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[Blue Submarine No. 6]

I love how everyone is trying to spin this into the "you can still play" while going thru a lot of hoops.

Then it will get custom firmwared, then rampart piracy, and it will be the 2nd psp all over again.


*at least the hardware will sell

This is ridiculous...

First of all, any sensible person realizes that of the 70 Million PSPs sold, far fewer than 1% of them ever saw someone managing multiple user accounts on them... This is not an issue for the majority of users...

Secondly, CFW and piracy on the PSP had nothing to do with the number of PSN accounts people could or couldn't manage on the system - it had to do with the fact that someone's always going to want to break open the hardware, and when that happens someone else is always going to want to leverage that to steal games rather than pay for them... When you make it very easy to do both, then it can get a little out of control nowadays thanks to the rudimentary technical ability of a lot of people (they can unzip files and copy them to a memory card and follow instructions) and the ubiquity of the Internet.

Reality check please: anyone who thinks that it will be a small matter to crack the Vita or create CFW for it is clearly not paying attention... It took more than THREE YEARS to crack the PS3, and it had a GAPING flaw in it's security. The PSVita is going to be much, much harder to break into than the PS3 was; it will take a significant investment in time and resources to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if it never actually happened in more than the most superficial fashion. No way we'll see the kind of piracy the PSP was subject to on the Vita, at least not in the first five years...

...anyway, back to the OP, since only a handful of people care at all about managing multiple accounts on a handheld, I seriously doubt this will have any significant effect on sales at all... And at any rate, if Sony see it as a problem later on, they can easily fix it with a firmware update.

 

[twentytwo22]

How do we not know? It came from their promotional flyer and what is described is worse than the PSP. There is no speculation.

So enlighten me, how long does it take on a Vita vs a PSP? I'll be happy to test it next Saturday, and I'm pretty sure you will be able to rub it in then about how you were right (again, I'm not saying you aren't), but until then, we just don't know 100% what the whole process entails.

 

[Number45]

Actually, I think for a lot of people the problem's different: here most people seem miffed about content across multiple profiles they themselves. What's more likely to be a problem for the average user is that they can't set up separate profiles for each person to keep saves/trophies/purchased content distinct.

Then again this doesn't seem to be causing an uproar with tablets, I imagine most people just share a single account and either are ignorant about making separate ones or just don't care.

If this was a home console I'd agree with you, but that concept of sharing to the extent that you have your own content etc. doesn't really exist on a handheld yet. Granted Sony had the opportunity to go down that route this time, but I'm not surprised that this is yet another step in an effort to reduce the ability for their users to share content.

 

[Kintaro]

Can't say I care too much about this. I can still import Vita games from Japan, yes? All I need.

 

[DangerousDave]

They painted themselves into a corner. I don't think they expected people to have multiple region PSN accounts when they launched the PS3. They just didn't have IP blocking to stop it. So now enthusiastic gamers have multiple accounts, friends and games spread across all of them, and want a flexible solution to incorporate that into their portable gaming.

Not really. They can block it if they want. I remember when Uncharted 1 demo launched, in US, that the demo was region locked (probably nobody thought that it would be downloaded in other regions) and they fixed (after tons of complains in PS blog) in a few hours to be able to be downloaded from any place on the world.

 

[Izayoi]

Can't say I care too much about this. I can still import Vita games from Japan, yes? All I need.

You can, but you won't be able to use any DLC or other online content.

 

[dallow_bg]

You can, but you won't be able to use any DLC or other online content.

He can do that as well if he uses his regional PSN account.

 

[djplaeskool]

My PSP is activated on my JP PSN account 95% of the time.
Sucks, but will have a minimal impact on me.

 

[The Elite]

I'm a bit confused, you can't sign out and sign in as another PSN account? I'm sure this has been covered but I'm not seeing it.

I assume the Vita is using our PS3 accounts if we already have them.

 

[Izayoi]

He can do that as well if he uses his regional PSN account.

And then he won't be able to use DLC/other online content for games bought in his own region (without jumping through all of the hoops again). Hell, he won't even be able to play those games with his previous save without disabling trophies.

