Sony May Ban PlayStation 5 Owners Who Sell Their PS Plus Collection Accounts to PS4 Gamers
30-November-2020

PlayStation Plus Collection is a collection of 20 games (10 first party and 10 third party) given exclusively to PlayStation 5 owners who are also members of the PlayStation Plus paid subscription service. Now, it is being reported that many PS5 owners are exploiting a loophole with the PlayStation Plus Collection which allows PS5 owners to log in to user accounts of PS4 owners on their next-gen console. This causes the 20 games to unlock on the PS4 user's console, giving them access to the 20 PS5 games. Since all the 20 games invovled in the collection are backward compatible, they can run on the PlayStation 4.

This development was first discovered by a website Video Games Chronicle. According to Sony, the PlayStation Plus Collection is intended to be a perk for owners of the PlayStation 5 consoles only. However, people are selling PS Plus Collection games for the PS4 in exchange of money on sites like eBay and more. The VGC report says that one user has made more than GBP 100 (roughly Rs 9,900) by charging over 20 users GBP 5 (roughly Rs 490) each to unlock the PS Plus Collection on their PS4 console. The report further sites users on a Chinese forum as saying that Sony has issued multiple bans in the region for both PS5 owners selling access to the PS Plus Collection and those PS4 owners who have purchased access to it.

The VGC report cites users as saying that the ban will last 2 months and any PS5 console involved in the scheme have been permanently blocked from network services. Now, it is also believed that Sony automatically bans a console when it logs in to a high number of user accounts in a single day, so it is not clear is Sony is banning these users for sharing their Collection games.