dear Sony Interactive Entertainment,
For decades, buying a videogame meant more than simply being allowed to play it.
When we bought a physical PlayStation game, we could finish it and lend it to a friend. We could give it away. We could sell it and use that money to buy another game.
The transition to digital distribution has brought enormous advantages, but it has also quietly removed many of these freedoms.
We are not asking Sony to bring back the past.
We are asking Sony to bring those freedoms into the digital future.
We propose the creation of an official PlayStation Digital License Marketplace, entirely integrated into PlayStation Network.
Every digital game purchased through PlayStation Network is already associated with a verified account and a digital license.
Sony already provides the infrastructure required to authenticate ownership and determine whether an account has the right to launch a game.
We therefore ask Sony to explore allowing those licenses to become transferable under Sony’s own rules and supervision.
A player who has finished a €70 game, for example, could decide to list that license for €35.
Another PlayStation user could purchase it through PlayStation Network.
At the moment of the transaction, the seller’s license would be revoked and transferred to the buyer.
One license. One owner. No duplication.
Sony would operate and guarantee the marketplace and could receive a transaction fee. A portion could potentially also be returned to publishers and developers.
This would transform the traditional second-hand videogame market into a secure, traceable and fully digital marketplace.
We also ask Sony to consider digital lending between PlayStation friends.
PlayStation already allows players to share gameplay through Share Play and to share purchased games on an authorized PS5. We ask Sony to take the next step: temporary, account-to-account digital license lending. A player could temporarily lend a game license to another PlayStation Network account for a defined period—for example seven or thirty days.
During that period, the original owner would be unable to use the game.
Exactly as happened when we handed a physical disc to a friend.
The borrower could return the license early, or perhaps discover a game they love enough to purchase permanently, buy its DLC, or upgrade to another edition.
Digital lending could therefore become not only a restored freedom for players, but also a powerful discovery mechanism for developers and publishers.
Sony could establish safeguards against abuse: limits on simultaneous loans, minimum friendship periods, lending frequency, account verification and any other rules necessary to protect the ecosystem.
This proposal is not against digital distribution.
It comes precisely from people who believe in its future.
What we are asking is simple:
If physical ownership disappears, digital ownership should evolve.
A digital library should become more than a collection of permissions that cannot be transferred.
Games we legally purchase should, where technically and legally possible, be capable of being kept, lent, gifted or resold.
And PlayStation Network could be the safest possible place to make that happen.
Sony would remain the guardian of the ecosystem.
Developers and publishers could participate economically in secondary transactions.
Players would recover some of the freedom traditionally associated with ownership.
And older games could continue to generate economic and cultural value long after their original release.
We are therefore asking Sony Interactive Entertainment to study, discuss and consider the implementation of an official system for transferable digital PlayStation licenses.
We are not asking Sony to return to the past.
We are asking PlayStation to invent a better digital future.
If you believe that buying a digital game should eventually mean more than obtaining a non-transferable permission to play it, please sign this petition.
One license. One owner. The freedom to transfer it.
To Sony Interactive Entertainment: please bring true digital ownership to PlayStation.
Proposal initiated by Marco Maria Gasparini
PlayStation player since 1998
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Petizione creata in data 12 agosto 2026