New PSN Terms of Service reduce content sharing from five to three

You will, if you’re registered on PSN, have recently had an email informing you that the PlayStation terms of service have changed. If you’re anything like us you will have shrugged it off and ignored it, as you simply can’t be bothered reading through it – don’t worry, this means you’re normal.

Fortunately though, some people on the internet decided to read it and have told of some startling revelations. Well, not really startling or revelatory, but it’s something: whereas before you were allowed to share downloaded content with up to five different activated PS3 systems, you are now only allowed to share them with three.

The pertinent text in the ToS is this bit:

In-game items or content that you have purchased may be downloaded from PlayStation®Store. Pursuant to the particular terms of use that govern a specific in-game item or content you have purchased, you may use that item or content on up to three (3) different PlayStation®3 systems that have been activated for your account. You may deactivate or activate specific PlayStation®3 systems, as long as the maximum activated number of PlayStation®3 systems for your account at any given time is three (3).

The second category, called Local Content, once installed on a PlayStation®3 system by the account that purchased it, can be accessed by other accounts on that same PlayStation®3 system.

This simply won’t affect a lot of people, as many just have access to one PS3. However, those of us who use multiple machines for the same accounts run the risk of having to do some creative activating/deactivating to continue to use our paid-for content.

No word yet on changes in the US – they still get five shares.