PS4 Online Blocked for Countries Without a Store

PlayStation Plus isn't available everywhere, and neither is the PlayStation Store, and although Sony has made every effort to roll features out to every country interested, it's not always possible. Up until recently, this has been a minor inconvenience, a barrier that blocks some people from taking advantage of free games, digital purchases and cloud saves. What about for the PS4 though? It's today been confirmed that unless you have access to a PlayStation Store in your region, you won't be able to play online on Sony's next-gen console.

[Lovable]

Well that sucks huh? At least you can play offline.

[Abash]

Well they did say they were bringing the PS Store to those countries asap so they'll be getting online eventually

[Lovable]

Promises are meant to be broken :p

[Abash]

@Lovable

It's a bit different now since they are making a huge push for digital PS4 game sales as well as PS+ being needed for online. They'd be missing out on a lot by not bringing the PS Store to those countries

[Xaphy]

you can make an account for any country you want. No big deal. I created one US account and one EU account when i lived in Lebanon where the store isnt available. No biggy.

[NewMonday]

@Xaphy
well said

the PS4 is not region locked, anyone can sign-up to any PSN store from anywhere.

[Salooh]

It's really sad that they ignore us who don't have a store. At least let us change the country of our accounts. Now i have to abandon my 2007 account :( . It's really stupid of them..

[Blacktric]

"To clarify, the affected territories are: Bahrain, Lebanon, Romania, Oman, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland.”"

I'm not trying to be a dick here or anything but having 8 countries in your "non available list" is far better than having only 21 in your "available" list. Also, like Xaphy stated before, you can create a US or EU account if the service ends up not being available on launch day in your country. That's what I did (living in Turkey) to access PlayStation Store until late 2011. And buying PS wallet credit codes off of ebay or local websites are really easy, so getting a Plus subscription shouldn't be a problem.

[nix]

xaphy, even i have a US and UK account.

in US, i live in 90210. in UK, i live in 12th, downing street. lol.

[garos82]

when I lived in Cyprus during ps3 launch I had two accounts one in uk and one in Japan.I hope they can do the same with ps4

[guitarded77]

QUESTION: Can't you just make an account for a different country? I have friends all around the world with US accounts, and they have no problems.

[Bhai]

They are a few and far between:

from the article:
"the affected territories are: Bahrain, Lebanon, Romania, Oman, Slovakia, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland.”

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

@Blacktric

Actually those 8 countries are just the markets where PlaySation products are being officially distributed but lack an Store, there plenty of markets where it's not distributed and also markets with a Store that don't have Plus services (here in Brazil it's an example) where you supposedly is being cutted out of multiplayer.

That said, it's not impossible to still play multiplayer in any country if current PSN is any indication (which is very likely, considering there will be account migration from PS3 into PS4). You can just make a foreig account, buy PSN cards and use an account and Plus service of that region... People have been doing this here in Brazil throughout the almost entirety of PS3 life (even before PSN cards really, by linking a foreign account with a native credit card, this is no longer possible though as card and account need to match region/postal code).

EDIT: Should had readed your comment more carefully, basically just re-afirmed what you already said, my bad.

[badz149]

but due to the PS4 being region free, you can always open a foreign account in the country with PSN and buy PS+ account there! best bet is US and they always get the best stuff and US PSN card can easily be bought from eBay or some other websites

[SolidStoner]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO O OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO O

I live in LATVIA... europe... I have ps3 and most of my friends have... but we dont have PS store... we buy games from fake accounts...

and this means that I could not play PS4 online???????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ? ????????????

I have so many problems with my ps3 already.. meaning.. I cant properly buy games.. play online with my fralg.. my time zone is wrong... everything about my profile is wrong.. and yet I live in Europe!!! same goes for my neighbor countries Lithuania and Estonia...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

SONY FIX THIS ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The_Con-Sept]

Someone already said it. But if it costs Sony money for someone to buy something online from another region.... Then so be it. Sorry Sweeden!

[bicfitness]

I'm pretty sure that you can still make a PSN account from ANY country with a valid (or pulled from the internet) address; even order PSN cards or codes from that country to fill an international wallet. So I don't see what the big deal is.

