I’m going to share a little story with you all. Once upon a time (well actually prior to November 18th, 2011) PlayStation Network users were able to access and share all of their downloadable game content across 5 different PlayStation 3 consoles.  I used this ability to share my account with a cousin and a good friend so that we could share Rock Band content with each other. One day my friend’s 60 gig PS3 died with the dreaded Yellow Light of Death (YLoD) which wouldn’t allow him to turn on the PS3 and deactivate my account off his system. At the time this was ok since I had two other open activation’s available but then his Sony refurbished replacement PS3 died, and when that one was fixed his third replacement died several months later.  I was then left with two accounts, my primary and the other my cousin had on her system…that is until her 80 gig PS3 YLoD’ed. So I was down to my one account and despite efforts to call Sony support to get my accounts reset they vehemently REFUSED to do it. Then the inevitable happened, last month my 60 gig launch PS3 got the YLoD…tragedy. Hundreds of dollars spent on the PlayStation Network with tons of content unavailable to download again. That is UNTIL TODAY.

Along with the announcement from Sony of the rule changes in regards to downloading content from the PSN after November 18th, they also mentioned that users would have the ability to deactivate PS3 systems through the computer, for those times when you can’t turn on the PlayStation to deactivate it right from the console. So last night I decided to do some research and to my delight I discovered that this function is now live. You can head over to this site and log in with your PSN account ID/password and you will be able to see all the content you have associated with your PSN ID as well as your registered and activated Sony consoles & electronics. It’s here where you can activate and deactivate you PlayStation Consoles but be aware that the deactivation of consoles through this site can only be performed once every 6 months. I’m not sure when this went live but it’s a feature that is long overdue.