RUMOR: PlayStation Network going offline tomorrow - No more gamesharing?

Probably after scheduled maintenance we won't be able to share our psn games with the others.

[dangert12]

Why does It always seem psn is going down Is it 3 times in a week now? I know 2 was mainteance and its only an hour but its never been like this before whilve ive been on psn

[Sunhammer]

I'm sure Sony's just taking whatever security measures they feel are necessary. Or is it that hard for some people to find something else to do while Sony takes extra care of their service for 1 or 2 hours?

[blumatt]

They just need to figure out a way for us to be able to still re-download our bought content, but for others not to be able to download something we bought. Game-sharing is cool, but let's face it, it hurts the developers, especially small devs. like ThatGameCompany, etc.

[SilentNegotiator]

2 hours of scheduled maintenance?!?! Someone call the mayor! Quick!

Random websites getting "inside info"? What an unprecedented breakthrough.

Obviously, Sony is going to demolish game sharing on a whim tomorrow. Thanks for warning us ahead of time! /sarcasm

[HappyGaming]

Could this be related to the teaser trailer that seems to point to a PSN 2.0? :D

[GrieverSoul]

People spend so little time in the Xbox/PS3 menu that it baffles me how much attention a make over rises between people.

Im I the only one who just want to paly games?! Sure an easier XMB is always welcomed and such, but I spent 30 seconds in my Xbox/PS3 main menu and a hour our two playing games. Honestly, I rather have a new IP than a revamped xmb.

[Linzoid]

@Sunhammer you make a fair point however I work for a large Internet bank in the UK and when we have to take down our website for updates etc, we do them at a time that will least impact our customers e.g. 01:00am.

Why the hell is Sony taking down the network between 17:00 and 21:00 probaby the busiest time of the day? This maintenance should be done in the early hours of the morning, not when people want to be playing or accessing services.

Add to that the release of the Battlefield 3 Beta and you have a lot of angry consumers!

[DeleteThisxx]

@Linzoid

I guess you don't realize that not everyone lives in the same time zone as you. There's absolutely no pleasing everyone in this type of situation.

[princejb134]

i don't think this is gonna happen its kinda late in the ps3 cycle for this to happen
and before someone mentions linux, they removed something we wasn't using it anyway and if you do say you was using it your problably a hacker

[Number_13]

You was right about that. I weren't using it. We is not need linux anyway.
Lol grammer IS fun after all

[Leviathan]

I don't think this is the truth. If that were the case, then I would be out an account because my original ps3 is dead. I'm sure I'm not the only one with more than one ps3 in the house either.

[Gamer1982]

I don't mind them removing the 5 console limit as long as they do something like MS has done and allow you to transfer all your content to a new console once every 6 months. I think this might have to do with the new CFW thats been released though. It can connect to PSN and play any PS1 game from the HDD. Sony needs to start blocking net access for this firmware and is no doubt trying to.

[gumchewinasskikr]

Dangert12

maybe cause they are working all the time to add, update and just overall improve the service?

I noticed that after they had psn up and running post hack that I was having a lot of problems downloading stuff near Tuesday, when PSN updates in the US. Now it is much more stable and way faster.

If these downtime results in these types improvement then that is fine with me.

Besides isn't HOME going to get updated and the Video store also?

[Dark_king]

Just to let people know its something Sony said long ago when this stupid rumor started last time,wasn't going to be happening.They know people share they also know people pool money together to get things.Like me and a buddy both have 5 bucks we can get RF4 for 10 or LBPMove pack I want the move pack.If I couldn't get one of thd two it would be a pack of smokes instead.
Now they already have the ability to lock a game to 1 console for 24 hours.Warhawk did this when it first released digitally an there has been a few other hell KZ3 beta did it.They don't need to remove gamsharing because of this feature.

[morkendo23]

could be hacker related

[kikizoo]

Guys, More than 100 comments for a rumor from an unknown blog...seriously ?

[fr0sty]

This rumor doesn't hold water because Sony already has the control to restrict game sharing on a per-game level. Warhawk for instance is only playable by one account at a time. I think GT Prologue can't be shared either if I remember right. I know warhawk is restricted though. In fact, I'm not sure if they changed it or not but there used to be a 24 hour waiting period before you could get back on your game if someone you shared it with had been playing it.

