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Vita Will Allow Multiple PSN Accounts, Sony Says

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Yes, the card is tied to the Vita, but the contents on the card may not need to. Even if you reset to factory defaults, you should only clear the system, not the card contents.

I don't think a factory reset will wipe the card. And I don't see a reason to assume that either, they can tie in the card to the system without making you format it if you replace the Vita.

But I think the cards content will be tied in too, games would be just like anything else from PSN (2 activations). Saves might not be encrypted/locked to the system, but who knows.
 

demigod

Member
Except they're not losing money it.

I have to commend Sony, it's a very well thought out business plan. Memory card business is very lucrative. Too bad the system won't sell.

Joke post or are you serious? I only use one PSN account anyways so this doesn't bother me, not sure how many people actually canceled their pre-order. I bet the Vita will sell 200k first month in US. $250 for Vita is dirt cheap compared to the 3DS when it launched.
 

Rain_ng

Banned
Did the UK Prices for the Vita Memory Cards get announced yet? I'm not happy with having to buy 2, maybe 3 cards... But at the very least it'll be better than formatting everything each time I want to switch accounts.
 
So basically:

  • It'll cost a minimum of $25 extra if I buy a Vita and want my wife and I to each have our own separate account.
  • I won't be able to buy digital games and then have my wife and I each play them on our own accounts (with our own separate saves and trophies) as I can currently do on PS3 and 360.
  • I won't be able to play DD games from another region (or physical games with DLC) on my main account where my settings and trophies live, as I can currently do on PS3.
  • I won't be able to play DD games from two different regions without physically swapping a card out of my hardware.

Still not really feelin' it. This whole system is a giant pain in the ass compared to PS3.
 

angelfly

Member
Having to use a different memory card for each account is ridiculous. Sony needs to stop trying to push these memory cards so hard. Vita was a day one purchase for me but I've since decided to hold off.
 

patsu

Member
The weird thing about this is: There was a guy here on the boards that wanted to test his own account on the Vita while they were shown at the recent US mall tour. I don't remember if he did or if he just asked to use his account but the Sony guy at the show apparently said that it was no problem but that it would take some time, because he would have to reset the system to factory setting in order to use a different account. Now, I doubt the Sony guy would ever let anyone reset the device if it would delete all the demos off of it.

Yes, we need to ask Sony if resetting to defaults will clear the card contents.
 
Dude just buy physical games if you like trophies

Physical games don't change anything if the physical japanese game requires an online pass, which would be tied to your JP account. You can only earn offline trophies this way.

also, DLC is borked so trophies that rely on dlc won't work.
 

demigod

Member
So basically:

  • It'll cost a minimum of $25 extra if I buy a Vita and want my wife and I to each have our own separate account.
  • I won't be able to buy digital games and then have my wife and I each play them on our own accounts (with our own separate saves and trophies) as I can currently do on PS3 and 360.
  • I won't be able to play DD games from another region (or physical games with DLC) on my main account where my settings and trophies live, as I can currently do on PS3.
  • I won't be able to play DD games from two different regions without physically swapping a card out of my hardware.

Still not really feelin' it. This whole system is a giant pain in the ass compared to PS3.

PSP, get ur own.
 

oneHeero

Member
still stupid and user unfriendly.

I dont think it's user unfriendly, but that's because the ccasual gamers I know dont utilize multiple PSN's. The ones who do are pretty involved in the scene to google how to use a 2nd account on Vita or read about it.

I would see it as 2 different buyers

1 - gaf like people who will see this news
2 - casual like people who wont care to have multiple psn since they didnt even know it was possible to have multiple accounts or simply dont care
 
It's not so different than what Apple does, the only difference is that you can't see what the "base" price of an iPad with no storage is which obscures how overpriced the memory is...and it works well for them because I don't see that much bitching about that.

You don't see much bitching about Apple selling overpriced hardware?
 

Stuart444

Member
I dont think it's user unfriendly, but that's because the ccasual gamers I know dont utilize multiple PSN's. The ones who do are pretty involved in the scene to google how to use a 2nd account on Vita or read about it.

I would see it as 2 different buyers

1 - gaf like people who will see this news
2 - casual like people who wont care to have multiple psn since they didnt even know it was possible to have multiple accounts or simply dont care

They might not care about multiple PSN but they may care about NEEDING a card to use PSN/play certain games like Uncharted.
 

patsu

Member
So basically:

  • It'll cost a minimum of $25 extra if I buy a Vita and want my wife and I to each have our own separate account.
  • I won't be able to buy digital games and then have my wife and I each play them on our own accounts (with our own separate saves and trophies) as I can currently do on PS3 and 360.
  • I won't be able to play DD games from another region (or physical games with DLC) on my main account where my settings and trophies live, as I can currently do on PS3.
  • I won't be able to play DD games from two different regions without physically swapping a card out of my hardware.

Still not really feelin' it. This whole system is a giant pain in the ass compared to PS3.

Not enough info to tell yet.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
I get that gamers want everything to be as easy as possible, but theres a point where you have to understand Sony isn't in this biz as some kind of charitable game uncle. Memory cards are their route to some revenue this go around at portables, and the fact the machine maintains the region free setup is still a great win for everyone.

