PlayStation Owners Can Access Their Digital Games on Any PS4

[StewShearerOld]

PlayStation Owners Can Access Their Digital Games on Any PS4

Logging into your account on a friend's PS4 will grant instant access to all your digital games.

Sony's strategy for selling the PS4 to gamers has, in no small part, been rooted in the idea of choice. Whereas other console makers have tried to <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125204-Microsoft-Drops-Xbox-One-DRM-Restrictions-UPDATED>control player's access to things like used games, Sony and the PS4 came out with a <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124815-PS4-Will-Not-Block-Used-Games-or-Require-an-Online-Connection>do-what-you-want message of player freedom that earned the new console more gamer <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125219-PS4-Gets-Round-Of-Late-Night-Applause-For-Used-Game-Policies>brownie points than the company could probably ever have hoped for. To its credit, Sony actually seems to be making good on its sales pitch of freedom, something exhibited by some of the features the company has revealed.

Just recently, for instance, Sony outlined how the PlayStation 4's "play as you download" option would help players better utilize their digital library. One of the selling points to come out of the conversation was the ability of gamers to log on to any PS4 anywhere and immediately find themselves able to play their purchased games. "You can visit your friends house you can log into your account and play any game from your digital library, which is good," said Neil Brown, a team leader with Sony's R&D, speaking at Develop. "With Play As You Download you get much quicker access to at least the first section of the game so you can start playing quicker. So this makes a digital library a practical option in the real world."

While you can probably still expect most PS4 owners to play games in the comfort of their own homes, the "play as you download" feature as it's been outlined will, in the least, give PS4 owners another reason to push their friends into the PlayStation fold. That being said, we can't help but wonder if any steps will be taken to mitigate the possible abuse of things like account sharing. After all, if access to your entire digital library is just a log-in screen away, what's to stop you from just handing a buddy your user name and password and letting them go to town on your games free of charge? We'll be interested to see how that pans out in the future.

Source: Official PlayStation Magazine


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[The White Hunter]

well then... this certainly is an interesting development now isn't it.

 

[Terramax]

Isn't it possible that you could give your friend your online account details, and they could basically play your games at their house, whenever you're not playing it?

I guess this isn't too different from lending games to people, but I suspect there is the possibility of abuse. That being said, I'm sure Sony have acknowledged this, but put the consumer in favour, rather than restrain them; something which I find rather admirable.

Captcha: Less is more.

Tell that to Wii U owners.....

 

[The White Hunter]

Isn't it possible that you could give your friend your online account details, and they could basically play your games at their house, whenever you're not playing it?

I guess this isn't too different from lending games to people, but I suspect there is the possibility of abuse. That being said, I'm sure Sony have acknowledged this, but put the consumer in favour, rather than restrain them; something which I find rather admirable.

Captcha: Less is more.

Tell that to Wii U owners.....

Bougth a Vita 2 weeks ago, have more games on it than my Wii U in 6 months.



Probably played it more too between Uncharted, Unit 13 and Castlevania: SotN

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Well that's nice I suppose but from a Sony Fanboy: How is this news?

Maybe I'm just used to negative news (Xbone gives your mother cancer and shoots up playground full of children) or negativity in the comments section (Sony showed nothing new at E3, yet I didn't want them to change or add anything anyway).

 

[Teoes]

That sounds great until it's abused. I'm thinking that everyone and their dog is going to be trying to hack PS4 accounts.

 

[BrotherRool]

That sounds great until it's abused. I'm thinking that everyone and their dog is going to be trying to hack PS4 accounts.

PSN titles already have this functionality though. Right now you can play any digital game you have on two consoles simultaneously. If you uninstall the game from one you can download it onto another.

It was abused, which is why they took the number from 5 down to 2, but I didn't hear much about account hacking. I mean presumably tons of people already try to hack people's accounts so Microsoft and Sony have to have pretty good security

 

[josemlopes]

You can already do this on the Xbox 360, and I think that in the PS3 too, thats why its called an online account, its just like with Steam.

 

[Teoes]

That sounds great until it's abused. I'm thinking that everyone and their dog is going to be trying to hack PS4 accounts.

PSN titles already have this functionality though. Right now you can play any digital game you have on two consoles simultaneously. If you uninstall the game from one you can download it onto another.

It was abused, which is why they took the number from 5 down to 2, but I didn't hear much about account hacking. I mean presumably tons of people already try to hack people's accounts so Microsoft and Sony have to have pretty good security

Huh. I've not owned a PS since the first one, so chalk that up to pig-ignorance.

 

[The White Hunter]

That sounds great until it's abused. I'm thinking that everyone and their dog is going to be trying to hack PS4 accounts.

PSN titles already have this functionality though. Right now you can play any digital game you have on two consoles simultaneously. If you uninstall the game from one you can download it onto another.

