If you know me then you know I’ve always been a bit wary of the digital future, but I’ve bought digital games and hadn’t had a bad experience with the service. That is until around five weeks ago when PSN was taken down for a few days by a “hacker” group. Usually I’ll report on the matter and then as the story dies we move on, and wait for the next story. I thought that would be the case here but a few weeks later the extent of this attack was finally felt.
Before I delve into the problems let me give you a bit of context. I bought a PS4 at launch but had to send it back for a replacement a couple of weeks later because the disc tray wasn’t working. I deactivated that, got my new one and activated it as my primary console. It was my primary console throughout 2014. A similar situation to that of our reviews editor, Dominic Leighton, who followed the same steps.
Problems didn’t arise until I was in the middle of reviewing Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell, which was digital review code. This is important. I was also playing during a PSN maintenance window and for a while had no problems. Then a warning flashed up saying my console could not connect to the authorisation server, and the game would close in 15 minutes. This was followed by a five minute warning, and then true to the console’s word I was booted out. When I was on the main menu I noticed every digital game I owned and had on the console had a padlock next to it. That’s isn’t all as services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Prime were also locked out.
This also happened to Dom and we both discussed whether our broken PS4s had been refurbished and somehow reactivated, making our current consoles secondary ones. Of course we have no proof and it could be coincidence that both of us lost primary access at the same time, some time after sending back deactivated broken consoles.
This was odd to me as I had never experienced this problem before on a PSN outage, so I logged into my account online to see what was going on. When I checked the devices I owned I noticed consoles I never owned on there, like a second PS4 and second PS Vita. I also saw my PS4 had been deactivated as the primary console. It appeared my account had been compromised so I did what anyone would do, changed my password and called PlayStation Support.
During this conversation I explained what had happened, and asked if these new consoles that had appeared could be removed from my account. The rep on the other side told me that it did look there had been some suspicious activity on my account, but it would have to be escalated upwards. I was told to note a reference number and expect contact in about a week. Fine, I understand there will be people ahead of me in the queue so I can wait a week. Last night I finally got a reply.
As part of our fair usage policy, we are unable to manually deactivate any consoles from your SEN account in order to prevent game-sharing.
So after explaining that my account was potentially compromised and security breached through no fault of my own I’m told I’m basically out of luck. I now can’t deactivate any consoles from my account for six months through the SEN website,due to Sony’s arbitrary time limit that comes into place if consoles are unregistered through its site.
This now means that any time PSN is down I will lose access to my digital library, because the authorisation server can’t be reached. Not just that but I also lose access to Netflix and Amazon Instant on the PS4, as well as every other app. Now a PS Plus subscription isn’t required to access these anyway so I don’t think Sony has any right to restrict my access to a third party service I pay a separate subscription to.
I can’t reset my console authentications for months, Sony won’t help, so I’m locked out of a lot of paid content every time PSN goes down. It wouldn’t be too much of a problem if a PSN outage happened once every six months, but it is down for maintenance monthly. And that doesn’t include when it stops working unexpectedly. PSN isn’t a reliable service at the best of times, so requiring authentication through it makes the situation disadvantageous to users. What if Sony suffers another major breach that takes down PSN for months? Are we supposed to accept that we’re locked out of digital content?
What also gets me is the game sharing excuse, or what used to be lending things to friends and family. The only difference here is the format through which something can be shared, where instead of disc it is a digital copy. It feels like even more of a slap in the face when we now live in a world with Share Play. Sure there is an hour limit per Share Play session, but I could start Far Cry 4 right now, activate Share Play and then let someone else play the game, just resetting the lobby each hour.
I also don’t like how we as a group just accepted primary and secondary consoles, because this wasn’t done for the consumer’s benefit. If I want to a buy a second PS4 for my home to put in another room, I want to know it can do everything the other one can regardless of contacting an authorisation server. When Microsoft suggested a similar practice with Xbox One game discs requiring a connection to the servers to verify authenticity there was a lot of outrage, which led to the company abandoning that particular practice.
The main feeling I’ve got from this situation is that I no longer feel like I own the items I have bought from Sony’s digital store. I own my Megadrive games, I own my PSOne games, I own my Wii games, but because some of my PS4 games are digital I don’t fully own them. No, instead I essentially have to have Sony’s permission to play them regardless of the fact I paid for games like Valiant Hearts and Octodad.
Sony’s policy to activation feels incredibly dated already, and it is really cumbersome too. It doesn’t help myself or Dom claim back our accounts and use our machines as we wish. I seriously advise that you check your PS4 is still your primary one, because something has caused mine and another staff member’s to switch from that, and get locked out every time PSN is down.
The digital future is convenient for two groups. Those who prefer digital over physical and for the companies that own the machines, because they can set high prices and also control what you do with what you purchase. Our power as consumers is steadily being eroded away, and if the future of games is digital only then I will bow out and not look back.
Apnomis
I’ve had those sort of concerns about digital content for years, which is why where ever available I buy the physical copy of the game (or indeed movie). If they ever want a truly digital only future they will need to go back to the drawing board with their policies otherwise consumers won’t accept it – just look at the backlash over the Xbox One…
Does anyone know where online you can view the consoles registered against your account? I’ve been looking all over for it but can’t find anything? Surely this is something you can manage online, i.e. if your PS4 implodes and doesn’t start up at all…
Apnomis
Found it – it comes under your SEN account at https://account.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com rather than the PlayStation website…
Mr.Gorha
I think the guy on the phone lied to you. I had a similar issue and when I contacted Sony over the phone we worked out some guy in Texas had my accoundt and had registered a ps4 and vita and made mine secondary ps4.