[TheMrMadzen]

Gamesharing? What is that?

[LOGICWINS]

Say a person on PSN buys DLC. When you buy DLC or any downloadable content from the PS Store, it stays in your purchase history. So if your hardrive breaks or something, you don't lose anything because you can redownload it from Sony's servers.

Gamesharing is when you let someone else access your account from ANOTHER PS3 system, let them go into your purchase history, and download anything that YOU purchased on YOUR account for FREE. This can be done up to 5 times I believe.

[TheMrMadzen]

I was joking FYI :)
(and yes, gamesharing should have never been released)

[Kurisu]

Yeah, I'm surprised Sony don't make you ring them and request 2nd, 3rd etc downloads.

[LOGICWINS]

@Madzen-So what about people that have multiple PS3s in the same household? I don't think its fair for these people to have to pay for the same DLC multiple times.

[SOD_Delta]

Yea if they take that out I'll be buying less dlc/games from PSN. it better not disable the DLC and games I have from my shared account. If it does I'll be royally pissed.

[JoGam]

Exactly! I have 3 PS3's in my home and would be pissed if they removed game sharing.

[heroicjanitor]

It's only unfair because Sony are being generous about it. On the ds you buy a new game for each ds you have, and tough shit.

[eraursls84]

I have 2 PS3's and if I can't get content on both I'll stop buying it. I bought one downloadable game on the Wii and once I found out I couldn't take my memory card to my niece and nephews house to play with them I quit buying downloadable games on the Wii.

[ReservoirDog316]

I would be sad to see that go. I've bought many games on psn and I share them with my friend that would never buy any game (she just doesn't use credit cards online). So, with my purchase, it extends it to my friend and when it's co op, it extends it for me. If that goes, it'd just make my life less fun.

[trenso1]

Well technically 4 times your ps3 is included in the 5 but good explanation.

And I really hope this doesn't happen I have 2 ps3s and one just got YLOD poor 80gb and this would screw up alot of things with people who game share or have multiple ps3s

[hesido]

Removal would be ridiculous. I bought those games agreeing to the fact that I will be use it on up to 5 Ps3's. Please don't be Sony sheeple and know your consumer rights, for Pete's sake. Oh, I forgot that Sony blocked Class action lawsuits. I will have to sue the personally :P

This is ridiculous, and unacceptable. If so, it should only be valid for new purchases, otherwise this is a total bullshit move by Sony.

[zielocz3k]

i don't know who change my title ;p

[zielocz3k]

Gamesharing = in PSN buys the game and share it with five people

[Vaud-Villian]

4, unless your locking yourself out

[Peaceful_Jelly]

what? more feature removals?! How I'm going to re-download all the downloadable games that are on my old PS3 (broken BTW) when I buy a new one? 0 __ 0

[Vaud-Villian]

And we can't form a class action against it.

[DragonKnight]

@Peaceful: This is unconfirmed, and unlikely. Don't get all upset over nothing.

@Vaud-Villain: http://www.talknerdytomelov...

[Vaud-Villian]

If you thought that was anything but sarcasm, you are delusional.

[ssb3173]

I really hate the new law suit contract now

[DA_SHREDDER]

If this is true then I will never buy more than one console at a time. I buy games and share them on my other ps3's in other rooms of the house for my kids. If they weren't digital copies I would understand. But if you own a game digitally thats pretty much saying you have to carry your big ol console to each room of the house therefore rendering digital distribution obsolete when compared to physical format. This is a step backwards if you ask me. I will only buy physical formats from then on and only buy used in retaliation from then on as well.

[RememberThe357]

Well, it's not official yet so you off on your spiteful Gamestop binge. But I really like the point you make. Hopefully they will have a work around if this does turnout to be the case. However, I really don't see that happening. They may tighten the reins on it but completely removing it seems like a stretch.

[SamPao]

Oh COME ON!

with gamesharing they only mean that you cannot instal the games on an OTHER acc, your acc wont be affected AT ALL! use your brain

on your 3 ps3's you will still be able to download your content, but NOT on other acc, wich is perfectly right if you ask me and well, others.

[hesido]

You have 3 kids, and you'll buy the same game for all of them, three times?

