A group of PlayStation 4 hackers has discovered a bug that allows Sony console owners to game share on multiple consoles. This may sound like an advantage to gamers who want to share games with several friends and family members, but the process can have serious consequences, including a potential ban of the perpetrator's PSN account. Now that the bug has been made public, it's only a matter of time before Sony starts cracking down on those trying to work around its terms of service.
Game sharing has been around for years, but it's a controversial subject. The process allows one PS4 user to give access to their own digital game library to another PS4 user because the games are linked to one's PSN account, not the console itself. Families with more than one console in the home may prefer to game share so that they do not need to purchase more than one copy of a game. Sony has actually given the O.K. on this and even allowed PS5 and PS4 owners in one home to log into the same PSN at the same time. That's the catch, though -- a user needs to be in the same home as the other console owner. Otherwise, game sharing is considered a violation of Sony's terms of service.
Of course, that hasn't stopped people from game sharing between households anyway. As Wololo revealed, even some PS4 console sellers have exploited game sharing to sell multiple consoles with the same pirated games pre-loaded. Specifically, these sellers have taken advantage of a bug in the PS4's primary account settings to give access to the same game library on an unlimited number of consoles.
The bug has reportedly been around for years, but only recently became known to the general public. PS4 hacker Abkarino confirmed via Twitter that the bug does allow users to game share on multiple consoles. However, members of the PS4 community are hopeful that the information going public will grab Sony's attention, inducing it to fix the bug and stop the illegal sales of pirated games on consoles.
The steps needed to replicate this hack will not be shared here, on account of the legal risks involved in the process. This is especially true for anyone who chooses to sell consoles with pre-loaded games via game sharing. Not only is that a violation of Sony's terms of service, but at that point, it is technically stealing. Sony has already cracked down on pirated console sellers in the past, so the gaming giant is liable to take legal action again in light of this new exploit. It wouldn't be surprising to see a PlayStation 4 patch soon to get rid of the bug, and it's possible that a wave of account bans will follow soon behind.
Source: Wololo
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