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Can you download a Playstation Network game and use it on two PS3's?

post #1 of 15
7/21/07 at 5:18pm
Thread Starter 
I have two Playstation 3 systems, and I was wondering, if I download a PSN game to one of my PS3 systems, is there a way to play it on the other system without having to pay seperately for it again? I'm not a big fan of buying "virtual" stuff, that I can't later re-sell to somebody else, but Wipeout HD looks damn good. If I could pay say $10 and be able to play that on both of my PS3 systems, I think I would have to go that route.

But if I have to pay $10 for each version, F that.

I'm sure somebody on here owns multiple PS3 systems in their house and has downloaded calling all cars or something...
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post #2 of 15
7/21/07 at 5:39pm
Nope, you can't
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post #3 of 15
7/21/07 at 5:45pm
Yes you can; it's legal and encouraged by Sony. You can play any PSN game on up to five different machines.

- On your second PS3, create a new user and then log in to your existing account of your first PS3.
- Go to your account info and look at the download history list.
- From there you just download it and you can then use the game on either machine with any user account.

I've shared games with all my PS3 buddies and they have done so with me.
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post #4 of 15
7/21/07 at 6:47pm
yes I've done the same on up to 5 PS3.
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post #5 of 15
7/21/07 at 7:20pm
Group buys! Like the good folks above said, you get 5 downloads. Share with your friends and they might share what they buy with you.
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post #6 of 15
7/21/07 at 8:14pm
Yes, I've got 2 PS3's as well and this works very well.
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post #7 of 15
7/21/07 at 8:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeblow View Post

Yes you can; it's legal and encouraged by Sony. You can play any PSN game on up to five different machines.

- On your second PS3, create a new user and then log in to your existing account of your first PS3.
- Go to your account info and look at the download history list.
- From there you just download it and you can then use the game on either machine with any user account.

I've shared games with all my PS3 buddies and they have done so with me.

Ok, so on the second PS3, I create a new user, but use the exact same information as my existing account on the first PS3? Same user name and password? For example, let's say my user name was AVSforumguy1 and my password was videophile. I setup an account on the second PS3 with the user name AVSforumguy1 and the password videophile? And I can do this on 4 additional PS3 systems other than my first PS3 system?

So basically, you log in with that user name, on the second PS3, you check the account info, and look at the download history list, and just download it again, and then once you've done that, the game is playable across all users on that PS3? So if my buddy down the street has a PS3, and he's already downloaded Calling all Cars, I can create a new user with his info, and put Calling all Cars on my PS3, and once I've downloaded it, I can play it with my "own" user name? Wow, that's really cool. I'm not sure Sony wants people to share games like that, but it definitely makes things much more interesting. Would this even work with prime time downloads like Warhawk?

I would think you would have to have any of the PS3's serial numbers registered in your name to be able to do that.
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post #8 of 15
7/21/07 at 8:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony1 View Post

I'm not sure Sony wants people to share games like that, but it definitely makes things much more interesting. Would this even work with prime time downloads like Warhawk?


As noted in this thread, Sony executives are on record encouraging it. I asked this question about Warhawk in another thread and nobody knows. Probably wont know until it's released and someone tries it.
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post #9 of 15
7/21/07 at 10:08pm
Thread Starter 
Here is another question I thought of. Let's say your buddy comes over to your house, and he logs onto your PS3 with his information. Then he goes into his account history and looks at his download history and redownloads a game. Say Calling All Cars as an example. Now, Calling all Cars would be playable on this PS3, under any user name on this particular PS3, but here is my question....


After your buddy leaves, you delete his user name info from your PS3, does Calling All Car's dissapear as well? Has anybody tried this to make sure? The reason I ask, is because if your buddies information is on your PS3, you could accidently make purchases on his account information, right? I'm not saying that you would, I'm just saying that it could be possible....right? I mean like if your kid was screwing around with your PS3, and accidently logged on as your buddies user name, and then went to the playstation store and ordered something, it would charge your buddies credit card on file, right?

