You cannot download P.T. anymore, and you can’t sell a PlayStation 4 pre-loaded with the horror game either.
If you search for P.T. and PS4 on eBay right now, almost nothing comes up.
A few hours ago, however, and you would have found a bunch of people hoping to capitalise on the game’s newfound scarcity, thanks to Konami’s decision to bring the game down from PSN.
Kotaku reader Kevin Schumacher listed his own bundle on eBay, but it was quickly taken down, and the company send him an explanation about why it couldn’t be sold on eBay:
When Schumacher got in touch with me, there were still a bunch of listings on eBay. Now, there are none, and it looks like the company is continue clamping down on any such listings.
This isn’t particularly shocking, as eBay once took down auctions for iPhones with copies of Flappy Bird too.
Weirdly, the policy eBay cites isn’t listed in their support document for selling a game console:
Most new video game consoles, that support online gameplay, will save your personal information used for logging into those networks. Before selling your video game console, it is highly recommended to go into the settings area, and reset the console back to factory default settings.
There is a big difference between “highly recommended” and “required”.
I spoke to an eBay customer service representative on the phone earlier today, and while one of them expressed confusion at the discrepancy between eBay’s stated policy and the one that’s getting these auctions taken down, a specialist said this is precisely in line with eBay’s rules.
It’s possible some people might be able to sell a PS4 with P.T. without eBay catching on, but that might not be for a little while yet. Right now, everyone’s paying attention, and eBay is too.
Comments
9 responses to “eBay Taking Down Auctions Selling PS4s With P.T.”
I don’t know, considering how Konami are going lately I’d wager they contacted eBay to remove those listings specifically so that they can kill PT permanently.
Previously, when this sort of thing happens, you wait 15 years for GOG to buy the license. However, this is Konami. The same people who lost the source code for Silent Hill 2. It’s never coming back.
Also keep in mind the sale effectively includes your PS account, which I’m sure is against the TOS.
Konami done Konami’ed again! I’ve never forgiven them for Tak Fujii’s Blades of Time fiasco.
yeah… lost….
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78104000/gif/_78104505_deletekey2.gif
Would be a sweet plot twist if all of this is just a clever ploy to generate more hype for the game. Wishful thinking…
It’s not too surprising they’d pull the auctions. There’s really only two possibilities for what the seller is offering:
1. They’re selling their console and their PSN account as a bundle. Given that the PSN terms of service do not allow transfer of accounts, it isn’t clear that the seller has the right to actually deliver on the auction.
2. They’re selling their console which happens to have their account details entered, but are retaining their account. This means that the content is only going to remain available until they change their account password. That sounds like its just asking for disputes post sale.
So I can understand them killing off the auctions.
“You cannot download P.T. anymore,”
Yes, you can.*
*As long as it’s still in your library.
I did it yesterday – immediately after my friend messaged me in a panic about it after reading this very article.
Meanwhile, Konami’s facebook page has a couple of posts about their new Silent Hill action figures, and the comments are 99.9% rage about Kojima. Really should’ve re-thought that timing…