Bought the boys a PS4 for Christmas. I thought online was free to play? I have them set up on a family plan with me. Does everyone have to pay to play or just me? They each have their own gamer tags.
Think you all have to pay.
Online multiplayer is largely no longer free (it used to be, back in the PS3 days).
There are some games that are exempt, typically those that are completely free games (e.g. Warframe).
However, you should only need to have a single PS+ subscription for all local accounts to play online multiplayer.
You will need that PS+ subbed account to set the PS4 as its “primary PS4” in the console settings.
In almost all cases, a PlayStation Plus PS Plus subscription is needed to play online multiplayer on the PS4™.
If a PS Plus member registers a PlayStation 4 as their “primary” system, anyone who uses that system has the ability to play online multiplayer, regardless of whether or not they are PS Plus members. Additionally, as many as four players can simultaneously play online on the same console, even if they don’t subscribe to PlayStation Plus.
Activate / Deactivate Primary PS4 for additional details on sharing a primary PS4.
Source - Online Multiplayer Requirements
https://support.us.playstation.com/articles/en_US/KC_Article/PS4-Online-Multiplayer-Requirements
Benefits of PS+ Membership
https://support.us.playstation.com/articles/en_US/KC_Article/PS-Plus-Information
Also, it’s unrelated - but I would strongly advise that you setup 2FA on your PSN account.
What is 2fa?
Two Factor Authentication
2 factor authentication
It will make it so when people try to login they have to have the code that is sent to your phone. It will keep people from stealing your account. I set mine up yesterday.
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Definitely set up 2FA. As soon as they provided it, I signed up given PSN’s history with breaches and hacks. I love the PS system, but their network has left a ton to be desired since creation.
Always 2FA
So ummm… just throwing this out there for you 2FA guys.
Just some things to keep in mind.
PSN only offers text for 2FA, don’t they?
EDIT: NVM…MS has an authenticator
I do agree and I avoid SMS authentication where possible.
Also, it requires you have phone signal and have to wait to receive the SMS too.
Whereas using an app requires only a data connection (at most) and usually works within seconds.
Still, I don’t think I’m likely to be the target of someone trying to intercept my SMS.
Those attacks aren’t exactly easy to pull off, and likely require the attacker to figure out the user’s cell phone number in addition to the password that they’ve stolen, guessed, or reused after being compromised in a data breach from another hacked service. But for anyone who might be a target of sophisticated hackers, all of those techniques mean SMS should be avoided when possible for anything login-related.
Yes, only SMS for PSN.
Really? Microsoft have an authenticator app already… I use it for accessing my hotmail email account.
it’s better than nothing and in most cases will keep little Johnny Hacker out of my account cause he only knows how to hack from google. If someone is going to go through the trouble of also hacking my phone they can have my PS4 account.
Well, 2FA is okay if you are worried about people being able to hash your password from a stored database, but with a little bit of understanding how that works it’s really easy to create non-dictionary based (almost) un-hashable passwords that are not vulnerable to even very advanced hashing programs.
In the case that you use really dependable protocols to create your passwords, then 2FA can actually create a virtual back door which could make it easier for people to bypass needing to know your exact password. There are pro’s and con’s both ways. Truthfully, the only way to be secure is to have no need to be secure.
UnObtainable is 100% correct, most of us will never worry about this shit.
Here’s a cool video Computerphile created on Password Hashing. They have quite a few others that also discuss further security issues. It’s an interesting discussion.