It was abused, which is why they took the number from 5 down to 2, but I didn't hear much about account hacking. I mean presumably tons of people already try to hack people's accounts so Microsoft and Sony have to have pretty good security

It was a thing for a while where people would try get you to "account share" with them.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Isn't it possible that you could give your friend your online account details, and they could basically play your games at their house, whenever you're not playing it?

Yes they could, but this is no different from giving someone the keys to your Steam account (and how many people do you trust enough to do that with?). Sony doesn't particularly stand to lose anything from this, if two people want to play a game at least one of them still has to buy it, if both want to play at the same time both still have to buy it.

Abusing it would take some hefty organisation (or console modding) so it's not worth bothering with from Sony's perspective, the cost versus the number who will wouldn't stack up.

 

[Jandau]

After all, if access to your entire digital library is just a log-in screen away, what's to stop you from just handing a buddy your user name and password and letting them go to town on your games free of charge?

Probably not being able to have the same account simultaneously log in on two different machines, so unless you and your friend perfectly coordinate your gaming time, you won't be able to both play at the same time.

 

[Trek1701a]

After all, if access to your entire digital library is just a log-in screen away, what's to stop you from just handing a buddy your user name and password and letting them go to town on your games free of charge?

Probably not being able to have the same account simultaneously log in on two different machines, so unless you and your friend perfectly coordinate your gaming time, you won't be able to both play at the same time.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Likely, the user isn't allowed to be logged into two PS4s at the same time.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I expect this though. Steam grants me this all ready.

 

[Terramax]

Bougth a Vita 2 weeks ago, have more games on it than my Wii U in 6 months.



Probably played it more too between Uncharted, Unit 13 and Castlevania: SotN

HELL YEAH! I love my Vita. I play PSone and PSP games on it more these days, but I've had an awful lot of fun on Everybody's Golf, Shinobido 2, and Wipeout 2048.

 

[TheComfyChair]

After all, if access to your entire digital library is just a log-in screen away, what's to stop you from just handing a buddy your user name and password and letting them go to town on your games free of charge?

Probably not being able to have the same account simultaneously log in on two different machines, so unless you and your friend perfectly coordinate your gaming time, you won't be able to both play at the same time.

Depends on whether there's an offline mode (or whether the account only has an offline mode on one system). Steam has this system, and i do occasionally let one or two of my friends play single player games on my Steam account if they want to give it a go. 'tis nice, since we can also both play the game at the same time. It's usually the case that if they like it, they buy it themselves though, since it's already downloaded. Plus, if you're offline you don't have your own 'cheevos/can't access friends lists ect.

 

[BrotherRool]

That sounds great until it's abused. I'm thinking that everyone and their dog is going to be trying to hack PS4 accounts.

PSN titles already have this functionality though. Right now you can play any digital game you have on two consoles simultaneously. If you uninstall the game from one you can download it onto another.

It was abused, which is why they took the number from 5 down to 2, but I didn't hear much about account hacking. I mean presumably tons of people already try to hack people's accounts so Microsoft and Sony have to have pretty good security

Huh. I've not owned a PS since the first one, so chalk that up to pig-ignorance.

I have a PS3 and I didn't know about it until Sony announced they were lowering the number of installs, so I think it's fine that you didn't know =D. I haven't heard it anywhere, but I wouldn't be surprised if Xbox did something similar, most digital platforms have something like it

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Of course you can do that. Why the fuck is this news? Imagine if your PS4 died and you had to buy a new one. How else would you access your digital games if this option didn't exist? Jeez.

 

[The White Hunter]

Bougth a Vita 2 weeks ago, have more games on it than my Wii U in 6 months.



Probably played it more too between Uncharted, Unit 13 and Castlevania: SotN

HELL YEAH! I love my Vita. I play PSone and PSP games on it more these days, but I've had an awful lot of fun on Everybody's Golf, Shinobido 2, and Wipeout 2048.

It's the best PS1 I've ever owned. I really enjoyed Uncharted and Unit 13 is decent if flawed and basic. I really hope Sony pulls it's shit together and supports it well in the coming generation with cross-buy and remote play.

I'm working my way through a few choice PS1 games at the moment and about the start Gravity Rush. I can't wait for Killzone: Mercenary as I'm a big fan of the franchise and it looks great.

Wish more stuff would come EU side! Muramasa and Dragons Crown in particular ): I don't wanna have to import.

It does need a price cut on storage cards though.

 

[tdylan]

I think Sony's banking on "a person will be able to play a game purchased by someone else, but they'll first have to own one of our consoles." It's probably a matter of "we (may) lose the sale of a digital title, but we (potential) gain the sale of a console." I can see it being worth it in the long run:

"I can play my friends' games for free? Cool! Let me just fork over the $399 USD for a PS4...Oh! Wait...I see what you did there, Sony. Well played."