GameStop shares rebound

GameStop shares bounced back today, up more than 2 percent to $24.85 at press time. Shares of the specialty retailer dipped by more than 5 percent yesterday following the publication of a Sony patent application for technology that would block used games.

The technology would make it so only the original purchasers of a game could play a given title. Thus, retailers that buy and sell second-hand games like GameStop would be negatively impacted.

Analysts were not keen on the idea, however, telling Bloomberg Businessweek yesterday that such a technology would be detrimental to Sony's overall business.

Sony's patent application is by no means a guarantee that a future system, potentially the PlayStation 4, would leverage the used games-blocking technology. Sony has not commented on the matter since the patent application filing was discovered yesterday.