There’s a new deal on PS5 that’s a pretty good deal. For one low fee, users can gain access to 20 digital games that are delivered to your PS5, with all the graphical bells and whistles blaring. You already have to be a PlayStation Plus subscriber, and it gets you a fair number of games, so it’s a pretty good deal if you want to play games with next-gen flair.
This was pretty sour news for PS4 owners, as it would have been expected by some be able to get access to premium games that may not have been part of PS Plus on the PS4. That was not the case.
A workaround was discovered for this though, as some PS5 users would sell access to the PlayStation Plus Collection on PS4. This was done by logging into the service from the target PS4 account, and then enabling the service on that console. The collection includes both first-party and third-party across many different genres, so many PS4 users seemed to pick up on this offer.
When played on PlayStation 4, PlayStation Plus Collection games would not take advantage of next-gen features such as Game Boost. That didn’t stop the problem though, and now Sony has stepped in. The company has begun to ban PSN accounts found to sell access, and possibly those who bought it as well.
Many of the affected users, numbering in the thousands, have reported losing their PSN accounts. It appears that the accounts will remain locked for some time, forcing affected users to lose access to their game libraries and services during the busy holiday season. Worse still, it has been reported that some PS5 consoles have been banned entirely, meaning they lose all access to online services.
The one upside is that in most cases the bans appear to be temporary, lasting about 60 days or so. This means that most gamers will get their accounts back next year. It’s kind of unclear what the future holds for this approach from Sony’s side. The company may be aiming for a larger crackdown of RMT services in its games, and this could be just the first salvo in a series of many other ban waves.