If he's willing to go through the process of switching accounts every time he wants to play a game from a different region, then more power to him.

I'm a bit confused, you can't sign out and sign in as another PSN account? I'm sure this has been covered but I'm not seeing it.

I assume the Vita is using our PS3 accounts if we already have them.

You can, but it requires that you format the system to factory settings. That's why there is so much backlash in this thread.

 

[Kyoufu]

PS3 handles multiple accounts really well. They really should have copy/pasted that system over.

 

[Beer Monkey]

This is obviously to prevent piracy.

Or fun.

Or something.

Oh, Sony.

 

[Jomjom]

Sony should follow Naughty Dog's lead and just get GAF input on basically everything they do. They just really don't get it. At this rate, it will just be Nintendo and Microsoft soon in the video game market, which will be a big shame.

 

[benny_a]

Sony should follow Naughty Dog's lead and just get GAF input on basically everything they do. They just really don't get it. At this rate, it will just be Nintendo and Microsoft soon in the video game market, which will be a big shame.

Just to compare handhelds.

Nintendo has region locking in the 3DS for actual games vs. Sony with region locking for DLC.
Even though I think the latter is bullshit (post #19 in this thread), it's not on the same level as the bullshit Nintendo pulls in the same space.

 

[Jomjom]

Just to compare handhelds.

Nintendo has region locking in the 3DS for actual games vs. Sony with region locking for DLC.
Even though I think the latter is bullshit (post #19 in this thread), it's not on the same level as the bullshit Nintendo pulls in the same space.

Yeah I'm not saying Nintendo has made good decisions, but they have Mario and their first party to stand on. No matter how bad of a decision they make on hardware, I feel that people will always buy their software no matter what (look at the 3DS).

I'm feeling really bitter about how the PSV has been announced. I don't think I've ever been so hyped about a console only to be so disappointed. I've gone from preordering 2 PSV 3Gs and a bunch of games, to cancelling everything, to now feeling like I'll just never pick up a PSV.

It's like Sony and Nintendo want to hand handheld gaming over to Apple as quickly as possible or something.

 

[Izayoi]

Until the i-products have a real, tangible input solution for games there will always be a market for dedicated handhelds - no matter how shitty they may be.

 

[Hcoregamer00]

Aww, how will I be able to buy DLC for the inevitable flood of Project Diva games on the Vita?

 

[sonikokaruto]

This is ridiculous...

First of all, any sensible person realizes that of the 70 Million PSPs sold, far fewer than 1% of them ever saw someone managing multiple user accounts on them... This is not an issue for the majority of users...

Secondly, CFW and piracy on the PSP had nothing to do with the number of PSN accounts people could or couldn't manage on the system - it had to do with the fact that someone's always going to want to break open the hardware, and when that happens someone else is always going to want to leverage that to steal games rather than pay for them... When you make it very easy to do both, then it can get a little out of control nowadays thanks to the rudimentary technical ability of a lot of people (they can unzip files and copy them to a memory card and follow instructions) and the ubiquity of the Internet.

Reality check please: anyone who thinks that it will be a small matter to crack the Vita or create CFW for it is clearly not paying attention... It took more than THREE YEARS to crack the PS3, and it had a GAPING flaw in it's security. The PSVita is going to be much, much harder to break into than the PS3 was; it will take a significant investment in time and resources to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if it never actually happened in more than the most superficial fashion. No way we'll see the kind of piracy the PSP was subject to on the Vita, at least not in the first five years...

...anyway, back to the OP, since only a handful of people care at all about managing multiple accounts on a handheld, I seriously doubt this will have any significant effect on sales at all... And at any rate, if Sony see it as a problem later on, they can easily fix it with a firmware update.

the number of psn accounts available can be managed thru plugins, but that's only after going cfw on the device. And if you already have cfw on there, why not just copy some iso's while you're at it?

*that's the common cheap gamer

also, if you're already doing that, then why bother with psn?

 

[sixteen-bit]

Aww, how will I be able to buy DLC for the inevitable flood of Project Diva games on the Vita?