[Lovable]

Yeah I thought of this too since I have a Japanese and European account on my PS3 even though I live in Canada. I wonder if that will actually work?

[Me-Time]

@Lovable

I hope it'll work like that for people in your situation. I have a bad feeling that Sony might not let that option be available so we'll just have to wait and see.

[tiffac008]

Didn't Sony also say we carry over our accounts from our PS3 to the PS4 like they did with the Vita? I mean here in the Philippines we have no PS store but I have US and HK accounts.

[etebitan]

So to clarify.. Im from Costa Rica (central america) and I have a US account since I bought the ps3 back in 08.. I´ve always bought games with psn credit codes bought from amazon.. Does my US account will still work for games, online playing and so on (because I can´t access VOD for example, or buying movies from the store due to copyright issues)? Or now will all the content be locked to me, and im just gonna be able to play offline and play games by buying the retail disc and not from the psn?? thanks in advance for any answer guys.. Hope I get to use the psn with the ps4 the same way I have done for 5 years with my ps3 =s

[RM-TatoTiburon]

i can use my US PSN account on my PS4 just like a US XLIVE account on my XboxOne NOT PROBLEM AT ALL

[Gamer1982]

Xbox live is not available around the globe either..

[NYC_Gamer]

The console still works offline though

[FordGTGuy]

PS4: It can play offline but we can't promise you online!

[Monkeysmarts]

As opposed to Xbox One: lol buy an Xbox 360 if you don't have internet?

[HammadTheBeast]

Actually, just make an account for a country where it is available.

[TXIDarkAvenger]

@Monkeysmarts

Well lets be honest here. If you own a 360, you should have internet. If you don't have internet, buy a PS3 since its a loner system

[kreate]

@anime

That's kinda funny ..
Loner system :)

But I think Wii is more of a loner system due to the lack of care from pretty much everyone, Nintendo included.

[mafiahajeri]

This is BS I live in Bahrain and I know a lot of people here with pa3s pretty much all of them have NA or EU accounts. NA and EU cards PSN cards are available here too. There's no difference in having an account that's native to your country. Just pick a country that has a PS store, problem solved.

[CoLD FiRE]

Yes. There's a difference. I know this is about the PS4 but N4G was up in arms when MS said the same thing about the X1 let alone the fact it's also the same as the X360 and PS3 right now.

Yes if you create a US account you'll be able to access that country's store from your country (in your case Bahrain) but it doesn't mean you'll be able to access everything from that store. For instance, you might be able to download Netflix buy will not be able to run it even if you have a valid Netflix account (Due to copyright and all that stuff).

The same can happen with games, though the PS3/PS4 are region free, some games only allow downloads based on your IP so you wouldn't be able to download said games (Of course you can work around it using a VPN.. but that's not point).

[liorishot]

well u need ps plus so

[GamersRulz]

log in with a US/EU/JP account, problem solved because PS4 is region free.

[FordGTGuy]

Unless the PSN Store is now the new region-lock they are using, just because the console isn't region-locked doesn't mean that the PSN store isn't.

[Monkeysmarts]

PSN store isn't region locked.

[NewMonday]

face palm!

you can pick any digital region in any geographical region.

[Hicken]

Trying too hard there, troll.

[wenaldy]

wishful thinking.

[CaptainSheep]

I hope that's true. I live in Pakistan, and there's probably no chance of the Store coming here.
I'm a huge PlayStation fanboy and I'll be really sad if I won't be able to play online. :/

[Salooh]

Don't worry. Just create a new account and put the country USA or Europe then buy ps+ for it. It will work :)

But you will have to abandon your account like me T_T

[Genuine-User]

When creating a PSN account, choose the cheapest region (for pakistani rupees) that supports the store.

[ashade]

you know, i don't worry much about that through i live in unsupport country

unlike xbone, playstation don't block IP, so i just need to creat account from support country to purchase the PS+ through prepaid card

i did it very long time with PS3 (my account is US) so i'll do this in PS4 too

oh well, i think most of the xbone fanboy will use this to creat the fuss, can't blame them because most of them live in xbone support country so they never know about thse workaround of PSN unsupport country

[FordGTGuy]

Xbox One doesn't block IPs and Microsoft has never said it would.