You need to look back over the last generation and see a history of massive PSP piracy, people scamming the shit out of game-sharing on the PS3, people creating new accounts to get free-shit in droves such as the Welcome Back program where people with multiple accounts didn't just get 2 free games, but absolutely everything available, not to mention the hacking of the PS3 and everything thats involved. For better or worse, wankers have bitten the hand feeding them a little too often for the Sony feeders to want to dangle their naked digits in the shark pool offering tasty morsels again.

Sony would be absolutely nuts to make having multiple accounts on one Vita possible. This is a handheld, a personal thing, not a home console. That they still have solutions for this with the memory card as they seem to be saying already seems pretty lenient.
 
Not as bad as it was but still fucking dumb. Why the hell can't I just buy a game on my US account, then use my friends list and trophies on my main account with it? Why is this idea so god damn hard? They pulled it off perfectly with the PS3.

Still not buying the Vita till they fix this and the recent 4.0 fuckup of PSP data. An apology for fucking with our games without telling us a thing about it would be nice too but it'll never happen.
 

mclem

Member
[*]I won't be able to buy digital games and then have my wife and I each play them on our own accounts (with our own separate saves and trophies) as I can currently do on PS3 and 360.

Well, hang on: doesn't game sharing cover that? I know they reduced the number of people you can share with, but it's still >1, isn't it?

That said, I *assume* game sharing doesn't work with full retail titles, right?
 

patsu

Member
I get that gamers want everything to be as easy as possible, but theres a point where you have to understand Sony isn't in this biz as some kind of charitable game uncle. Memory cards are their route to some revenue this go around at portables, and the fact the machine maintains the region free setup is still a great win for everyone.

You need to look back over the last generation and see a history of massive PSP piracy, people scamming the shit out of game-sharing on the PS3, people creating new accounts to get free-shit in droves such as the Welcome Back program where people with multiple accounts didn't just get 2 free games, but absolutely everything available, not to mention the hacking of the PS3 and everything thats involved. For better or worse, wankers have bitten the hand feeding them a little too often for the Sony feeders to want to dangle their naked digits in the shark pool offering tasty morsels again.

Sony would be absolutely nuts to make having multiple accounts on one Vita possible. This is a handheld, a personal thing, not a home console. That they still have solutions for this with the memory card as they seem to be saying already seems pretty lenient.

Well... There are ways to prevent abuse without making it too hard for legit users.
 
I get that gamers want everything to be as easy as possible, but theres a point where you have to understand Sony isn't in this biz as some kind of charitable game uncle.

Again, false dichotomy. People aren't complaining about Sony easing back gently from some of the progressive design choices on PS3, they're complaining about situations where they've reversed them. With the memcards, say, I doubt there'd be much outcry about it if the biggest size topped out at $70, even though that's still quite a bit more than an equivalent SDHC.

Not enough info to tell yet.

Which part of that list is still ambiguous, assuming all our info to date is accurate?

Well, hang on: doesn't game sharing cover that?

How am I going to activate a game on system X using the account it's downloaded from but then play it with a different account? This works on PS3 because of multiple profiles -- I can download with my profile and activate the game, then my wife can just switch profiles and play. On Vita there's no way to have two profiles on one card, and presumably clearing a profile also clears any content authorizations on the same card.
 

Aeana

Member
Well, hang on: doesn't game sharing cover that? I know they reduced the number of people you can share with, but it's still >1, isn't it?

That said, I *assume* game sharing doesn't work with full retail titles, right?

How would game sharing work when you can only have one account active at a time and your content is stored on the memory card? On PS3, you have to actually log in with the account on the system, download the game, and then you can play it on another account that's on the same system. But that is actually not possible on Vita. Correct me if I've got this wrong.
 
PS3 was just a ploy to make Blurays the default format and thus make money for Sony. Sony making money from their own formats has been one of their main strategies for decades.

What? PS3 doesn't require the purchase of blu ray movies in order to function.

Everything you need to play ps3 games and use multiple accounts is provided right out of the box, no extra purchase necessary. I still haven't bought a single extra thing for my ps3 since 2007.
 
I get that gamers want everything to be as easy as possible, but theres a point where you have to understand Sony isn't in this biz as some kind of charitable game uncle. Memory cards are their route to some revenue this go around at portables, and the fact the machine maintains the region free setup is still a great win for everyone.

You need to look back over the last generation and see a history of massive PSP piracy, people scamming the shit out of game-sharing on the PS3, people creating new accounts to get free-shit in droves such as the Welcome Back program where people with multiple accounts didn't just get 2 free games, but absolutely everything available, not to mention the hacking of the PS3 and everything thats involved. For better or worse, wankers have bitten the hand feeding them a little too often for the Sony feeders to want to dangle their naked digits in the shark pool offering tasty morsels again.

Sony would be absolutely nuts to make having multiple accounts on one Vita possible. This is a handheld, a personal thing, not a home console. That they still have solutions for this with the memory card as they seem to be saying already seems pretty lenient.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Talking SENSE in a Vita thread? I don't think so! Mob, lynch this man!!