I don't think that's fair, and such a change should only be made for future purchases. And I declare I will be buying MUCH less if that happens.

[joeyisback]

i say only let one person use the item at a time

[zielocz3k]

true!

[khamvongsa09]

I'm surprised they didn't do something like this earlier..

[EmperorDalek]

So what if I get something like BF1943 and want to play with family members in the same house? I probably wouldn't get any more games off PSN ever again.

[gumchewinasskikr]

What happens if you buy a pc game, say battlefield or cod and want to play online with say your family in the same house?

You guessed it, they have to buy a copy for themselves! Why does everyone act like Sony owes them the world? The other companies don't allow sharing do they?

[EmperorDalek]

So what your'e saying is, is that just because other company's don't allow it means it's OK for Sony to get rid of it? Sony are better than it's competitors because of things like this IMO.

[Blaine]

Only letting one console at a time play a game that was shared doesn't sound unfair to me.

If I buy a game on a disc, I can share it with friends. We can't both play the disc at the same time though.

The problem comes in when you consider how they'd go about limiting the number of consoles that can play the game simultaneously. Always-online is the only way I can think of, and I think that's an unacceptable form of DRM. So it's a tricky question.

But we're all getting ahead of ourselves; there's no evidence Sony are considering ending game sharing. So, until then, everyone should relax!

[Dart89]

Ummm bs they said this a while back and it never happened.

P.S. I'm talking about the removal of gamesharing

[CynicalVision]

If that's true then surely there have to be some way of knowing it's gamesharing or not. The whole reason the 5 download limit exists is because you might buy a new console and need to re-download your items.

[TopDudeMan]

I don't think they're gonna do that. That's just a wild guess.

[CZUM]

I think that too. No source for this info, so i think this it bulls*hit.

[LiquifiedArt]

Game sharing hahah (idiots)
It was meant for people with multiple ps3s. Not for giving your Internet buddies discounts

[JellyJelly]

Shouldn't they have thought of that before releasing it?

[badboy7428]

No please I only use it for Black ops maps. I don't want to support call of duty.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Wait, so you want to play the game, use the new maps, enjoy it, but dont want to support it?

Does that make any sense at all? If so then DONT BUY OR PLAY THE GAME AT ALL.

[badboy7428]

Let me be more specific. i only bought black ops for Zombies. I don't play multiplay I didn't finish the single player. DLC Maps cost $15. Thats is Too much money considering that I only want to play the "one" zombie map that is included. They should have a option where you can purchase them separate.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Oh ok that makes more sense. I was really confused at first.

[FAGOL]

Agreed wouldn't buy stand alone multiplayer maps for CoD. I only want the Zombie maps. I didn't buy the MW2 maps either.

[trenso1]

Lol I did this with my friend COD maps were too much money for such a piss poor game

[xyxzor]

This would be so retarded. I'm sorry, but Sony hasn't added jack shit for features this year, and I happen to think that game-sharing is a great feature, whether intentional or not. What the hell are they doing in their online division.

[FACTUAL evidence]

I've been asking the same damn question for 2 years now. I mean there isn't even basics on psn..

[Soldierone]

I have 3 PS3's in my house, this would suck. That new developer that will only put games on PSN if the sharing is gone can suck it, I don't care.

Digital copies should be cheaper to begin with anyways....

[BLAKHOODe]

I have 2 in my house. Kinda defeats the purpose of having cloud saves, too.

[flyingmunky]

Digital copies run the same amount as the retail hard copies so the only advantage to buying on psn is that you can use the game on multiple consoles. If they eliminate that advantage of it then what's the point of buying digital?

At least if your console crashes with the disc you won't have to call up Sony and beg for more downloads.

I'm firmly against any change in the policy, apart from adding more downloads that is.

[Tru_Blu]

A lot of games I can go to Best Buy and buy new for cheaper then the PSN price. Borderlands for instance, $30 on PSN. I got the GOTY edition at Best Buy for $20. Add in the DLC and it's $60 off the PSN.

[SamPao]

oh... you can still use them on the SAME acc on all your ps3s!

its about OTHER acc...

[thespaz]

Except for the account I play on is not the account I purchase things on.

See. I started out on one account and started buying stuff. Then I realized that I didn't like that account name, so I made a new one, but to keep everything tidy, I continued to buy stuff from my old account.

