Hardware 1 Acc per mem card, not working

[haddad]

I heard you can get 1 acc per mem card, but its not working. Help please!

I setup the PS vita and activate it with Acc1, then I take the mem card out and I get the message

The memory card has been removed. Do not remove the memory card while the PS Vita system is in use. If you do, the data may become corrupt.

The PS Vita system will restart.

so I take my Acc1 mem card out, and I put in my Acc2 mem card in and I press OK to restart (the ps vita currently has my acc2 mem card)

so after it restarts. I get this message

The memory card inserted in your system is linked with the following Sony Entertainment Network account.


Acc2
To use the memory card with your PS Vita system, you must format the memory card. If you format the memory card, all data on the memory card will be deleted.

SO wat now?

 

[431unknown]

I thought that it was 1 account per system? Anyway if it is one account per MC did your try a full power down and reboot after swapping MC's?

 

[koji2009]

It's per system... there were false reports early on by a Sony employee who said they were merely linked to memory card... but Sony later came out and admitted it's 1 per system and the only way to "fix" that is to completely format the system. You can still run 2 accounts on one system, but it's a lot of formatting back and forth... hit might be worth the effort for some, but there is no doubt Sony is a dick for doing it.

 

[haddad]

I am going to return my 2nd memory card. Sony is a dick, this is so gay.

 

[SifJar]

To be fair to Sony, there are reasons they have separate stores for separate regions, and those same reasons are the reasons they can't officially condone using more than one account on one device. Although that doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't leave some loophole, but it would be a bit of effort for them.

For example, lets say you have to accounts, X and Y. You activate your device to account X. This will decrease the remaining activations on account X to 1, from the starting 2. You download game A. Then you deactivate the Vita from account X and activate on Y. You now are back to 2 activations on X, and down to one on Y. You download game B. If you were still able to play game A while activated on account Y, it would defeat the point of the limited activations, because you still have 2 activations on account X, yet are playing a game from that account.

Sorry if that was my confusing, but my basic point is this: They can't officially allow you to use several accounts at once for the same reasons as they have multiple regions of store. And they can't allow you to play games other than those from the account currently activated because if they did, people would use it for piracy/"game sharing".

I can totally see their position on this, and while it may seem unfair to you, it is actually perfectly justified. Case in point: in another thread I think you were talking about how you wanted to give your brother a free copy of a game you bought - this is exactly what they want to avoid. In the case of family, I can understand that you would want to do this, but if it were possible for family, it would be possible for anyone, and that's what Sony are trying to avoid. (Anyway, you can have 2 devices enabled on one account, so you could just put your brother's Vita on your account, unless he has also purchased games on his account.)

 

[koji2009]

The reasons behind the different stores for different regions is simply to protect licensing companies... But Sony is doing it at the cost of the customer. How many people honestly play games from multiple regions? I'd guess it's in the region of less than 1% on the PS3. Licensing companies are doing less and less (especially when it comes to digital downloads) especially for regions like the EU/NA where they rarely even do the initial translations (Square-enix for example, has handled Japanese/English/French/German/Spanish language on all of their own titles for years now).

Once upon a time, you needed a local company to fully handle translation and distribution, but now most of the big players are already in all the major regions with at least their subsidiaries. Digital distribution removes even that large bit of burden, but licensing companies lay claim to digital distribution themselves as part of their PHYSICAL deals to protect their profits. In that sense, Sony is doing right by them to protect their interests... but at the same time they are also insulting that small portion of their user base. By saying their system is "region free" and able to purchase games out of region they aren't supporting the licensing companies, but there is the huuuuge barrier of importing (ungodly costs).

It's not ideal for anyone... Either way Sony is making someone unhappy... and apparently they got some flack somewhere from some licensey over the ease of multiple PSN use on the PS3/PSP... but it just seems like a slap to probably one of their more loyal fanbases.

 

[haddad]

Still, why would they start this 1 PSN per vita now? On my ps3, I can have multiple accounts, and if I buy a game on my acc, I can log out and go into any other accounts and still play it

Why start now?

 

[insidexdeath]

It's Sony, they always try their best to limit their users.

 

[Valwin]

Still, why would they start this 1 PSN per vita now? On my ps3, I can have multiple accounts, and if I buy a game on my acc, I can log out and go into any other accounts and still play it

Why start now?

we did have here treads warning of this dumb move by them i guess now will see how much of a damage is

but still i was in the idea the account was save into the Memory card i guess it was not true

 

[haddad]

Still, why would they start this 1 PSN per vita now? On my ps3, I can have multiple accounts, and if I buy a game on my acc, I can log out and go into any other accounts and still play it

Why start now?

we did have here treads warning of this dumb move by them i guess now will see how much of a damage is

but still i was in the idea the account was save into the Memory card i guess it was not true

Your PSN account is bounded to your memory card.

Your memory card is bounded to your Vita

You must do full format every time you wanna switch accounts

 

[manias]

Still, why would they start this 1 PSN per vita now? On my ps3, I can have multiple accounts, and if I buy a game on my acc, I can log out and go into any other accounts and still play it

Why start now?

we did have here treads warning of this dumb move by them i guess now will see how much of a damage is

but still i was in the idea the account was save into the Memory card i guess it was not true

Your PSN account is bounded to your memory card.

Your memory card is bounded to your Vita

You must do full format every time you wanna switch accounts

Well, not a "full format", you can leave the memcards alone, you need to return the vita to factory defaults, then go through the bootup movie again etc and sign in with the other account, and pop in the other memcard after that!

 

[Just Another Gamer]

Still, why would they start this 1 PSN per vita now? On my ps3, I can have multiple accounts, and if I buy a game on my acc, I can log out and go into any other accounts and still play it

Why start now?

we did have here treads warning of this dumb move by them i guess now will see how much of a damage is

but still i was in the idea the account was save into the Memory card i guess it was not true

Your PSN account is bounded to your memory card.

Your memory card is bounded to your Vita

You must do full format every time you wanna switch accounts

Well, not a "full format", you can leave the memcards alone, you need to return the vita to factory defaults, then go through the bootup movie again etc and sign in with the other account, and pop in the other memcard after that!

True but it doesn't really change the fact that Sony really screwed it up. I only use PSN for demos so sticking to the Japanese PSN store is good enough.