[TheEvilWithin]

Out to defend that Xbox today huh Ford. You can take it easy. No one really cares about Xbox any more so you don't have to jump in and defend it. SONY fans have a work around. END OF STORY.

[Serg]

They said it's region locked, and it was confirmed that it will not work at all in unsupported countries. Only the 21 countries that are supported will be able to play games with it, until Microsoft officially releases it in other countries.

[Why o why]

Sorry ford...its locked. There was a massive article on it on n4g just the other day. With ps plus as it stands you can download from other regions with no issue other than the potential language barrier.

[Redgehammer]

I still care about xbox, but generalization is the new "facts" on N4G.

[MariaHelFutura]

Here ya go.

http://www.ibtimes.com/xbox...

[joeorc]

Exactly, this works straight away on the PS3 even right now, in fact I even made a japanese PSN account so i could get some games from japan, and go into Japans Playstation Home! So yes indeed this does infact work!

[mushroomwig]

Since the PS4 is region free you can just buy one from where and create a PSN ID from that region.

[Virtual_Reality]

You can create a foreign account, such as a US account, Europe or an account from Japan and still be able to play online.

[cleft5]

This certainly does suck, but notice how Sony handles this sort of terrible news so much better than Microsoft. No one is telling the customer to just buy a PS3 or anything stupid like that. Notice the customer service agent apologizes and talks about making every effort to correct the issue.

This sucks, but because it is being handled well I don't have any negative feelings towards Sony. Interesting how that works, eh.

[joeorc]

Exactly, this works straight away on the PS3 even right now, in fact I even made a japanese PSN account for Example: so i could get some games from japan, and go into Japans Playstation Home! So yes indeed this does infact work!

Yes it does suck there is some places the PSN store has not been enabled to yet, but they have been adding more stores, as quickly as they can, and even than in the mean time you can still play online, you just have to use a region other than the one your in that may not have the store ready.

[CaptainFaisal]

For the X1 its not supported in the Middle East , but what if my account is american? will it work?
Any ways PS4 FTW! im getting X1 later Just for the exclusives -.-

[ashade]

no, its confirm will not work in those country w/o support even if you use US account

kinect will detect to change of your IP and block it, unless you find the way to fake your router IP

[Redgehammer]

There is not enough aluminum foil for this comment thread.

[Salooh]

Do you know that X1 spy on you ?. It can spy on your family and collect data of them. As a muslim i won't support something like that. You really trust MS to not take that data ?.

[Redgehammer]

And you really assume that they will?

[CaptainFaisal]

Yeah your right im muslim too, but these spying is getting annoying! and i hate it when they say were terrorist! were normal people who live a happy life, and in our spare time play PS! :) thats all the info microshit need!

[Salooh]

@Red
Yes , i'm sure MS will take that data. It's a company , There were reports that MS involved in giving data from their services such as hotmail to government. Even if they didn't i'm not trusting a company for my privacy , We have restricted privacy for our womens.

@fasooly
I agree , we are humans too and we plat ps when we don't have anything else to do . I'm glad you have a normal life though ^^. It's different in my country.

[torchic]

nope. Xbox One will only work in your country if Microsoft officially sells it in your country. imported consoles won't work

otherwise no.

[WeAreLegion]

Tweeting all the executives right now. I'll post results later. Most responses have been something like "We're working to get a store in all regions before launch."

[CaptainFaisal]

thanks please do ! :D

[D-riders]

well duh!!!

[Tidybrutes]

All they need to do is make an account tied to a region that has a store, same way most of us have a second psn account to access the US/JAP/EU stores.

[inFAMOUS_KRATOS]

wow, ps4 is not region locked you can sigh up for any playstation account in any region.

this stupid change the title... is not blocked... same story

[MasterCornholio]

Just create an account in a country that supports the store and problem solved.

I cant say the same for the XBOX One though.

[majedx9]

too bad XBOX One is region locked ; \

[MestreRothN4G]

I hope I can still use my US account on my "foreign" country.

