I picked up Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition for PS4 today. The PS4 version comes with some gear DLC (some Pauldrons). I entered the code and booted the game but the gear wasn't there. Some research showed that many people were having the same issue. Someone managed to find a solution by using the
Restore Licenses feature in the PS4/PSN settings. Except when I tried to use this simple solution I was met with error code
(CE-33945-4). Here is where the fun begins.
I did some more research on this error code. Particularly with how it relates to the Restore Licenses function. It seems that those who have come across this issue are being completely locked out of the digital content they have purchased. It isn't a hardware issue. Those with multiple accounts on the same machine have been able to access that content on alternate accounts. It appears to be a PSN account problem. Several people have contacted Sony support, but each response was coming back as "sorry we couldn't help you, have a great day". Users have spent hundreds of dollars that they are now locked out of and their response is "oh well". Sony has made no official statement acknowledging the problem and some customer service reps have actually hung up on a few people.
Well, it seems the players have to do Sony's job for them. Out of desperation, someone decided to repurchase a digital pre-order they had previously cancelled. Voila! Restoring licenses now works and all of that users digital content was accessible once more. Has Sony acknowledged the fix? Nope. In fact, customer service reps have even explicitly stated that those who re-purchase previously cancelled digital pre-orders to get their accounts working again would NOT be reimbursed. It doesn't matter if they wind up paying for two copies of the same game. Sony won't help you.
I am not sure what I am personally going to do. At the moment it is a minor inconvenience (I strictly purchase physical discs). I don't envy those who have been affected by this in a more serious way. A lot of people have fully adopted digital purchases for all their games. If they are seeing the same bug that means their games and PS+ membership may be inaccessible. However, I did cancel a digital Destiny pre-order (some future DLC confusion on my part caused me to pre-order the wrong version). That means my account will be affected in a more serious way in the near future since I won't have access to the DLC I paid for in games like Destiny. I could wait for a potential fix, but given Sony's response to this whole debacle I am not exactly optimistic. I really don't want to throw an extra $60 bucks Sony's way to fix their mistakes (it would be extra because I am NOT cancelling my Destiny Ghost edition).
This was just a warning for everyone else. Do not cancel digital pre-orders. Actually, my recommendation would be to just stay away from digital gaming purchases from Sony. I've been a long time Sony fan, but their customer service on this matter has been an eye opener.
For some customer service horror stories and to see the ongoing discussion (riot?) about this issue, you can visit either one of these sites:
http://community.us.playstation.com/...ighlight/false
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=859702
