Sony will know where you live

This is a bit sobering, even if you don't have a tendency towards potty mouth:

Users who don't behave themselves online could be cut off, says Sony's Peter Edward, director of the Home platform, speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. GamesIndustry.biz reports:

"Ultimately we know a user's details, we know machine details and we know where they live," said Edward.
 
"If you really, really misbehave you can have your console disconnected at a machine level, so you would actually have to move house and buy a new PS3 before you could get online again."

Wow, the machine and the home details.

Does this mean if you're burgled, they'll automatically track your PS3 for you? Will they cut you off if a friend or non-household resident uses your PS3 and is rude over chat? Will they monitor your PS3 online use in general?                 

Comments

[Peter Childs]

It could be this is the first part of a new marketing plan based around the product promise “We own it – and everything it touches”.

Or it could be the dumbest thing a Division director ever said.

Either way it seems the soul of the Root-Kit is alive and well at Sony.

[Stephen]

FYI, I worked at SCEE a few years ago, and the PS2 online stuff we were doing then is similar to this.

So basically...

They know where you live because you gave them your address when you registered the console. (I have no idea if they have any way of being certain the address you entered is true. When we were sorting PS2 out, the idea was that when you entered your address, you got sent a copy of Hardware: Online Arena, so there was an incentive to use the right address. Not everyone did, mind.)

I'm assuming they're using the MAC address to identify the PS3 hardware.

I was in this presentation (at EIF) and Peter was using this example to talk about the absolute extreme of dealing with online griefers. I don't think this is something they'd do casually.

Just between us, mind you, I don't think there's been an awful lot of thought at SCE given to just how they will deal with problem customers. I asked the same questions at an internal presentation months ago, and basically got the same response.

Which is sort of like saying "Well, if you insult our nation on TV, we can respond by nuking you off the face of the Earth". Maybe a bit of an over-reaction....