[PSX04]

it's not bad news for me because i can simply make account with any supported countries

[Shadowstar]

I thought PSN let you make an account with a store in another region... that would be really inconvenient, I'll admit, but wouldn't you still be able to get online?

[Sephiroushin]

PS do not block anyone on creating an account from another region and most of the people "affected" already have an account from a supported region anyways, they can just use that account on their PS4!

[majedx9]

Guys Relax am from KSA i have US,UK AND JP accounts i know some guys from Bahrain play with US OR UK accounts. ;)

[MestreRothN4G]

But we don't know if this will still be possible. Lots of services are based on IP. Netflix, for instance, is not accessible on lots of countries even if the user is under an US account.

[claudionmc]

Just create an account and put a resident country like US, UK, Spain, or whatever country that has psn... PS4 is not region-locked

[wenaldy]

I live in Indonesia and i choose Singapore region because my country doesn't support PS Store. The content is cheaper than other region (inc. my local store).

[AceBlazer13]

w8 im kinda lazy right now so really don't hav time to read details. i live in trinidad(caribbean island) will this affect me? tnx in advance to anyone replying

[Master-H]

SO i can still use an account with a supported region even if i live in an unsupported one right ? damn that scared me, i thought this was IP locking sorta thing like how the xbone situation was , thank god

[cell989]

quick easy fix for those unfortunate people - Go to ebay purchase a PSN card from a country that supports the PSN, make an account on your Play Station that aligns with a country that supports PSN and problem solved

[victorMaje]

I have a PS+ subscription on my US account but all my trophies & online play are on my Lebanese account & I never had any problem. You can buy redeemable US PSN codes from ebay or sites like pcgamesupply.com
Still, been hoping for PSN in Lebanon since I can't remember. I'll make my gamer prayer every time I go to church :)
Now if this means it'll be the same for PS4 then it's no biggy.
If it means you'll have to login with an account who's country has a store...then I can see the concerns...
Hopefully PSN will come to all unsupported countries as soon as possible.

In any case, greatness definitely awaits :)

[SpinalRemains]

If this were to remain as is, all you would have to do is make a foreign account.

Non issue

[jackdaddy]

So, as suspected, a non - story.
Roll on Sony and Launch Day :)

[bujasem_89]

FU*K!!! @_@ I really hope this isn't what it says it is... or I am screwed!!!!!!!!!!!!! my country doesn't have a store! i Fakely use a United states address to use the store on my ps3 !! will i be able to do the same thing with the ps4?

[SledgeHammerHead]

I think creating a fake US or UK account should work but if they block IP addresses then only way is to use a proxy server which you can setup on the PS3, i think.

[Kidmyst]

Is this any different than the PS3? When I first got my PS3 I created accounts for the UK, Japan, Germany and some others just because I could and get free stuff from their stores like Demo's and wallpapers. lost access after the hack incident and only those with a real E-mail I could recover. Still use the main countries ones even Today.

[DivineAssault]

Theyre opening up more PS Stores world wide so im sure this will be resolved in due time...Its very unfortunate but what can ya do?? Theres gonna be good single player games out there for the mean time

[EffectO]

Expect to see IP locks in the future,some countries have very strict online policies.

[mastemikegee]

This problem is also available on the PS3. I had to create fake accounts too, just to access the store.

This is pretty sad coz most people here aren't keeping themselves updated. So they just buy a PS3, create a Maltese PSN account and don't even know that there is a store! Until someone tells them about it, they won't know it exists. When they find out, some of them make a fake account afterwards to shop from the store. But again, there are those unaware of how to purchase from foreign stores and the existence of PSN cards!

Not many gamers here have a Visa, so many buy from retail. If the news isn't at retail they probably won't know!

Also, if you check out the official PlayStation website for Malta you'll see that although the home page looks modern and recent (due to the fact that there is PS4 banners) the latest actual piece of news is dated '13 Jun 2007'!!!!

http://mt.playstation.com/

A few months ago that website didn't have that homepage but it had the same one it had back in 2007! (With Heavenly Sword on the background).

This 'missing store' topic was brought forward on the PlayStation forums in 2007.

http://www.community.eu.pla...

And again later in 2008.

http://community.eu.playsta...