Support NeoGAF

[MUnited83]

Apparently this popped up recently on SCEE's Terms of Service.

17. Closing your Account
You may close your Account by contacting us using the details below. We may close your Account if it has not been used for at least 24 months. In both cases, we will not provide you with a refund of your unused wallet funds and unexpired periods of your subscriptions unless we are required to do so by law. After your Account is closed, you will not be able to access the PSN nor use the Products purchased with that Account.

While this doesn't affect me it's some real bullshit that the account will essentially be nuked and you will lose every single purchase you made and any money you have on it.

 

[Transistor]

"May"

I'm sure that's just legaleze in there. Like, if they just have an abundance of abandoned accounts.

 

[MANUELF]

Do they mean not login in or not buying anything?

 

[GhostTrick]

What the fuck

 

[Pankratous]

I'm sure that's just to cover themselves - you've agreed to it when you accept the ToS.

But honestly, if they did close an account after two years... that's fine by me.

 

[Tizoc]

What counts as activity?

 

[Captain Tuttle]

What counts as activity?

Yeah this is the big question

 

[Jawmuncher]

What counts as activity?

Probably having trophies and such. No reason to keep a 0 everything account that hasn't been online.

 

[Hektor]

Lol.

I hope that doesn't fly in EU. Disgusting

 

[DieH@rd]

What counts as activity?

This.

I have one backup account with some wallet funds, I am waiting for a 2017-2018 to get few awesome games then, although I will maybe spend everything at PSVR launch.

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

Why? Just do what MS does and flag the accounts for renames after a certain length of time. This is dumb.

 

[Falk]

Do they mean not login in or not buying anything?

There are enough PSN accounts that have never spent anything that nuking after 2 years of simply not buying anything would be on a new tier of stupidity.

 

[Xater]

Why? Just do what MS does and flag the accounts for renames after a certain length of time. This is dumb.

Considering renaming your account on PSN is impossible, I doubt they can even do that.

Still this is super shitty. I did not use my Xbox Live account for more than 2 years and everything was still fine when I returned. This is especially infuriating considering there are now purchases associated with these accounts these days.

 

[Demoskinos]

Why? Just do what MS does and flag the accounts for renames after a certain length of time. This is dumb.

Can't rename on PSN.

 

[Transistor]

There are enough PSN accounts that have never spent anything that nuking after 2 years of simply not buying anything would be on a new tier of stupidity.

Yeah, they're probably talking about any sort of online activity. Like, someone logged into a PSN account four years ago to download a demo and hasn't logged in since or something.

 

[MUnited83]

What counts as activity?

I'd assuming just logging in would suffice (either on a PS Device or with a browser). But who knows really.

Lol.

I hope that doesn't fly in EU. Disgusting

Oddly enough, this section is not present on SCEA's TOS (at least so far)

 

[FlyStarJay]

There truly is an issue with psn. Name change, unbanning account and many other things

 

[GP_Socks]

If you haven't been active for more than 24 months, might as well forget you even had PSN.

 

[HawthorneKitty]

Crap, I haven't turned on a Sony device in like 2 years.

 

[Vibrant]

Good idea

 

[Kayant]

Losing complete access to your purchased content is complete BS. Other than that it seems fine.

 

[Altered Juice]

nor use the Products purchased with that Account.

 

[Zafir]

Logged into my other accounts just in case.

I mostly see them putting that in the ToS being a just in case thing though. I can't imagine they'd actually do it. Not 2 years inactivity anyway, maybe 5...

 

[GarthVaderUK]

So if you haven't been active for 2 years your digital library can be taken from you? That seems pretty harsh.

After your Account is closed, you will not be able to access the PSN nor use the Products purchased with that Account.

 

[low-G]

Ridiculous and it should be illegal to do it under ANY time span.

What if someone becomes a PC gamer and doesn't want to touch a PlayStation for a generation or more?

 

[Joni]

That would be annoying. But it means I will start logging into all my accounts more.

 

[halfbeast]

I wonder if browsing the psn store on your pc counts as activity. otherwise, there's a bunch of accounts I need to login to.

 

[NHale]

After your Account is closed, you will not be able to access the PSN nor use the Products purchased with that Account.

So apparently Sony wants us to check in online every 24 months. Someone call Jack Tretton.

 

[Gravy Boat]

Is this really a big deal? Just set a reminder on your phone every 2 years to log on and download a free demo or something.

 

[GoutPatrol]

Welcome to the all-download era.

 

[JaseC]

Is this really a big deal? Just set a reminder on your phone every 2 years to log on and download a free demo or something.

It's unlikely to affect many people, but there's no good argument for why it should be policy. Of the comparable services that do close inactive accounts (namely Origin and Uplay), those that own a product are left alone.

 

[oni-link]

Imagine if you found one of your old systems in the closet, "oh wow, my old NES" you plug it in, you gather your kids around and you slot Mario 3 into the system "this is what daddy played when he was your age"

The system boots up

"Your NES was terminated after 2 years of inactivity"

Oh

Spoiler

I'm just an old man yelling at a cloud

 

[test_account]

I wonder if browsing the psn store on your pc counts as activity. otherwise, there's a bunch of accounts I need to login to.

How are they going to know that you're you if you arent logged into an account?

 

[Striek]

As always with these EULA and/or TOS scare threads, its based on a falsehood. In this case, that this is new. Its not.


The first version I can find, which is from 2009, actually says 18 months.

https://web.archive.org/web/2009060...laystation.net/ps3-eula/psn/e/e_tosua_en.html

Edit: Although that is a more thorough description.

 

[MarionCB]

Ridiculous and it should be illegal to do it under ANY time span.

What if someone becomes a PC gamer and doesn't want to touch a PlayStation for a generation or more?

