PlayStation®3 Support

[Alonzo1948]

Over the last few years, I've had 2 PS3s. One I got on launch day and my brother got another one a year ago when he went off to college. Since the PS3 I use only has 60 gigs, I was thinking about selling my old one and upgrading to a new one. The problem is, I heard you can only share DLC between 2 PS3s and if I buy another I would either have to re-buy a lot of games or go on without them. I was wondering if there was any way for me to access the content I paid for on my new PS3 if I buy one? 

[ne1atall]

You just deactivate your account from the old one and you'll have no trouble. You can do it on the system.

[gkpama00]

Deactivate your account on your brother's PS3.  You aren't allowed to share Playstation Store content with him anyway, if you each have your own PS3.  You never were allowed to. That will free up an activation for you to use on your second PS3.  If you actually own more than two PS3s, then you have to purchase any content that you want to have on all of them at least twice (with separate PSN accounts). 

[Alonzo1948]

He's my brother, we've shared games since we were little and I don't see why I'm not allowed to share PSN content with him. In any case, I'll just deactivate my PS3 before I trade it in and activate it on my new one. Thanks for the heads up.

[BRIT-KO]

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Alonzo1948 wrote:

He's my brother, we've shared games since we were little and I don't see why I'm not allowed to share PSN content with him. In any case, I'll just deactivate my PS3 before I trade it in and activate it on my new one. Thanks for the heads up.

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Because it's called game-sharing & is against the Sony terms & conditions, it can get your account suspended or banned.

You have been warned!

[mh637099]

Don't share content with a system thats not yours.

You can deactivate them all at once using account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com

[Nakatsu_Hime]

I'm always slightly confused as to where Sony draws the line at the technicallities of game-sharing.

The OP states he uses his DLC on someone else's PS3. He obviously has his account on that machine, else the DLC would not be on there.

Now - apart from the OP's cavalier attitude towards the concept of game-sharing - what is the difference to that setup, and me and my daughter having both our accounts on the same PS3? 

She can access my games and most DLC, so where is the difference there? And what's the definition of 'not yours'?

Can I have my account set up on her PS3 at her house so I can play there? Would that constitute potential game-sharing?

However, I expect Sony's lawyers (if they were so inclined) would point to some obscure sub-paragraph that states you'd need to deactivate your account every time you leave the property, and don't save your password on that system.

[gkpama00]

The difference is that you are permitted to share your Playstation Store purchases with your minor children, if they have a PS3 that you don't legally own (which can happen if you are divorced and share custody, or if your parents take care of your child a lot of the time, or similar situations that happen a lot these days). Those at the only people that you are permitted to share content with.  Not siblings, cousins, friends, etc.  Consoles owned by your spouse are considered to be owned by you also, because they generally are legally. Who actually uses the content is irrelevant.  In general once the content is installed on the PS3, anyone that uses that PS3 can use the content; and that is just fine.  Game-sharing only occurs when you allow content you purchased to be installed on a console that you don't own.  You can share the content on your own console, with other users of the same console, in any way that the content will permit.  Some DLC, such as avatars and subscriptions, are limited to the PSN account that purchased them; but games and game add-ons can generally be used by any login profile on a PS3 that they are installed on.  That isn't considered game-sharing.

You can have a login profile set up with your PSN account on as many PS3s as you want.  There is no limit for that.  There is only a limit on the number of PS3s that you can download your Playstation Store purchases to, and that limit is two.  Even within that limit you can only download to consoles owned by you, or your minor children.  Your account is not activated on a PS3 unless you download Playstation Store content to the PS3, or explicitly activate the PS3 in the Account Management app. Just signing in to PSN on a PS3 does not cause it to be activated under your PSN account.

[ne1atall]

The difference is Sony used to encourage Gamesharing but changed their minds when people took advantage of it with strangers and started reporting their accounts were "hacked". Yes I said "Encouraged" it and I meant it. Ckheck the link and the quote from Tretton.

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2006/10/71982

If a player logs into his PlayStation 3 account on a friend's system, he can download any game he has already purchased. "You can send that content to four other friends for that initial investment," said Tretton. "We want to get the game in as many hands as possible."

[gkpama00]

Yes, Jack didn't run that one by enough people at SCEA before describing the Playstation Store as if it worked like Steam. In particular, he didn't run it past the Playstation licensees; which is why the store got off to kind of a slow start.  To be fair, those were very early days for PSN. He's older and wiser now.