I don't get what the big deal is (still). Maybe it is just because I make enough money to indulge myself decently, but I'm not sure. The Vita is an amazing value for the price, so I don't mind paying for a memory card. After all the piracy on PSP and looking at the 3DS, I am very grateful the Vita is region free at all. Next week I will test exactly how this all works with two accounts, and if it really makes it easier, I will just get a second memory card for my US account.
 

LiK

Member
How would game sharing work when you can only have one account active at a time and your content is stored on the memory card? On PS3, you have to actually log in with the account on the system, download the game, and then you can play it on another account that's on the same system. But that is actually not possible on Vita. Correct me if I've got this wrong.

indeed, game sharing ain't possible from what i read in the article.
 

scy

Member
In all honesty, I'm perfectly fine with. Getting over the knee-jerk reaction, this isn't godawful terrible in terms of an implementation to work with. It's just the cost of the cards being a bit outside the realm of acceptable; I haven't paid that much for 32 GB of a storage since like 2000.
 

patsu

Member
Which part of that list is still ambiguous, assuming all our info to date is accurate?

Crystal said the card is tied to the system, and you can change account on the same card but need to reset to factory defaults. This is at the Vita and device security system level w.r.t. PSN.

Your list makes assumptions at the DRM policy level and save system.

If card is not cleared, and the game save is keyed by user id, it may be possible to perform some of the tasks you want, but resetting to system defaults is inevitable.
 

Gustav

Banned
There were no memory cards in the units at the mall.
The game demos were on actual Vita carts with handwritten stickers on them.
I pulled one out. :)

But yeah, I don't think formatting erases the card contents. Just deactivates the rights so you can't access it.
Once you reactivate with the original account, I would imagine it's all available again.

All speculation until later this month though.

Damn, theory destroyed!
 

Corto

Member
joy.jpg


Pre-order uncancelled! Two memory cards for me.
 

Lain

Member
Well, hang on: doesn't game sharing cover that? I know they reduced the number of people you can share with, but it's still >1, isn't it?

That said, I *assume* game sharing doesn't work with full retail titles, right?

I'm curious about this, but isn't game sharing hardware bound instead of account bound? You can play the same game with 2 different VITA or 2 different PSP or 1 VITA and 1 PSP?
 

Platy

Member
Holy proprietary memory card selling, Badmen ! What did I do to deserve this ?

I'm still confused (my comprehension skills aren't working today).

Can I still play games and use DLC (and earn trophies) from account 2 on account 1 if I'm logged in on account 1 with account 2's memory card?

I really hope so.

Edit: I'm looking specifically at this:

It sounds that the amount of memory cards with a psn account is infinite, as long as that memory card only has one psn account

---------------
[edit]
For example -

ok :
Memory card 1 - Platy psn account with Uncharted and Kingdom hearts
Memory Card 2 - Platy psn account with Little deviant and Little big Planet

not ok :
Memory card 1 - Platy psn account with Little deviant and Andrefpvs Psn account with Little big Planet
[/edit]
-------------------
Can we make two partitions on a single 32GB memory card?

:trollface

This is actualy a VERY good question ....

But i think it would only be able to be answered when people do some reverse engineering on the sony oficial memory card manager software
 
I don't get what the big deal is (still).

Stop and read what people are saying, then, instead of reading the OP and declaring "I don't get the problem!"

The Vita is an amazing value for the price

For which price? The $250 for the hardware or the $350-something I'm going to be looking at to meaningfully make use of what it has to offer? I don't consider the price of buying into the ecosystem at launch very compelling -- but even besides that, the bigger issue for me is one of convenience and functionality, not cost.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Again, false dichotomy. People aren't complaining about Sony easing back gently from some of the progressive design choices on PS3, they're complaining about situations where they've reversed them. With the memcards, say, I doubt there'd be much outcry about it if the biggest size topped out at $70, even though that's still quite a bit more than an equivalent SDHC.

The main problem is people expecting the exact same feature set of a home console for a handheld, like if someone was asking for splitscreen gaming on the Vita because it supports bluetooth and could theoretically have controllers linked up to it.

Thats not this product's aim. Realistically Sony only ever expect to sell one console to one living room, thus the need for all the accounts under the sun. For a handheld however, of course they're going to want to sell multiples of this bitch. Gadget lusters get the newest revision and their older unit gets handed on to a sibling, a partner, a whatever.

I get the outrage over pulling some features away from a system mid-life and all that, but its times like this where it really is just a case of entitlement getting a liiiiittle bit out of control.
 
Stop and read what people are saying, then, instead of reading the OP and declaring "I don't get the problem!"



For which price? The $250 for the hardware or the $350-something I'm going to be looking at to meaningfully make use of what it has to offer? I don't consider the price of buying into the ecosystem at launch very compelling -- but even besides that, the bigger issue for me is one of convenience and functionality, not cost.

Hurray for making assumptions - I read every post in the thread. Was simply stating my own opinion on the matter, just like you and everyone else in the thread is doing. I don't understand your need to talk down to me simply because my opinion isn't the popular one. Jesus.
 
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