This. Hopefully this is already illegal in Australia; it feels like something that would be but perhaps hasn't been tested. This is the type of legal right that needs to be sorted out explicitly for digital content. Ownership needs to be made clear and firm. I'd be annoyed enough to attempt legal action myself if they deleted my purchases after two years.

 

[Gravy Boat]

It's unlikely to affect many people, but there's no good argument for why it should be policy. Of the comparable services that do close inactive accounts (namely Origin and Uplay), those that own a product are left alone.

There is a good argmuent, close the accounts and free up the usernames. I doubt they'll even do it, it's more of a legality thing incase they need to do something with specific accounts for whatever reason. I'll be very surprised if they just started shutting down all accounts that haven't been used in two years. I would actually bet money on that not happening.

Imagine if you found one of your old systems in the closet, "oh wow, my old NES" you plug it in, you gather your kids around and you slot Mario 3 into the system "this is what daddy played when he was your age"

The system boots up

"Your NES was terminated after 2 years of inactivity"

Oh

Spoiler

I'm just an old man yelling at a cloud

They're not bricking consoles. Nothing is stopping you from playing your PS4 in 20 years time.

 

[GarthVaderUK]

There is a good argmuent, close the accounts and free up the usernames.

Is there a reason why Sony can't develop a name change system?

 

[MUnited83]

Is this really a big deal? Just set a reminder on your phone every 2 years to log on and download a free demo or something.

It sets a really bad precedent imo, that you can lose thousands upon thousands of dollars of purchases deleted just like that, for only 2 years of inactivity. I don't know of any other digital download service that does this.

 

[EmiPrime]

Well that's disturbing.

The EU need to stomp on this.

 

[JaseC]

There is a good argmuent, close the accounts and free up the usernames. I doubt they'll even do it, it's more of a legality thing incase they need to do something with specific accounts for whatever reason. I'll be very surprised if they just started shutting down all accounts that haven't been used in two years. I would actually bet money on that not happening.

I don't consider "It frees up the usernames" to be a valid justification for why accounts that own content should be closed, especially as we're moving away from traditional console generations -- to say nothing of the fact there we've no evidence that account closures actually do free up usernames. The EA and Ubisoft approach is far more reasonable, which is precisely why there was and is no big stink about it.

 

[Volotaire]

This is not good news for me. I borrowed a PS3 over 2 holidays from a friend and bought two games on sale. I haven't played the PS3 console/ logged in and played on a PSN account since mid 2015.

Hopefully, active means logged in. Otherwise, I will have to bring forward the decision to purchase a PS device. I was hoping to delay this.

Moreover, I wonder how this law will differ in the UK and Europe. But to add to this uncertainty, with the UK leaving the EU, I wonder if the same strong consumer protection will be carried into the new UK statutory law when the UK arranges a new relationship with the EU.

 

[Gravy Boat]

Is there a reason why Sony can't develop a name change system?

It sets a really bad precedent imo, that you can lose thousands upon thousands of dollars of purchases deleted just like that, for only 2 years of inactivity. I don't know of any other digital download service that does this.

Probably not, but I still don't see the issue with them having this in their ToS. I imagine that the vast majorty of accounts that are inactive for that period of time don't have any purchased content, so it's no big deal if they need to create a new account.

Again, I just don't see this being the worst case scenario that alot of people here seem to be imagining. They're not going to start nuking account en masses as soon as they cross that 2 year threshold.

 

[II-Vanguard-II]

Good to know i have a couple of extra accounts for different region sales and stuff(Plus games used to be different on US and EU)
I'm gonna go log in all of them right now thaks for the heads up.

 

[Solaire of Astora]

What counts as activity?

Yup... Really need to get an answer on this one...

 

[texhnolyze]

Is this really a big deal? Just set a reminder on your phone every 2 years to log on and download a free demo or something.

It is.

There's bound to be people who are not aware of this policy. Lots of people.

 

[test_account]

Again, I just don't see this being the worst case scenario that alot of people here seem to be imagining. They're not going to start nuking account en masses as soon as they cross that 2 year threshold.

Yeah, they wont start deleting accounts like that. I have a guy on my friendslist that havnt been logged in for about 6 years or so, and his account is still there.

 

[EmiPrime]

As always with these EULA and/or TOS scare threads, its based on a falsehood. In this case, that this is new. Its not.


The first version I can find, which is from 2009, actually says 18 months.

https://web.archive.org/web/2009060...laystation.net/ps3-eula/psn/e/e_tosua_en.html

Edit: Although that is a more thorough description.

You're right and I know people who hadn't logged in for even longer than 2 years who didn't have their accounts removed so it's not an automated thing. Guess it really is just TOS FUD even though the wording is a little unsettling.

 

[oni-link]

They're not bricking consoles. Nothing is stopping you from playing your PS4 in 20 years time.

I wasn't being 100% serious, but if you have games on your PSN account that you paid for, and you don't touch it for 2 years and it's deleted, then your console might as well be bricked (if you went all digital anyway)

Is there a reason why Sony can't develop a name change system?

I don't understand why this is a feature that is in such demand, I mean, yeah it would be nice I guess, but have that many people picked a stupid PSN name that they regret now?

They can't do that in the EU. You bought that stuff.

I'm guessing it's just for accounts with no trophies or purchases, I have friends who have made accounts to watch Netflix or play a co-op game one time or something like that, those accounts have no reason to remain if they've not been touched for 2 years

 

[Kenzodielocke]

They can't do that in the EU. You bought that stuff.

 

[Silent Chief]

There are enough PSN accounts that have never spent anything that nuking after 2 years of simply not buying anything would be on a new tier of stupidity.

Maybe, but the owner would be losing... what? Their trophies?

At any rate, I'm sure login in counts as activity.