Get a separate Vita for your Japanese PSN account.

 

[Jomjom]

Get a separate Vita for your Japanese PSN account.

I hope someone at Sony recommends this in a statement so he/she can bring back the "get a second job" awesomeness.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Doesn't change my mind on Vita. We should find something bad about 3DS and say trade in your 3DS's or something. I will likely make 2 accounts to test things anyways but my main is my main and that's a US account.

 

[sonikokaruto]

Get a separate Vita for your Japanese PSN account.

GET A SECOND JOB!

 

[StevieP]

Doesn't change my mind on Vita. We should find something bad about 3DS and say trade in your 3DS's or something. I will likely make 2 accounts to test things anyways but my main is my main and that's a US account.

We haven't had any of those threads!

 

[Izayoi]

Doesn't change my mind on Vita. We should find something bad about 3DS and say trade in your 3DS's or something. I will likely make 2 accounts to test things anyways but my main is my main and that's a US account.

What does any of this have to do with the 3DS?

 

[Brazil]

What does any of this have to do with the 3DS?

Anything we say against the Vita must be some kind of Nintendo fanboy conspiracy, because Sony can do no wrong.

 

[Eusis]

We should find something bad about 3DS and say trade in your 3DS's or something.

3DS doesn't even have accounts and has region locking!

Yeah, Nintendo hasn't really been immune from this crap, and honestly what Vita's doing is the lesser of two evils (though that's partially because the 3DS is "same problems but worse"), it's just frustrating how portable devices constantly ignore (if not outright antagonize) sharing.

 

[StevieP]

What does any of this have to do with the 3DS?

 

[bigtroyjon]

What does any of this have to do with the 3DS?

7th Law of internet message boards:
Any time a company does something that upsets people, super cheerleaders of that company will simply try and change the subject by bringing up a competing company and a product or service they have made a mistake on.

 

[JWong]

Sony should follow Naughty Dog's lead and just get GAF input on basically everything they do. They just really don't get it. At this rate, it will just be Nintendo and Microsoft soon in the video game market, which will be a big shame.

Hahahahaha no.

 

[LiquidSolid]

This is ridiculous...

First of all, any sensible person realizes that of the 70 Million PSPs sold, far fewer than 1% of them ever saw someone managing multiple user accounts on them... This is not an issue for the majority of users...

How on earth can you compare a system where PSN support was thrown into it years after its release to a system where PSN is a big feature? What a dumb comparison. Most PSP users have probably never even bothered making PSN accounts at all, let alone buy anything off the Store.

And who cares how many people would even use it? Barely any people imported games, so I guess you think they should region lock it too? The point is that there ARE people that want these features in there and they are the people Sony are currently trying to sell the system to. If Sony have any interest in selling them on their system, they'll patch it.

 

[Alchemy]

I feel less compelled to get a Vita day by day, and I was actually looking forward to camping out a new system at launch. Damn.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Anything we say against the Vita must be some kind of Nintendo fanboy conspiracy, because Sony can do no wrong.

I'm not enraged enough to not want the system.

 

[klausbert]

I feel less compelled to get a Vita day by day, and I was actually looking forward to camping out a new system at launch. Damn.

Dito. Thought i'd get it at launch, but this news has put me off quite a bit.

 

[Jomjom]

Hahahahaha no.

Seeing as how the PSV has little to no appeal to people outside of the hardcore gamers, I don't see why it would be such a bad idea to get advice and opinions from the hardcore.

As the PSV is right now, not only will it not appeal to the general public, it won't even be attractive to the enthusiast like us people on GAF. If Sony didn't care about the enthusiast market, they should have designed the system differently and priced the system differently. The way that system is and looks, watch the sales disappear once the core gamers haved jumped on at launch.

 

[demosthenes]

Seeing as how the PSV has little to no appeal to people outside of the hardcore gamers, I don't see why it would be such a bad idea to get advice and opinions from the hardcore.

As the PSV is right now, not only will it not appeal to the general public, it won't even be attractive to the enthusiast like us people on GAF. If Sony didn't care about the enthusiast market, they should have designed the system differently and priced the system differently. The way that system is and looks, watch the sales disappear once the core gamers haved jumped on at launch.

