How to buy PS4 games in the US PSN store from abroad
Sony has a dedicated PSN (Playstation Network) store across many countries worldwide. However, content, prices and offers/specials vary from country to country outside the US. Depending on where you live, games might not be available in your home country at all or are far more expensive. Generally speaking, the US PSN store has the greatest variety in games and deals – so I would highly recommend to start using it. There are also some cases where websites like Amazon, G2A or GameDealDaily sell digital codes which are even cheaper than the PSN Store itself. In the following I’ll explain the following things:
How to setup an US PSN account
How to purchase prepaid credit
Special: PlayStation game vouchers & digital codes
How to play US PSN games on your regular account
This guide applies for all countries. It does not matter if you’re in the UK, Germany or Australia. It’s time to get advantage of this and get great deals on PS4 games.
How to setup an US PSN account
The first step in this guide is to create an account in the US PSN account. This can either be done on your PS4 or on the PSN website. The account is created based on your address, so the first step you have to take is find yourself an address in the US. If you have friends or family living there, just ask them if you can use their address. If not, I would simply suggest to find yourself an address online and enter it. Special tip: Take an address located somewhere in one of the five US states that don’t have sales tax: Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, Delaware or Oregon. You can get an address using Borderlinx or simply lookup something up on Google Maps. Hotels or residential areas work best in my experience. Now that we have an address, take the following steps to create the actual account:
Log of your PSN account on your PS4
Select New User and “New to PSN? Create an Account”
Chose “Sign Up Now”
Select United States as country, enter your birth date
Next, enter the address that you researched before
Follow the menu. Tip: When you’re using gmail, you can simply add or remove a . somewhere in the email address and it will still go trough (e.g. [email protected] -> [email protected])
Follow the next steps (mostly settings). Verify your email and you’re done
That’s it already. You know have an account with which you can buy games in the US PSN store. However, in most cases you won’t be able to pay for something because your PayPal account / email address does not match the address as defined in your PSN account. In the next step I’ll show you how to circumvent this.
How to purchase prepaid credit
Getting prepaid credit for your US PSN account is actually quite easy. The only thing you need is to go to Amazon.com and purchase digital PSN credit which is available from $10.00 to $100.00. I would personally recommend to buy the prepaid codes below $50.00 as higher ones seem to take longer to be delivered.
Buy PSN Credit on Amazon
Shortly after purchasing the code you’ll receive an email with it or can simply copy it from the Amazon website. Now go to this website and enter the code there. You’re obviously also able to add the code on your Playstation4. That’s it. Your US PSN account is now charged with credit and you can start buying games.
Where to buy digital US PSN Codes when Amazon does not work
Depending on your credit card company, it is possible that your credit card gets rejected and you’re not able to buy credit. It’s also possible that you don’t have a credit card and want to use something different like PayPal or directly from your bank account with providers like iDeal, Skrill or even bitcoin. Luckily, there is a great website called G2A that offers an awesome and fast way to purchase digital US PSN codes or PlayStation Plus subscriptions. In fact, the website also offers prepaid credit for other countries like Canada, Spain or Germany.
Buy PSN Credit on G2A
While on G2A, you’re able to buy credit from different providers for different prices. However, to be fully saved I would recommend to stick with G2A itself and not some random marketplace seller, even if the price might be even better. There’s also a preselected buyers protection called G2Shield which I wouldn’t recommend getting incase you’re buying from G2A directly.
Special: Game vouchers & digital codes
While buying games directly on PSN is great, there are also cases where you can directly purchase a game code on other websites. Afterwards, you only have to redeem the code using your PlayStation or the PSN account website. The two best sources for digital codes are Amazon (again) and GameDealDaily. Both offer great deals and are sometimes cheaper than PSN itself.
How to play US PSN games on your regular account
While you’re now able to play the games on your PS4, they’re currently restricted to your US PSN account. Luckily, there is a way to play the US games on your regular PS account. This also includes multiplayer and getting Trophies. The play simply behaves like any other game – no matter where you purchased it. The solution to this problem is to define your PS4 as the primary console in the US PSN account. Because of this, everything that you purchase on your US PSN account is shared with the other accounts on the PS4.
primaryconsole
Here are the steps that you have to take: Select [PSN] > [Activate as Your Primary PS4] > [Activate]. Afterwards, switch back to your regular PSN account. You can now play all games from there.