This would be the only issue with sharing your downloaded PSN games to other peoples accounts. The fact that your personal info would be on their PS3, until it was deleted. But if you delete that user ID, does the downloaded games go along with it?
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post #10 of 15
7/22/07 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rdank View Post

As noted in this thread, Sony executives are on record encouraging it. I asked this question about Warhawk in another thread and nobody knows. Probably wont know until it's released and someone tries it.

i dont think they'll allow it for warhawk. they can prolly verify the account to make sure it only plays with the account that bought it.
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post #11 of 15
7/22/07 at 8:12am
You are allowed to download a game up to 5 times, right? If you share the game with 4 other people, and your hard drive gets corrupted, you wouldn't be able to download the game again. You would have to buy it again.

The 5 downloads per game thing is there to protect you in case of data loss, not to share with your friends.
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post #12 of 15
7/22/07 at 8:51am
Anthony -

The best way to make use of sharing (if not between your own PS3's) is to create a sub account to your master account.

(Direct From Sony) Sub account:
Accounts that can be used by anyone, including minors. Sub accounts can be monitored by the associated master account holder. Sub account holders cannot create wallets but can make use of the wallet for the associated master account to pay for products and services. A sub account cannot be created if an associated master account does not exist.

There for you can make a "fake" sub account to your "real" master account and that makes use of the wallet in the Master as you see fit. This is the account information that I would give to friends, not the master account. If you download everything using this sub account, then it uses the wallet of your master, but you have way more control of what people can do when they log in as you. It's real easy - I swapped the Super Stardust HD game for the Resistance Map Pack with a buddy of mine already and - we now have a My downloads account, and a His Downloads account on each PS3. It's actually quite slick.

Oh and before I knew to make this sub account I had downloaded the Map Pack to my Master account. The friend I swapped with is a college buddy of mine so I gave him access to my master account to download it, then he deleted the account, leaving only the sub account that I will use from now on. The download stays. Once its on the harddrive it there to stay until like someone says the drive is corrupted. But then its still saved in your download history on the PSN network so you don't need to repurchase it unless you've exceeded the 5 download rule.

I found out an interesting tidbit about downloads 2 nights ago, I started the download of the Darkness in my UK account, accidentally logged back into my US account and you could see the download continued in the background. Once you get the download gets rolling I don't think the PS3 cares what account your in or using.
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post #13 of 15
7/22/07 at 9:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shape View Post

The 5 downloads per game thing is there to protect you in case of data loss, not to share with your friends.

Not entirely: link 1, link 2

This question was posed to Sony before: I purchased some downloadable game content on the PLAYSTATION®Network. Part of the product description says the content can be used or downloaded on up to five (5) activated PLAYSTATION®3 system units. What does that mean?

Answer:
This means that the content that you purchased may be used by other users on an activated PLAYSTATION®3 system unit after you downloaded the content onto your PLAYSTATION®3 system unit. Some content may require the user to have a PLAYSTATION®Network account, and other content may require you to have additional game content that may be sold separately. For example, you may need to purchase a full game in order to use the character that you purchased on the PLAYSTATION®Network for the game. Please review the use restrictions associated with the content you purchased. The content may be played up on to 5 activated PLAYSTATION®3 system units at any one time. PLAYSTATION®3 system units may be deactivated so that you can change which PLAYSTATION®3 system units are activated at any time.
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post #14 of 15
7/22/07 at 11:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shape View Post

You are allowed to download a game up to 5 times, right? If you share the game with 4 other people, and your hard drive gets corrupted, you wouldn't be able to download the game again. You would have to buy it again.

The 5 downloads per game thing is there to protect you in case of data loss, not to share with your friends.

Well I just used 1 for all of mine to upgrade my PS3's hard drive. Good to know. Really makes me hope my PS3 doesn't fail and/or Sony comes out with a 'must have' version later on: have to download again.

Is it the same with PSP titles? If I get a new slim version, can I just take the memory stick out of my old PSP and put it in the new one without having to re-download anything?
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post #15 of 15
7/22/07 at 6:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wesley Hester View Post

Well I just used 1 for all of mine to upgrade my PS3's hard drive. Good to know. Really makes me hope my PS3 doesn't fail and/or Sony comes out with a 'must have' version later on: have to download again.

You know you don't have to redownload everything if you do a HDD upgrade. If you have an external USB HDD (and plug it into a USB port on the PS3), you can do a backup to it, then a restore to your new internal HDD. I upgraded my PS3's 60GB HDD to a 160GB HDD and did a back/restore and everything was fine. Hope that helps for next time.
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