Sony PS5’s new firmware bricks offline games after 30 days without internet

Sony has fumbled this update. The latest firmware pushed to PS5 and PS4 a few days ago quietly introduced an unusually strict DRM check: newly purchased digital games must go online and complete license verification within 30 days, or the system revokes the license and the game becomes completely unlaunchable.

The trigger logic is blunt. After a player buys a digital game, the system starts a 30-day countdown, and the console must connect to the internet at least once during that window to validate the license. If you happen to be in a remote area, traveling for work, or dealing with network outages, once the deadline passes you can expect a lockout prompt. More ironically, digital games purchased before this update are entirely unaffected and continue to run normally, creating a stark gap in treatment between existing and new buyers.

Player communities already erupted over the weekend. Some users said newly bought titles were effectively bricked because they were away and couldn’t get online, while others questioned whether Sony is trying to force an always-online policy. Internal sources say this was actually a botched operation: while patching a security vulnerability, Sony’s team mistakenly altered low-level code and unintentionally activated these harsh restrictions that were supposed to be for testing.

As of Monday morning, Sony still has not released any public statement. Technically, this kind of DRM mechanism is unnecessary for single-player games and instead discourages legitimate users in offline environments. If you are planning to buy PS digital titles soon, it is better to wait a few days and see whether Sony fixes this bug first. Paying for a game and then being forced to check in online just to keep access is not a user-friendly experience.