When can you play a video game that you do not have and will not have once you stop playing it? Wow, what a riddle. That one almost stumped me. Game sharing was introduced with the PSP as a way for 2 people to play a game that only one of them has possession of. The game is loaded onto the host PSP from the UMD disk and if it has the game sharing capability, an icon will appear.

How It Works

Once the Sony PSP game sharing icon appears, the host game is downloaded into the other PSP system's RAM where it is held until that PSP is turned off. There is no way to save or retrieve that game once the PSP is turned off. The load times for the Sony PSP game sharing are reportedly very slow which may have something to do with the lack of popularity this feature enjoys. In the normal play mode, the games load quickly and many people just don't want to wait for a slow game load.

All Sony PSP games don't support the game sharing function. You can quickly find out if a new one does by looking at the back of the box. It will say "game sharing mode" on it if it does support that function. For the Sony PSP games that do support the game sharing function, it's worth mentioning that bonus features are not active in game sharing mode.

Make Sure That You're "Plugged In"

In order to share games with the Sony PSP game system, you'll need to be on the internet with your PSP. You can do this by using a wireless "hot spot." In fact, when you connect your PSP to the internet using a wireless connection, not only can you participate in Sony PSP game sharing, you can surf the web and play multiplayer games with people all over the world.

With the Sony PSP game console, playing multi-player games and game sharing depend on your PSP being connected to a wireless network which can of course be your own or a hot spot within range of your PSP. Up to sixteen Sony PSP game consoles within range of each other can hook up and play multi-player games. The downside of this is a huge reduction in battery power, reportedly up to thirty-five percent with long game load times. I would look for this feature to be improved in the future perhaps as another upgrade.