Gamesharing is a great way to expand your game library at no additional cost. This feature essentially lets you share digital games with a friend or family member, and you can share a PlayStation Plus subscription as well. But how do you enable gamesharing on the PS5?
Enable gamesharing by logging into your PSN account and navigating to the “Console Sharing and Offline Play” option in your settings and making sure it’s disabled. Then log out, switch to the console you want to share with, and repeat the same process, but select “Don’t Disable” at the end.
It might take a bit for you to figure out how to setup gameshare, but once you’ve got it down, you’ll be glad you put in the effort. Let’s take a look at what gamesharing will do for you and how to get started on your console right away.
What Is Gameshare?
Back in the day, sharing a game with a friend was pretty straightforward: all you had to do was hand over the disc and hope that it came back scratch-free. But now that games often come in a digital version, it’s hasn’t been quite as simple.
Add that consoles have also started to go to digital versions (which, unlike actual computers, can’t be modded to add disc drives later) and suddenly it starts to look like there’s just not that much physical control in sharing a game you’ve purchased. But, that’s finally starting to change a litte with Playstation’s Gameshare feature.
Gamesharing was created to bring the experience of sharing games into the digital age. You’ll be able to introduce a friend to all your favorite games at no cost to them. In exchange, you can try out their favorites as well. You can even gameshare your own games if you have multiple consoles, and this is a great way to access the PS5’s backward-compatible titles (more on PS5 backward compatibility here).
Though you should note that the further back you go, the less likely Gameshare is going to be available to you. Some PS3 games are backward compatible with the PS5, but they are less likely to work with Gameshare which is a much newer feature.
Sounds pretty good, right? It’s a wonderful opportunity to supplement your collection or give games a try that you would not have played otherwise.
For the moment, it seems you can only share games with one other person, so choose wisely! If you change your mind later, you can always start over and repeat the following procedure. Be sure to skim through our ultimate PS5 owners guide after your through, but for now, here’s how to use Gameshare:
How to Set Up Gameshare on PS5
You can activate game sharing on only one system at a time. This means that you must first turn off this option on your main PS5 console before you can turn it on on another.
One crucial thing to note is that the PS5 refers to gamesharing as “Console Sharing.”
Follow these steps to get started:
- Sign in to your PlayStation Network (PSN) account on your PlayStation 5.
- Place the gear symbol beside your avatar and the magnifying glass. Click it to go into Settings from the main menu.
- Select “Users and Accounts” from the menu bar.
- Scroll down and click on “Other.”
- Select “Console Sharing and Offline Play,” and make sure it’s set to “Disable.”
- Log out your PlayStation Network account on your PS5. \
Now you can switch over to the console you want to share games with, and then proceed:
- Log in with your PlayStation Network account on the second console.
- Go to the same Settings menu as before, and proceed to the “Console Sharing and Offline Play” menu. Choose “Don’t Disable.”
- Log out of your account.
We recommend you do this process in person to safeguard the information associated with your PlayStation account. The last thing you want is for someone you don’t know to get access to your games and information.
Now, when the other person logs back into their account, they should be able to access your games from their console. And in return, you should be able to access their games on yours. Furthermore, if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription, it will also be shared.
Share Play on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
You do not have to share your complete account with a friend in order share games or to play two-player as if it were a local co-op. Gamesharing is a great option, but it’s not the only one!
That’s because both the PS4 and PS5 include an innovative function called “Share Play,” which enables you to lend a game to a buddy or play together as if you were in the same room. The friend doesn’t need to own the game in order to participate.
Share Play is only available with one other person, and they must also be a PlayStation Plus member.
The two forms of play are: the visitor plays like you, in which the person you invite becomes player 1, and playing a game with the visitor, in which you play local multiplayer in any game you select.