I'd love to see the research you've done on this.

 

[Beer Monkey]

This is ridiculous...

First of all, any sensible person realizes that of the 70 Million PSPs sold, far fewer than 1% of them ever saw someone managing multiple user accounts on them...

Source?

Reality check please: anyone who thinks that it will be a small matter to crack the Vita or create CFW for it is clearly not paying attention... It took more than THREE YEARS to crack the PS3, and it had a GAPING flaw in it's security.

A big factor is motivation. If the Vita is a runaway success in both hardware and software like the PS1 and PS2, there will be way stronger efforts to crack it than we saw with the PS3.

 

[Ken Masters]

off-topic question, can you play downloaded Playstation Classic games from PSN on the Vita?

 

[twentytwo22]

off-topic question, can you play downloaded Playstation Classic games from PSN on the Vita?

Not at launch, should be ninja'd in at some point.

At this point, this thread pretty much blows my mind. You guys sure love to bitch.

 

[Eusis]

A big factor is motivation. If the Vita is a runaway success in both hardware and software like the PS1 and PS2, there will be way stronger efforts to crack it than we saw with the PS3.

So probably about as long as the PS3.

As much as I'd love to see the PSVita be a wild success (or more accurately for handhelds to be a wild success) AND taken more seriously outside of Japan, most likely it'll just be PSP again but either a bit weaker or a bit stronger, and after the PSP and PS3 they probably learned a lot about not leaving the system hanging wide open to easily be cracked.

 

[Ken Masters]

So probably about as long as the PS3.

As much as I'd love to see the PSVita be a wild success (or more accurately for handhelds to be a wild success) AND taken more seriously outside of Japan, most likely it'll just be PSP again but either a bit weaker or a bit stronger, and after the PSP and PS3 they probably learned a lot about not leaving the system hanging wide open to easily be cracked.

I have several friends that own a PSP and never once bought a PSP game because illegally downloading PSP games was so easy, and these weren't tech savvy people by any means.

Sony addressing piracy has to the #1 issue for the vita

 

[dallow_bg]

And then he won't be able to use DLC/other online content for games bought in his own region (without jumping through all of the hoops again). Hell, he won't even be able to play those games with his previous save without disabling trophies.

If he's willing to go through the process of switching accounts every time he wants to play a game from a different region, then more power to him.

I don't see why I would care about resetting the Vita's settings other than probably having to input the wifi password again.
I've seen the settings menu on the Vita personally. I don't care if the way I sort my trophy list gets set back to default.

It's not often that I will need to purchase something from the HK or JPN store, and losing my settings isn't anything to cry over.
At least I can still access it, and that's important.

 

[deathkiller]

It's not often that I will need to purchase something from the HK or JPN store, and losing my settings isn't anything to cry over.
At least I can still access it, and that's important.

I don't know if they have changed it on the PSV but on the PSP you can't access content from other accounts. If you have one game/dlc from one account and another from a different account you have to change the PSP account each time you play even if both accounts have the PSP registered.

In my case what I usually do is buying PSN games from my USA account and buying retail games from local shops (Europe) so I only had problems when I decided to buy DLC for one of my retail games.

 

[Eusis]

I have several friends that own a PSP and never once bought a PSP game because illegally downloading PSP games was so easy, and these weren't tech savvy people by any means.

Sony addressing piracy has to the #1 issue for the vita

It WOULD be interesting if the PSVita sales were notably weaker, yet software sales were way, way better because it's not as easy to crack open. I kinda fear that this prior generation of handhelds could've been WAY stronger had it not been for the ease of piracy.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

We should find something bad about 3DS and say trade in your 3DS's or something.

TO WAR, GENTLEMEN

MOUNT YOUR STEEDS

UNSHEATHE YOUR BLADES

 

[Typhoon_Ex]

Though I have multiple accounts I only use 1 99.9% of the time as probably 99% of the people who will buy the vita. So...

 

[jetsetfluken]

Alright I posted this in the other thread but got totally ignored due to an argument shitstorm.

