A PlayStation gamer is calling for changes after their 15-year-old account on the platform with hundreds of Platinum Trophies became trapped due to region locking. The PlayStation policy has been a long-standing one, but plenty of gamers are now expressing how frustrated they are by it.
Part of the fun of being a gamer on a single family of devices, like Xbox or PlayStation, is bringing one’s history of gaming and achievements with them. Even though most gamers have likely moved on from one system to another in the same family, their achievements, game list, and overall history remain a part of their ongoing account. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, which is what this gamer is now trying to bring attention to.
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PlayStation Fans Aren’t Happy About Region Locking
A PlayStation gamer called JustikShow is now trying to bring attention to the way that Sony’s region locking works on the console family, and how it’s a problem for those who move. The gamer explained that they have a 15-year-old account with PlayStation, with thousands of hours and hundreds of Platinum Trophies unlocked on the account. However, since they’ve moved to Germany from their former home of Eastern Europe, they’ve lost the ability to continue using their original account seamlessly in their new country, requiring some considerable jumping through hoops to keep buying games on the original account.
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Sony doesn’t allow users to change the region on their PlayStation accounts, so if someone moves to a new nation, they can’t use the credit cards or billing address from their new home for their existing account. Some players have shared ways to work around the issue, including buying gift cards from their original country and using those to add funds to their existing accounts, or creating a secondary account in their new home so that they can pick up DLC for their existing games. However, going through these steps is a headache for players, especially when other platforms just let users change their region if they move.
The only other workaround for this issue, and one that has reportedly been suggested by Sony itself in the past, is to completely delete the player’s account. After 30 days have elapsed, they can then open a new account with their existing email account. However, that would mean saying goodbye to all the history and purchases associated with the account, which is something that players obviously don’t want to do if they can help it.
So far, Sony hasn’t made any official comment on the issue, though the OP says that over half a million views have now been registered on the Reddit post they initially brought up the issue on. It’s likely that the region lock was put in place, at least in part, to prevent players from abusing game prices on the PlayStation Store. As the OP and some other gamers have pointed out, prices vary depending on the region one is in. Swapping the region on an account or allowing players to make purchases from regions outside their own could potentially open the door to gamers abusing the system and getting games for much cheaper than they normally would. Steam had to close a similar loophole in the past.
Still, if that’s the main issue, there are surely ways to avoid that problem that don’t involve completely locking an account to a region. Players could perhaps provide documents to prove their new permanent residence, or Sony could simply implement a system where region changing could only be done once, or at least restricted to every year or so. Given that JustikShow has pointed out that every other mainline gaming platform provides the option for region changes, including Xbox, Steam, and mobile game platforms like Apple and Google, it seems reasonable to ask Sony to change its policy. Whether it acknowledges these complaints, however, remains to be seen.