Thankfully, my PS3 supports the idea of buying a game on one account and playing it on another.

I have 2 PS3s as well, so if I have want to install some DLC on the other PS3, I won't be able to? That SUCKS!

[ziggurcat]

this is not going to happen.

[IAmTheTruth]

If Sony removes game sharing I'm gonna file a class-action law-...

Oh fuck.

[raytraceme]

Ironically I am letting a friend download the bf3 beta from my account lol

[SuperStrokey1123]

What is wrong with game sharing? Its exactly the same as playing a game some one has lent you. They just need to make it so that the game can only be active on teh network with one system. I see no issue with that. Its the same as lending a game to friend and should be allowed 100%.

[SLEDGE]

I've got 3 PS3's in my household, I would like to still be able to play thoose said games on these consoles... It's one of the reasons I still buy games on that system.

[pocketaces11]

You probably will be able to BUT you won't be able to play them under multiple profiles. I don't get why everyone called this game charing it's still piracy PS3 didn't allow it for game sharing they allowed it so you could log into a friends system and play your stuff.

But I do agree then need to make sure I can still play on multiple systems as I too have multiple PS3's

[T3MPL3TON]

.... man.. they keep taking so much from us. If this is legit I'm not buying anything from the store again. The fact that they keep dictating what I can and can not do with stuff I purchased is bullshit. It'd be no different if it was a physical copy a friend(s) would borrow it and enjoy it, if said friend(s) truly enjoyed it s/he'd buy it for themselves.

Also all this maintenance is getting annoying. Weekly maintenance is fine every other day is absurd.

[ziggurcat]

nice to see that you have a pattern of knee-jerking without doing your research.

this is an unsubstantiated *rumour*. relax.

[SuperStrokey1123]

well he did say if....

[Ace_Man_6]

I sure hope so! Game-sharing is for people that don't want to part their cash and moan that SCE don't give out good content

[beavis4play]

agree- whenever i buy something fromt the store - i get at least a dozen requests to gameshare. just recently, when i bought the rezerrection map pack, my inbox was filling up with nothing but gameshare requests..........look - i paid for it and expect anyone else to pay for it too. i understand what those people with multiple ps3s are saying - but the MAJORITY of people are just wanting free handouts.

[soundslike]

If I can't play BF3 beta tomorrow because of this Ima smack a bitch

[NotSoSilentBob]

If they do away with Game sharing, it will be another lawsuit since they used this as a selling point for advertising the ps3. People can file a class action lawsuit under deceitful advertising.

[lorianguy]

It's old, but supports your point.
http://www.wired.com/gameli...

[NotSoSilentBob]

Taken from the near end.

WN: If downloadable games are tied to an account, what stops five people from sharing one account and all the games?

JT: Nothing, and I think that’s a great advantage. You can send that content to four other friends for that initial investment. We want to get the game in as many hands as possible, and it’s not about a financial grab [from] consumers.

WN: Do you feel it’s okay, financially, to allow this?

JT: It’s short term vs. long term. We’re interested in a 10-year product lifecycle and establishing it as the must-have machine for the next decade. It’s not about generating profits at each and every turn, at each and every interaction with the consumer. I think that’s why we went with a free service and why we have an open platform. I think that really offsets the argument that, "Wow, that’s really a pricey system."

[Lumbo]

Doubtfull, as there are ALREADY licenses for PSN that lock the game to one system.

So there is absolutely no need to remove it for everyone.

The "Friend of a friends brothers uncles cousin was drinking with a nice twice removed from a securityguard working at a publisher and he told her that blabla" is pointless, cause the "publisher" can very well choose the appropriate PSN license that disallows "gameshare" and be done with it.

[TheDivine]

Gamesharing is a great feature that gets abused to shi*. People will all buy a mappack and share it with friends to play together or share games like payday to play with friends. I see yahoo threads and a thread on every game site for gamesharing dlc and trading downloadable games. Small developers need the money and even on stuff like black ops maps the developer deserves to get payed. Every day on the cod site someone makes a thread asking for gameshared zombie maps and then gets reported lol.

I admit it is cool to have 5 friends all buy a game and then you all trade but its the same as stealing. These people work hard on these games and need the money to feed their families. I used to burn games, movies, download music, mod my psp and itouch but i just cant anymore, its wrong. If i have to save up for something il enjoy it all the more.