So regarding the "one account per system" limitation...

Yes, it's a major inconvenience, and I'm frustrated. However, does this mean...

A) This is simply an inconvenience and there are work-arounds if you have additional hardware

or

B) This is not just an inconvenience, but now it's impossible to access other-region content on your main account

Note that I bolded main account. The meaning for this is simple...we need to be able to play our Japanese digital Vita games on our Vita that has the US account for example, to get trophies in those games added to our main account.

I heard it mentioned before that there might be the possibility that Vita #2 (JP account for example) can transfer the software to a PS3, then that PS3 can transfer Vita #2's JP software to Vita #1 (US account), so you can play the JP game(s) under your US account and earn trophies for your main account.

Somehow though that doesn't seem like it would work. Still, the one-account thing is still not 100% confirmed, is it? I have heard multiple accounts from people at Gamescom. But anyway, let's say it is 1 account.

I've also heard about multiple memory cards, but somehow I doubt it would let software with JP account license work on a Vita that has a US account activaed.

Take some time to explore the JP PS Store's PSP/PS1 offerings and you'll see there are boatloads of absolute gems on there, many of which are even more appealing now due to the Vita's OLED screen and all. And on top of that, once Vita comes out it's going to be like PSP on JP Store, just tons of stuff available, and I'm guessing some digital only. It would be a shame to not be able to play them.

This is a big blow to trophy collectors interested in JP-exclusive digital games (that have been some gems on PS3 for example like Spelunker/Black, Malicious, shikitei, Dark Awake etc) and would be a shame to be denied those games.

Do we know of any workarounds to play for example JP games under our main US/EU accounts, regardless if that means having to get a 2nd Vita?

 

[androvsky]

B) This is not just an inconvenience, but now it's impossible to access other-region content on your main account

All the indications are that it's this one, it'll work the same as the PSP. If you want to play content tied to an account, you have to sign into that account; that's what having only one account on the system actually means.

It usually doesn't matter on the PSP what account you're using, since there's no trophies (or friends lists, or chat, or...). It's also rather easy to switch accounts, you used to be able to do it simply by doing a transfer from the PS3 (probably doesn't work anymore). Absent that, it's just a matter of deleting the old account and signing in on the new one.

Sounds like the Vita will be more complicated, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[levious]

other regions aren't a concern for me. I'm mad that I wouldn't be able to have my PSN id, as well as my two sons' ids on the same portable system.

Is Vita still supporting trophies? If not, it wouldn't be as big of a concern to me as I assume most games would still support multiple save files.

 

[jetsetfluken]

Yes, we will have to wait and see I guess. Really anticipating December 17 for some serious in-depth looks at the Vita FW and how the accounts really work.

I don't necessarily care to an extreme if I can't play JP PS Store content under my main US account. I can just get a second Vita down the road for a total J-machine, to play the plethora of JP PSP/PS1 games already available on Vita.

The issue that comes in is DIGITAL ONLY Japanese Vita games (like PS3 PSN games only available on PS Store and not retail, to clarify).

If there are digital-exclusive JP Vita games, then that means it would be impossible to earn trophies on those games on your US/EU account.

If all those games are available in JP retail, it's a non-issue as you can just import the physical copy and play it on your US Vita under your US account, for example.

The small possible issue with this is, that even if you say get 100% trophies on a JP Vita game added to your US account, there may be DLC for that JP game that adds Trophies. The JP software requires JP DLC. Then you are permanently left without 100% due to those new trophies lowering the %.

Do we know yet if the Vita is going to get exclusive digital games?
How many of the JP PSP games are digital only?

 

[dallow_bg]

I don't know if they have changed it on the PSV but on the PSP you can't access content from other accounts. If you have one game/dlc from one account and another from a different account you have to change the PSP account each time you play even if both accounts have the PSP registered.

Well, yeah. That's what I'm expecting.
Any activated content needs to be played on the account it was purchased with.
So I'll play my Japanese content on my JPN account and my US content on my US account.

Shame I won't be able to earn Japanese trophies on my US account for digital stuff, but eh, playing the games is more important.