As befits its in-demand status, the PlayStation 5 is a little (or perhaps not so little) marvel of a machine. Of course, it can play games, but it can do much more besides; the 4K Blu-ray drive delivers crisp, detailed video content, the online features are robust, and there’s a whole suite of PS4 games to enjoy thanks to backwards compatibility. It’s fair to say that if you’ve managed to pick up a PS5, you’ve got one of the greatest gaming machines ever made.
One of the PS5’s lesser-known functions is the ability to share games with other users on your console. Setting up PS5 game sharing couldn’t be easier, but if you’re completely new to the process, you might be wondering how to get started. Sony doesn’t make the ability to share games on PS5 easy to find at first, but once you know what you’re doing, game sharing can be an incredibly useful feature. Here’s how to game share on PS5.
What is game sharing?
Game sharing on PS5 is a method by which you can allow other users on your console to play games that you’ve purchased. Any user can play a game if it’s inserted into the console as a disc, but when you buy games digitally via the store, the games are basically locked to your account. If you enable PS5 game share, though, you can allow other users to access this content regardless of whether or not they actually own it.
Something to note – PS5 game sharing and offline play are enabled by default on a new PlayStation 5. This means that if you don’t want other users to be able to access your games, you’ll have to manually tell your PS5 not to let them do so. Don’t worry, though – the process for disabling PS5 game sharing is the same as enabling it, and we’re about to walk you through it.
How to enable (or disable) PS5 game share
Head to the settings menu
The PS5 settings menu is the nerve centre of the console. This is where you’ll find all of your console’s functions and features, and you can set them up however you like. The specific setting we’re looking for is headed “Console Sharing and Offline Play”.
Go to “Users and Accounts”, then “Other”
The specific setting we want is located in the “Users and Accounts” menu, under which you’ll find an option marked “Other”. Click that, and once you’re there, you’ll see an option labelled “Console Sharing and Offline Play”.
Enable or disable “Console Sharing and Offline Play”
We’re here – this is where you can allow console sharing or disallow it. Enabling this setting means other users can share your games and play them even while offline. Disabling it, as you might imagine, means the opposite!
That’s it – that’s how to allow others to use your games and content while signed into your console. There are a couple of things to note here. First is that you can only do this on a single PS5 at any given time. This means that if you choose to enable this setting on another console, it’ll be automatically deactivated on your original PS5. The second is that if you want to deactivate a PlayStation 5 console, you’ll need to do that via a different setting on Sony’s website.
How to use PS5 Remote Play
There’s a chance you may not actually be looking for the PS5 game sharing setting and that what you’re after is Remote Play. This feature allows other users to play a game you’re currently playing by essentially taking control of it via an online connection. It’s called Share Play, and you can take advantage of it as long as you have an online party.
First, you need to press the PlayStation button, then access the party settings via the voice chat card. From there, find the “Start Share Screen” setting, then “Start Share Play”. You can then choose another player in your party and invite them to share your game with you.
There are two different modes in which Share Play is available. The first allows you to essentially “hand over” the controller to another player. This one is likely best for single-player games. The second creates a local multiplayer session in which you and your friend can play a game together. You’ll both need to be PS Plus members to avail yourself of this benefit.
The pros and cons of PS5 game sharing
As you might imagine, game sharing comes with its own pros and cons. Here are some of the drawbacks and advantages to allowing others to share your content on PS5.
Pros
The pros of game sharing should be pretty obvious; you and your family or friends can enjoy the same games without having to buy them yourselves. This also extends to PS Plus titles and benefits, so if someone wants to play online, you can share those benefits with them.
Cons
It’s actually difficult to think of many cons to game sharing on PS5. The other account won’t actually own the game, so if you do want to sign in with that account somewhere else, you won’t be able to access the content. However, you can access games while offline and even without the main account being signed in, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which game sharing doesn’t benefit the account with which the content is being shared!