[Baka-akaB]

People are as usual blowing this out of proportion . Me and friends do this on a regular basis . As a result we've been buying trice more stuff than we usually do on our own .

If left on our own , i know for a fact that the end result will be keeping all of that money for that one monthly or bimonthly dlc or none .

No one in our circle would have wasted their time buying those ssf4 costumes dlc , knowing only those owning it would see it . Sharing them led to each person buying packs for the characters they cared about , then sharing it , amounting to the whole packs being purchase , as opposed to absolutely none .

if that's called stealing fine , i wanna see the law involved in people letting others borrow physical copies too . It's a bit too easy and arbitrary otherwise

[motherboop]

I really like that you said that. My friends and I purchase way more content than we normally would have due to the ability to gameshare. I feel that it definitely moves more copies of games that may not have sold well otherwise.

[vickers500]

I've actually bought several downloadable titles for the sole purpose of gamesharing then playing them with my friends. I bought Burnout Paradise on PSN (even though I had it on disc) just so my friends could try it out and play with me, because they sure as sh*t wouldn't even have considered purchasing it before.

I also recently bought RE4 HD for my friend for his birthday (gameshared it to him), a game which I wouldn't have purchased otherwise. Those are just two examples, there's more that I can't think of, but anyway, my point is that gamesharing doesn't hurt devs very much.

Because I can guarantee you a lot of people would never consider purchasing a title from psn if not for gamesharing.

[Baka-akaB]

Yes indeed . Given my geo location , there are plenty games i can't comfortably play online without realying on local friends .

I wouldnt waste my time buying , say , SF3 Third strike for the 4th time (accounting dc and ps2 versions) , if i was the only guy of my gang going to play it online .

And without gamesharing , that's exactly what would happens , i'd be the only one , or one of the only two getting it .

You apply that same mindset alone to a group , and you'll see each buy games they wouldnt otherwise .

I bet the preachy ones from above got no qualms buying an used game , giving back nothing to the dev in the process , then letting a dozen people borrowing it .

[TriangleOffense]

I own 4 ps3's and if this happens I will be furious. The reason or at least one of the reasons I focus so much on digital stuff is because I can buy a game once and play it on all my consoles with my kids (borderlands for example)

Were this to happen i can guarantee I will not be supporting the PSN in anyway other than playing its free to play online services

[SamPao]

so why should you be able to do that in the first place?

what do you do if your kids want to play pokemon? YEAH tell me, I guess you buy em a game, AND THEN, you realise there is only ONE savegame for one game, you have to go buy ANOTHER, and still people support.

now if sony takes away a feature that is sick in the first place, you cry ? wtf

[TriangleOffense]

I dont buy pokemon crap none of my kids have any interest in it and why should I have to pay more for something because I have kids ? GTFO

also if your going to spend time on english speaking forums learn the fuking language please

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Game share is a great idea for gamers.... but a horrible idea from a business perspective.

[tack129]

Well that puts a damper on my Subway demo plan. :(

[Stark]

No more GS :( that suks.I can see how it it hurts small dev.But i rarelly buy indie games i just GS Cod map packs/Dlc that should of been on disc day 1.w/e i guess i'll just choose wisely on dl content now.

[narutogameking]

lol this you even read that source? it says 1 publisher decided to release their retail games on PSN but only if they remove game sharing..........LMFAO.

[BLAKHOODe]

Anything to eat more into that 48 hours early access to the Battlefield 3 beta, I guess.

I know it opens to everyone tomorrow, but on PS3, that won't be till late afternoon/evening and (NA) PS3 players already got a late start getting it to begin with.

[dcortz2027]

I could care less. I never game shared, I never will. I buy everything I want off the Playstation Store myself.

[Buuhan1]

Must be nice to be wealthy.

[thespaz]

NOOOOOOO! Don't remove game sharing!!! I seriously have 2 PS3s and I want to be able to download my DLC on both of them!

I have one PS3 in my room for my personal gaming and one PS3 in the living room for when I feel like gaming out there or watching Blu-rays.

Removing game sharing would mean that I would only be able to play one of my PS3s with the purchased content on it, the other PS3 would have none of my downloads?

