Game sharing is the ability to share a game with anyone who uses the same console as the one a game has been purchased on. The owner of the game usually has to make sure the console is set as their ‘Home’ console, but this allows other users to play the games. It is the same as sharing disks back in the old days of physical copies and prevents the need for one household to purchase multiple copies of the same game. Diablo has always been a couch co-op game, so of course, game sharing is paramount with the release of Diablo 4, but can it be done?
Can you game share in Diablo 4?
Image by PC Invasion
On PC, no. You also can’t play couch co-op on PC, which is a real shame. However, if you’re playing on a console, there is good news. Blizzard has confirmed that you can, in fact, game share Diablo 4. However, this is provided that the console that wants to share is the main or home console. This is just a simple case of activating the PlayStation or Xbox you want to play on as your main.
Once you have done this and downloaded the game, dropping in is super simple. Grab another controller and sign it into a profile. Ensure this profile is logged into a Blizzard account, and away you go. Couch co-op lives on. The process has been made almost seamless for game share and couch co-op for Xbox and PlayStation.
Can you game share during Early Access?
Early access has given players who forked out the extra for it the ability to play before the full release. Sadly, these players cannot game share. A quote from the community manager on the Blizzard forum states that “Accounts that weren’t the original purchaser of Deluxe/Ultimate Edition of the game on that console will not be able to play in Early Access unless they join as a second player with the account that made the original purchase.” This means that you can play couch co-op, but your character will remain in the original purchaser’s account. There isn’t an option to transfer a character across to another account.
