PSN ID workarounds

So here’s how to solve SOME of the Account problems with PSN on a PSP … it’s a work-around I found online for Syphon Filter Combat Ops.

My 15 year old and I have been looking for a PSN game we’d like to get for our PSP’s and decided on Syphon Filter Combat Ops yesterday. We did an Ad Hoc match last night, then this morning tried Infrastructure … and we both couldn’t play at the same time with My Master ACCOUNT being the one that buys the game … so frustrating –the PSN crap about Accounts. When I first started with PSN I had a Master Account, I would be the one buying everything on PS3 plus I was the only one with a PSP. Then later I got a new PSP and my son got a PSP too. Things got dicey. He couldn’t use his PSN ID on his PSP … well, in the end it only mattered … not really.

This new (for us) game is the first thing that REALLY got us though. Other games it didn’t matter for (online play) to have separate PSN Activatation/ID sign in. It was managed somehow else, I guess, or else we didn’t do anything with it, or it’s not really connected to the PSN ID for scores and such. I don’t know, it’s confusing, but the point is, it became an issue absolutely today with Syphon Filter Combat Ops. So, I started looking and found that if you:

Have games on a PSP that is Activated by the Buying Account of those games and you want to use another PSN ID to play a certain one of those games …

On the PSP XMB go to Account Management, press the triangle button and choose “DELETE” on the menu that pops up to the right.

Then click the new “Sign Up for a PSN Account” icon that replaces the Account Management in the XMB.

Assuming you have another PSN ID already, sign in as an existing user …. and that is that.

The PSP stays ACTIVATED via the previous PSN Account that was the buying account for all the games.

Now, you cannot go to the store and BUY OR DOWNLOAD ANYTHING from that point, or else the PSP will be un-activated and re-activated with the NEW PSN ID.

To buy games or even free stuff … demos and such, you will have to download via your PC and Media Go or use the PS3 PSN store to buy and download to the PS3 then connect your PSP to either the PC or the PS3 with a USB cord and tranfer the content over. Buying or Downloading as the Buying Account that is associated with the PSP activated content is the important fact to remember … it must be downloaded via that person’s PSN ID. It will work on the PSP that has the OTHER PSN ID signed in, keep it working with the PSN games that need that login ID to work the way one wishes, plus keep ability to play all the PSN content that was downloaded before, plus after with the “sideload” way of getting content on the PSP with the Buying Account Associated with the ACTIVATED PSN ID. So games ACTIVATED as PSN ID #1 will work on PSN ID#2’s PSP because only the Sign-In information was changed, NOT the Activation.

We have been concerned with this stuff for a long time because of issues of leaderboards, and medals, rewards, trophies, etc. being connected to the player and the associated PSN ID … and the “buying account” having the ability to put games on more than one device is a family friendly thing, but the PSN ID part of it convolutes it totally.

The upcoming PS Vita is a murky idea … all because of this PSN ID stuff. At least I know how to make it work for the now, on the PSP, with it’s current ACTIVATION methodology and PSN Sign-In separately.

One hitch though is some other “online entitlement” sort of games that had a certificate with a UMD purchase. If you have that associated with a buying account it has to be played with that as the sign-in account. So … you then have to jump through more hoops to sign-in as the Buying Account… or just give more $ to PSN with the person’s “OTHER” PSN Account and buy separate Online Entitlement. (worth … something, if it makes it easier to deal with plus makes the online play a better experience on that end [somehow, someway as they say the $$$ makes the piracy go away, which makes the experience online cleaner, better, tighter, whatever-er. FWIW, a small charge is worth the ease, but that’s pretty much the thing, you buy a disc for a reason then can only use it certain ways in a certain machine (signed-in a certain way) … uh, that’s not so great. But whatever, this is how they are doing it more and more … online entitlement purchase. Each user of the game must have a different sign-in PSN ID, and it has to be tied to the actual online entitlement.

I can rip UMD games so they can be played on any of our PSP’s, I have Pro Hen installed. [no, don’t ask me for .iso’s and such, I don’t share except for with my husband and children who live with me.] It’s very nice. But for my children it’s not fully, for Patapon 3 came with a certificate to redeem for online entitlement. It was done with my Master Account, of course. Well now that ugly thing has reared it’s head. Son #2 wants to play ONLINE with Son #1, both using a ripped copy of the UMD, both can’t do it with my Master account being the account on their machines, and now today Son #2 thinks it’s possible and Son #1 thought so for awhile. Patapon 3 won’t go online with my Son #1’s PSN ID, it’s not the one tied to the entitlement. He can’t just “sign-in” so easily either.

Pooh, pooh, pooh, it’s a mess. Anyhow, everything else works to have the games activated to my account, and have a sign-in for their accounts, and side-loading new content is possible. Not bad, we do have to plugin a PSP to charge it, so just having it charging while side-loading occassionally, why not. It’s just that older online games will work with this, but some newer ones won’t, so if you really want it, then you have jump through hoops. I think ultimately Patapon 3 Online isn’t really something Son #1 is desirous of that much, so he’ll live without it for multi-person play with Son #3 and others, for now. I’ll have to fund him to get online entitlement in any case, it’s my deal to give him the money for the sub-account, plus if we gave him Patapon 3 and he put it on my account, then I owe him the online entitlement for his own account.

Now that brings up something else, if anyone plays anything online with a PSP, I don’t WANT them using my PSN ID … that’s full circle to in the beginning when I first started all this PSN stuff, if I have a Master Account, then any sub-accounts will have top down flow … my money flows, and if I buy it they can play it on their own ID’s on PSP’s right? Nope, wrong.

It’s half-assed. Just fix it Sony/PSN … buying can be activation tied another way, it can be. Signing-in to play on a device should be personal, and ALLOWED activation can be in the system some way that is easy, foolproof, not hoops to jump through, or anything to hack…something totally within the legal requirements of licensing as it goes with an immediate family of Sony Playstation device users. And games should cost less if we each have to buy separate copies of everything, btw. You’ll find we will buy less if not, or nothing at all.

Like with Playstation Plus. On the PS3 it’s beneficial to everyone that I am PS+, but they don’t get EVERY benefit that I get.

They can play any game on the PS3 I buy. They just can’t use certain Plus benefits, like the newer game save uploads, free avatars, etc.

A PSP is a personal device. PSN ID tied to a PSP, one can play the games the same way, right, with me as the Master Account, the Sub-Account below me should be granted privelages of PSP games that I own, bought however, and anything that can be done with them. But it’s not that way. So living with the system is like everything else, it can be seen from a million perspectives and not every way will suit every one, but something has to be put into place and let’s just hope that something better is created with PSN ID’s in the future with Sony Playstation things.

(It seems easy to also do things this way: turn off “automatic login” for the account. Then when you have a game to play online just change the login info … unfortunately it means you have to physically change things atimes, but it seems to work alright, so far)