[sycnation]

All I have to add is why is there an option to import your game saves and account info from the network if this goes into effect won't that negate it...

[smashcrashbash]

It's obviously not true so just give it up. @
acemonkey its obviously crap. No proof, just rumor

[acemonkey]

that seems messed up but it was fun while it lasted

[BrianC6234]

Why do these foreign rumors get posted on this site? They're stupid. The translations don't even make sense.

[PirateThom]

Considering how badly people abused the system, I wouldn't be surprised... but, it also doesn't make sense. There's games that impose restrictions anyway. If they needed to, they'd impose the restrictions.

[NBT91]

You need gamesharing though, its the only way to redownload content when your PS3 dies...

[Allowen]

What could happens is that you got to stay online with the account that bought the digital games and DLCs to be able to play then.
Other wise they will not work.

This could mean that sub accounts on your PS3 would be locked away from being able to play content from your main account.

If this happens it is bad but not THAT bad , at least to people with more then one PS3 on their houses. They just can t play a coop game at same time because you can t log in into your main account at same time on more then one console.

[Fanbot]

what a fail article.

every content has it's own sharing policy. if a publisher don't want that his content can be shared 5 times, there an option to disable that.

FAIL NEWS, FOR A FAIL SITE.

[Derpy]

I have no desire to give access to my account out to other people, be it friends or otherwise, but we were considering getting another PS3 for keeping in a different room. I won't be too happy if I can't play my PSN purchases on both machines. I'm starting to wonder if it might be better not to buy anything on PSN and stick only with discs.

[Buuhan1]

They can't remove gamesharing as there's no way to accurately separate it from legit people who have multiple PS3's.

[tiffac008]

Mainly, the article is saying a 3rd party developer will put their products on PSN at a cheaper price (than the ones on the store shelves) only if Sony removes the game sharing feature...

If I'm not mistaken physical media always cost more than the downloadable ones. How could this make any sense?

And why would Sony remove a PSN feature because of one publisher?

I really doubt this rumor holds any credibility to it. We should have heard something official by now if this is true.

[maxmill]

ill have a fukn heart attack, you know how many shared accounts i have that I put money on?

[xX-StolenSoul-Xx]

Gamesharing is against the rules so????

Granted yes i Gameshare but that's only through my other 3 Ps3 consoles, so it's not against the rules for me :)

[tarbis]

I'll take that rumor with big mountain of salt.

[trouble_bubble]

Dear lord, some people are so gullible when it comes to teh internetz. No name site, no name writer, no name source, alleged "reason" is so laughable amateur I'm sure even Jack Tretton is laughing somewhere over the idea of one 3rd party dev holding the whole feature hostage for nothing more than sales discounts for games I may not even want. lol! I already pay for PS Plus. GTFO with this eastern european basement blog rumor cr@p getting front page here. End of the month, guy prolly needs some hits for ad revenue to pay for electricity.

[bub16]

well i cant connect. got signed out, which never happens for me, last 3 weeks my download speeds on PSN have been so poor anyway, least xbox works properly :(

[andron]

There is a scheduled maintenance today, probably due to Home relaunch later.

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[strifeblade]

not surprising.

[Truth]

Nothing beats waking up three hours before you have to go to work to enjoy the Battlefield 3 beta, only to discover the PS store is down for maintenance. Are you ******* kidding me Sony!? Whoever timed this needs to be tied to the back of my M3 so I can drag them down I70 doing 155.

[AndyLFC5]

Wow do you have an M3 !

[Giru017]

I doubt Sony would remove game sharing at this point, specially after the whole PSN hack fiasco and the PSN service being regularly down as of late.

At this moment, it's best for them to keep everyone happy and hope we forget about all the things that happened across their excellent Q4 AAA line up.

[TBONEJF]

While SONY fixes their network. Hope everyone understands you can't sue them for any reason their trying to improve their network with updated software.

[WooHooAlex]

Awww man, PS store undergoes maintenance right when I'm about to buy LittleBigPlanet 2 DLC.

Guess that will have to wait a few hours.

[Whackedorange]

Good thing that this service is free cause all the maintance is starting to p*** me off

[Treyb3yond]

More unfounded trash on n4g. What a shocker.

[leahcim]

WTF!!