This was less than six months after I bought my ps4. The day I tried to register my ps4 I went online and deactivated about 3 ps3s a tv and 2 psps with that “deactivate everything” feature.
The guy on the phone still did a complete wipe for me anyway.
Sound like, with the game sharing excuse, that they didnt believe what you told them in the first place.
rSp8
Mine lists 2 PSPs and a few PS3s, but I now only have the PS4. What happens to the PS4 if you hit the deactivate everything button? Not knowing meant I wussed out of doing it.
a inferior race
You would need to sign in on your ps4 again and then you would be good to go
Starman
That’s truly bizarre that Sony would allow the thief to carry on using your account & purchases.
Does the other user ever show up online and your friends think its you & message/chat invite him?
Aran Suddi
I haven’t seen it happen recently.
homerjnick
Well that would be impossible now if Aran has changed his password, the other PS4 will not be able to go online as Aran.
Avenger
I don’t see what was wrong with the PS3/PSP way of doing things, where a digital copy would buy you x amount of licenses for different systems. The license would be logged on the console, then it would be able to expire itself without any connection to the internet. If it needed to renew like PS+, it would just access online and sorted.
I agree the primary/secondary system needs to be scrapped. The secondary rules of being signed into PSN is little better than MS’s initial ‘always connected’ policy.
The reply you got last night sounds very much like red tape, a generic response to a query. I really don’t like that there’s little a customer can do to avoid getting fobbed off in that way. Surely Sony can circumvent policy in respect to the suspicious activity and sort the mess out. I can only think that phoning them up and pushing it the highest possible authority on the other end of the phone might get your problem sorted out.
Mr.Gorha
I told them during my incident that my card details were on the account. He asked roughly how much was in the wallet and what the last purchase was, then removed all activated consoles and asked me.to register mine as primary again.
I feel like if personal bank details are at risk they are obliged to help.
madatsony
So i was searching google for others with this SAME issue…. My story:
Had PS4 since launch. ONLY PS4 EVER HAD. no replacements. Today read online about how you can sync your games with the PSN cloud so i can play elsewhere and keep progress…. So i followed instructions to upload to the cloud. I was able to upload my files individually just fine….
So i saw a option to have it done Automatically… I selected ok for one item and the system advises me that I need to make this PS4 my primary device before i can set autosync on…. So i follow the instructions… and at the screen to activate, i get the message that I already have a primary console and must deactivate that one first…. Weird… so i go to their website for instructions and it advises me that I cant deactivate from the PC and it must be done from the console….. iF dont have console contact support. So i wait on the phone for 35 min and i’m told that i’ve deactivated and activated another console in October and would have to wait 3 more months…. i explain i dont own any other consoles and that perhaps maybe a month or so ago i received a email forcing me to change my password. The person on the phone was VERY RUDE and told me there was nothing else HE or I could do to escallate.
So i went online and waited another 20 min to Chat with someone to unfortunately get the same result…
I’ve pasted a screen grab of my chat with them where they explain they cant help me….
*IMGUR LINk*
http://imgur.com/NEPFcom
[img]http://i.imgur.com/NEPFcom.png[/img]
really pissed at sony….
thadon101
I have this problem too. I own a flat about 200 miles away from my main home and very rarely use it, but have the PS4 there activated as my primary account. My main PS4 is classed as secondary (purely because I bought it second), and every time PSN goes down for any length if time, everything locks up. Single player-only games, Netflix, etc.
It’s a dangerous precedent they’re setting – you’re essentially paying over the odds for a product that is basically a game licence they choose when you can access, and with it having no resale value or packaging/distribution costs, it’s ridiculous the prices they still set.
pdannysan13
The digital games issue is a whole other debate, but being screwed out of services you have paid like Netflix…now that….is unacceptable.
In US somebody would probably take them to court. Essentially, they because of their incompetence are hindering you in using a service (3rd party one) that you have paid for.
rob_b
I don’t think I can add much that hasn’t aleady been said, I do check my devices occasionally but I’d go nuts if this happens to me.
On a related note I can’t deactivate a psp I had a few years ago as it needs linking to the pic to do this (?!) seems I’ll need to do it via my PS3 which seems weird.
Sony seriously need to fix this
The Lone Steven
This is both shocking and concerning. It’s no secret Sony and Security do not get on with each other but to actually let someone use your account because the PS4 was flagged as the primary console instead of removing it is shoddy as hell.
I can see Sony getting sued by gamers if they do not change their policy and either improve their remove feature or make sure that the format option defaults the PSN account to no console untill the user has signed in. Or even better, remove this feature and implement something more efficent.
They should stop tying the other services to one account. I can’t see why an amazon video account has to fall under the PSN account. Surely if one has an account, they can sign in without having to make sure PSN is logged into or if the service is down.
Galgomite
A similar thing happened to me over the course of 5 PS3s, when they died while activated. I was lucky though, they reset me without a fuss. Maybe start over with CS and see if you get a different result for your PS4?