Here’s How You Can Share Your Digital PS4 Games With Friends

PlayStation games are available in digital form which can be downloaded directly into the gaming console.

You can share digital PS4 games with friends using you PSN account. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Gone are days when PlayStation buddies used to exchange games frequently among each other. A custom that lived long enough when game developers were releasing their titles on physical disks.

The era of digital games has become kind of a buzzkill for many PlayStation users as exchanging and sharing titles now with friends is difficult.

But like I said; It “is difficult”, but not impossible.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can share your PS4 titles with your friends and download their games on your PS4.

Disclaimer: The Quint is not responsible for any loss of data or passwords if compromised during this process.

Make Sure You’re On PSN

One of the things you need to make sure before we get started is that both you and your friend need to have active Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) accounts to exchange games.

You can create an account by logging on to the Sony PlayStation website or via your gaming console.

Step 1

Make sure you have two accounts on your PS4. One account belonging to you and another one belonging to your friend you want to download the games from.

Ensure this person is not a random user online as they will have access to your credit card information and PlayStation Network password if you go ahead with this process. 

Sony is not responsible if your account gets lost/hacked or stolen which is why you need to be extra careful while trying something like this.

To make a new account, click the New User option in the profiles window.

A profile on PS4 console.(Photo: The Quint)

You need to create a new user and then sign in using your friend’s PlayStation Network ID.

You need to create a new user using your friend’s PSN ID.(PlayStation 4 screenshot)

Sing-in using their credentials.(PlayStation 4 screenshot)

Step 2

Make sure you deactivate the Primary Account option on your and your friend’s PlayStation.

You can do this by going to your account’s Settings option and then clicking Account Management.

Account Management options helps you create more accounts. (PlayStation 4 screenshot)

After that go to the Activate as Your Primary PS4 option and click on Deactivate.

The option where you can activate your account as Primary.(PlayStation 4 screenshot)

You also need to make sure your friend doesn’t activate his account as primary when you are downloading games.(PlayStation 4 screenshot)

You need to make sure that both you and your friend deactivate your respective accounts as a Primary PS4.

You also need to keep your PS4 updates to the latest firmware.(PlayStation 4 screenshot)

Step 3

Now you need to Switch User and log in to your PS4 using your friend’s account. After this go to Settings and click on Account Management to activate your friend's PSN account as a primary account on your PS4.

Right after this, you would want to go to Restore Licenses and restore all the licenses to games, all the purchases your friend has made so that the games can be transferred to your PS4.

The Restore Licenses options restores all the in-game rights, licenses and more.(PlayStation 4 screenshot)

Step 4

After you have restored the licenses, your friend's profile will be active on your PS4.

Next, head to the Library option on the main menu from where you’ll be able to download the games you want from your friend’s list.

You’ll find the game to download in the Purchases section.

How the PS4 game library looks like.(PlayStation 4 screenshot)

You can download any number of games you want from the library.

Make sure that your friend does not activate his account as primary on his PS4 while the games are being downloaded on your console.

After the download is finished you can revert to your own account as primary and continue playing the games.

You also need to make sure you don’t delete your friend's account from your PS4 otherwise everything you downloaded from his account will be gone. Just keep it but don’t use it.

This process can be done multiple numbers of times although it is always recommended that you don’t.